Order types

Market order

This order type is where you manually click the buy or sell button in your spread betting platform. I think it’s confusing being referred to as a market “order”. To me an order is where you say what you want and wait for that order to be filled, but hey who am I to question the great minds that created market orders. I guess that had to call them something. 

Stop buy order.

This type of order makes more sense to me. If you place this type of order you are saying you want to buy into the instrument at a higher price than the current price. Why would you want to buy higher? Well there could be several reasons for buying higher. One example is you may have identified a resistance level and want to buy into the instrument only if this level is exceeded.

Stop sell order.

These are the same as stop buys only you would sell at a lower price than the current market price. One example where you might use this is if you have identified a support level and want to sell the instrument if this support level is broken.

Limit buy order.

These are where you would buy of the price falls to your buy level which is below the current market price. One example of where you might use this is if you wanted to buy at a support level expecting the price to rise as this level is approached.

Limit sell order.

These are the similar to limit buy orders only you sell at a higher price then the current market price. One example of this is to sell at a resistance level as you expect the price to fall from this level.

One cancels other (OCO) order

OCO orders actually create two orders. One of which is cancelled if the other executes. For example, if an instrument is trading in a range and you want to place a bet if this range is broken you can use a OCO for this. If you want to bet with the direction of the break out you can use a OCO order to set both a buy and sell order at two different levels. When one order is executed the other is cancelled.

Stop Loss order

This is an order that you attach to an open trade to preserve capital. It will be a number of points a way from your entry price the quantity of which should be determined by your strategy.

Trailing stop loss (Automatic)

This is where your stop loss order will trail the price of the instrument by a fixed number of points. Some spread betting firms offer to do this automatically via a trailing stop loss order. Others do not offer this feature and you will have to trail your stop loss manually.

Trailing stop loss (Manual)

This is where you manually adjust your stop loss as your position moves into profit. When and how you move your stop should be determined by your trading strategy. You should only move a stop to reduce your risk or lock in profit. You should never move a stop to increase your risk or reduce your locked in profit.