What's The Best Platform to Trade News Releases

[Mitchel]

A Stop order is based on "If the price goes this far, I think it will keep going farther." and a Limit order is based on "If the price goes this far, I think it will reverse."

I like that explanation. Easy to understand. I knew what a Stop was but wasn't sure about a Limit.

 

[Nod]

Setting MTL 4 SLs and TPs

Just opened a demo MetaTrade 4 account. Quite different than my current broker's platform and I am confused on how to set SL and TP levels. Are you required to enter an immediate pair trade and then add SL and TP or is there some way to do it so they accompany the trade order when it is activated? Also, can you only set the SL and TP with four or five digit quotes? I can't seem to find where you just can set SL and TP with the number of pips (ex. SL 30; TP 45)?

Hope someone can set me straight or point me to a reference that offers that explanation.

Thanks

 

[melati untuk]

mt4 did't work for the trailing stop if internet disconnected, any platform working with offline trailing stop?
thanks an regards

 

[Joe Roberts]

Trendlines

I have the same issue. Personally, I'm hoping MT5 has trend lines that don't go off into infinity.

I beleive you can turn off the "Ray" feature on MT4. Right-click a trendline that you have drawn, click "parameters" and then "uncheck" the box labeled "Ray." This should allow you to draw trendlines as short or long as you want.

 

[Pharaoh]

I beleive you can turn off the "Ray" feature on MT4. Right-click a trendline that you have drawn, click "parameters" and then "uncheck" the box labeled "Ray." This should allow you to draw trendlines as short or long as you want.

No way! That's not a feature. Here, let me prove it. (click, click, click) What the . . . . Wow! It works!!!!! No more infinite trendlines.


Thanks Joe!

One less problem in my universe. Now to get to work on the other billion or so problems.

 

[Simon Edwards]

Play with MT4 on demo. That way it won't cost you anything when you hit the wrong button.

There It's easy to get limit and stop orders confused. A Stop order is based on "If the price goes this far, I think it will keep going farther." and a Limit order is based on "If the price goes this far, I think it will reverse."

This means that a buy stop is set up above the current price and a buy limit is set up below the current price. If you try to do it the other way, you'll get an invalid price error. There's an easy way to avoid this. Right-click on the chart near the target price you have in mind and select "Trading". It will give you either buy limit and sell stop or a buy stop and sell limit as choices.

The other possibility is that your broker restricts how lose you can set limit and stop orders to the current price. If you are too close, you'll get an invalid price error. The rule about how close you can be varies a lot between brokerages, but is typically somewhere in the 3-15 pip range.

Just to add to the confusion.......


I've read and been told countless times that the best way to limit slippage is to use a limit order.

In mt4 you can't set up a limit order ahead of the price but you can setup a buy stop which is great in theory but a buy stop becomes a market order when hit.....

So the only way i can see to avoid reqoutes and slippage as much as possible is to forget limit orders and use the "allow deviation by x pips" on market orders , please correct me if i'm wrong but thats my understanding

 

[Pharaoh]

For entering an order, limit and stop orders can reduce slippage. The reason is that they execute automatically. Those order types reside on the broker's server, so they will happen even if you turn off your trading platform.

In MT4, you don't close an order by opening another order. You need to set Take Profit and Stop Loss to reduce slippage. Those also reside on the broker's server. The drawback is that by revealing your true targets, you make it easier for a bad broker to manipulate your trades.

Some other platforms require you to open an equal and opposite order to close a trade. In those cases, a limit or stop order is your best bet to close a trade.

One nice feature in MT4 is trailing stops. The drawback is that these do not reside on the broker's server. If your platform disconnects, the stop doesn't keep moving along behind your order when price is moving in your favor.