Trading Basics · Updated June 2026

Order Types Explained: Market, Limit and Stop

The main trading order types are the market order, which fills instantly at the current price, and pending orders, which wait for a price you choose: buy and sell limits, buy and sell stops, and stop-limit orders. On top of these sit the stop loss, take profit, and trailing stop, which manage a position once it is open.

Getting the verdict right is only half the job. The other half is telling your platform exactly how and when to enter and exit. Choose the wrong order type and you can pay needless slippage, miss a move entirely, or get filled at a price you never agreed to. This guide walks through every order type you will meet on MetaTrader 5 (MT5) in plain English, with a worked scenario at the end.

Market orders: speed over price

A market order says one thing: get me in or out now, at whatever the best available price is. It is the fastest order type and it almost always fills, which is exactly why traders reach for it. The trade-off is slippage. In a fast or thin market, the price can move between the moment you click and the moment the order fills, so you might buy a pip or two higher than the quote you saw.

Use a market order when getting filled matters more than getting the perfect price: entering on a strong, confirmed move, or exiting a position you want out of immediately. For calm, liquid instruments like EUR/USD during active hours, slippage is usually tiny. For volatile instruments, news spikes, or low-liquidity sessions, it can sting.

Pending orders: price over speed

A pending order is an instruction that only activates when price reaches a level you set in advance. You give up the certainty of an instant fill in exchange for control over the exact price you trade at. MT5 offers four, and the names tell you both the direction and whether you expect a pullback or a breakout.

Limit orders: enter on a pullback

A buy limit sits below the current price. You are saying you will buy, but only if price dips down to your better level first. A sell limit sits above the current price, to sell into a rally. Limit orders are for traders who expect price to retrace into a level, such as support or resistance, before continuing. You control the entry price exactly and never pay slippage in the worse direction, but if price never reaches your level, you simply do not trade.

Stop orders: enter on a breakout

A buy stop sits above the current price. You are saying you only want to buy if price breaks upward through your level, confirming momentum. A sell stop sits below the current price, to sell on a breakdown. Stop orders are for breakout traders who want confirmation before committing. The catch: once triggered, a stop order becomes a market order, so it can incur slippage on the fast move that triggered it.

Stop-limit orders: a breakout with a price ceiling

A stop-limit is a hybrid. It has two prices: a stop that arms the order, and a limit that caps the price you will accept. When price hits the stop, MT5 places a limit order rather than a market order. You get breakout entry plus protection against runaway slippage, but if price gaps straight past your limit, the order may not fill at all. It is the most precise pending order and the easiest to miss with.

Order types at a glance

Managing the position: stop loss, take profit, trailing stop

Once you are in a trade, three more order types control how you get out. These are not entries; they are the safety rails attached to an open position.

• Stop loss (SL): an exit that closes the trade at a loss if price moves against you. When triggered it becomes a market order, so in a gap or violent move it can fill worse than your stop level. It limits exposure; it does not guarantee the exact price unless your broker offers a guaranteed stop.
• Take profit (TP): an exit that closes the trade in profit when price reaches your target. It works like a limit order, locking in gains without you watching the screen.
• Trailing stop: a stop loss that follows price as the trade moves in your favour, by a fixed distance you set. It locks in profit on a runner while still giving the trade room to breathe, then closes you out if price pulls back by your trail amount.

Where you place these is a risk question, not a guesswork one. Sizing the position to the stop distance is the heart of staying solvent, which we cover in risk management.

A simple worked scenario

Say EUR/USD trades at 1.0850. You think a clean break above 1.0875 resistance would confirm an uptrend, but you do not want to buy until that break happens.

1. Entry: place a buy stop at 1.0876. Nothing happens unless price breaks the level, so you avoid front-running a breakout that never comes.
2. Stop loss: set the SL at 1.0851, just below the broken resistance that should now act as support. If price falls back through it, your read was wrong and you are out for a defined loss.
3. Take profit: set the TP at 1.0926, a 50 pip target against a 25 pip risk, for a 1 to 2 risk to reward.
4. Optional trail: once price runs 30 pips in your favour, switch to a trailing stop to protect the open gain if momentum fades.

Compare that to firing a blind market order at 1.0850: you would be long before any confirmation, with no plan for exit, and exposed to whatever the next candle did. The pending order let price prove the idea first, and the SL and TP defined the outcome before you risked a cent.

Where Market Structure Pro fits

Order types are mechanics, and mechanics are easy once you know them. The hard part is the decision sitting in front of them: is this actually a trade worth placing? That is the gap Market Structure Pro (MSP) is built to close. It is a premium MT5 indicator that fuses 27 tools into a single verdict, so you are not weighing a dozen conflicting signals while a candle closes.

Each verdict comes with a confidence level, an A, B, or C grade, and a plain-English reason for the call. MSP tells you when conditions warrant a trade; you choose the order type and place the orders. It is non-repainting and works on every MT5 instrument. To be clear, MSP is decision-support: it does not place trades, set your stops, or guarantee profit. The execution, and the risk, stay yours.

The short version

• Market orders fill now and accept slippage; pending orders wait for your price.
• Limits buy below and sell above the market, for pullback entries.
• Stops buy above and sell below the market, for breakout entries.
• Stop-limit adds a price ceiling to a stop, at the cost of fill certainty.
• Stop loss, take profit, and trailing stop manage the trade once it is open.

Keep learning: visit the Learn hub, brush up on risk management, or see the best MT5 indicators for 2026.