Placing an order

Ok! you are ready to place an order - you might think what's the big deal - I will click a few buttons and its done! - technically, yes its just pushing few buttons - but you should look for few things before you become click-happy.

First things first. What type of order would you like to place? - huh?! - ok here are two types.

• Market Order
• Entry Order

Market Order: literally means that - you are in the market and you see something that you want - you place an order - just like buying groceries - you only order when you are in the market (I know, I know you can order groceries online now - sheesh!! its hard to come with analogies these days - he!he!)

Your market order is placed IMMEDIATELY!! - remember that - you won't have time to second guess or debate your strategy - nothing - you say you want it - they'll give it to you.

Its one thing to buy a few tomatoes and throw them away without using them (we all did that at some point in life) - its another thing to buy currency - you will have to live with the consequences.

If you get my drift - you'd probably guess that i'd say: Market order is NOT a good idea.

Entry Order On contrary Entry order is setting criteria for your order to be executed - you are telling your broker/trading platform - that you need to get in "IF AND ONLY IF" - the market reaches this point (say 1.9500 in gbp/usd - buy me in).

The beauty of this is - you can second guess and even remove your order without ANY penalities - if you think that you might have a made a mistake or something happens to the market and it starts going the other way - get out - without any loss - its easier to end a trade before you are in the market - than otherwise - if you are in the market, you will have to deal with emotions & the sort.

Again, your chance of second guessing is only limited till the time the order is execucted - that is till the market reaches the point you specified.

Entry order - gives you time to set your Stop-order, trailing stop and even limit order - and you can walk away knowing that your order will be executed - except in rare occasions such as "news" - they you might get filled at a later point - say at 1.9525 instead of 1.9500 following the above example.

TIP: its never a good idea to fill in order at a round number (like 1.9500) - always do it just below or above it. Why you ask? - because round numbers tend to act as support and resistance by default - not everytime - but they do take on that role involuntarily.