FX Trading Station

Placing an Order Away From the Current Market Rate

In addition to allowing the placement of orders at the current market rate, the FXCM Trading Station also allows orders to be placed at a price above or below the current market rate. These orders are referred to as Entry orders, and are only executed if the market rate reaches the rate specified in the order.

There are two types of entry orders on the FXCM platform, which are Stop Entry orders and Limit Entry orders.

• A Limit Entry order is an order to buy below the current market rate, or an order to sell above the current market rate.
• A Stop Entry order is an order to buy above the current market rate, or an order to sell below the current market rate.

Examples:

• If the current market price in EUR/USD is 1.2683 and a trader wishes to place an order to sell if the market moves to 1.2750, he or she would place a limit entry order.
• If the current market price in EUR/USD is 1.2683 and a trader wishes to place an order to buy if the market moves to 1.2750, he or she would place a stop entry order.

To place an entry order left click on the “Entry” button at the top of the trading screen.

After clicking the “Entry” button, the “Create an Entry Order Box” will appear.

There are five parameters which can be set prior to sending an entry order to the trading desk. The first four are the same ones that appear in the “Market Order” Box as outlined on the right.

• Account
• Currency
• Buy/Sell
• Amount

The difference is that for an entry order you set a specific level to trigger the execution of the trade.

Once the order is accepted, it will be listed in the “Orders” window of the platform where it will remain as a waiting order until the market moves to the rate specified in the order, or the order is canceled. Once the trade is executed, the position will disappear from the “Orders” window and reappear as an open position in the “Open Positions” window.

Modify an Entry Order

Once an entry order has been placed, the order rate can be modified by right clicking on any part of the order in the orders window and selecting “change order rate“

After selecting “change order rate” as outlined above, the “change order rate” box will appear. Here the order ID and new order rate can be specified.

Click on the “OK” button after all the modifications have been made. Once the trade is completed, the updated information will be reflected in the Orders window.

It is important to note that only the exchange rate can be changed for an existing entry order. If you wish to change the order size or currency specified in an entry order, you must cancel the existing order and enter a new one.

Canceling an Entry Order

To cancel an existing entry order, right click on any part of the orders window and select “remove order“.

After selecting “remove order” as outlined above, you will be asked to confirm that you wish to delete the selected orders.

Click “Yes” to cancel the trade or “No” to make no changes to the order. Once the “Yes” button is clicked, the order will be deleted from the “Orders” window and officially removed.

OCO Entry Orders

OCO stands for “One Cancels the Other.” It simply means that if one part of the order is executed, the other part will be automatically cancelled. On the FX Trading Station Entry Orders will appear under the “OCO Orders” tab. For example, in this example the two 100K GBPUSD sell positions are linked as OCO. That is to say that if one of these prices executes, the other order will be deleted.

You can choose to make either “Simple OCO Orders” or “Complex OCO Orders”.

Complex OCO Orders

Complex OCO orders allow you to link 2 or more entry orders to each other as OCO orders. These orders can be all in one currency pair, or across many currency pairs. There are several different ways to set Complex OCO Orders.

• Method 1: You manually place two (or more) entry orders (see Entry Orders pg). In the Orders Tab, you will see the two entry orders. To link them as OCO (one cancels other), simply right click on one of the Order ID numbers under the Order ID Column and select “Complex OCO”.

  A box will appear with your existing available entry orders. To link your orders as OCO you can select them individually and click “Add”, or you can Select All. You will then see these orders move into the “OCO Orders” section of the box. Click “OK” to complete the order. You can even link as many orders as you like in this way.

  

• Method 2: If you already have an OCO order in place, you can click on an order and drag it around the Orders Window. If you drag an Entry order into the OCO section and your mouse pointer turns yellow, you can let go and the order will drop in as a new OCO order. If you click and drag an order over another order, your mouse pointer will turn green. Then you can drop the order and it will become OCO with the order you were pointing at.

The moment that any one of the entry orders that is a part of your Complex OCO Order executes, all the other order(s) in that OCO will be cancelled, and will disappear from your Orders Window.

Simple OCO Orders

“Simple” OCO Orders offer you a way to make 2 linked Entry Orders in the same currency pair with just a few clicks.

How to Create Simple OCO Orders: In the Dealing Rates window, right-click on the currency pair that you want to trade, and choose “Simple OCO”.

In the Simple OCO box that appears, you can set the trade size, and choose if you want both orders to be Sell orders, Buy orders, or one of each. When you click OK, your new OCO orders will appear in the Orders window.

The “Sync Rates” box is checked by default. When the “Sync Rates” box is checked, and you change either of the entry order prices, the software will automatically determine what the other entry order’s price should be. If your order is for a Buy and a Sell, the software will set the 2 entries an equal distance from each side of the current market price, and link them as OCO.

When the “Sync Rates” box is NOT checked, you can enter whatever values you wish for each order. They will still be automatically linked as OCO.

Some Uses for Simple OCO Orders

Simple OCO orders are well suited to taking advantage of range breakouts or pullbacks in a trend. For example, before an important news event, the market will often move sideways in a range. When the news is released, the price could break to the upside or to the downside. If you are expecting a break in either direction, you could place a Simple OCO order to buy above the range and to sell below the range.

When a currency pair is trending, the price will often pull back within the larger move of the uptrend, while other times, the price will break support or resistance and continue its trend. You can set the OCO order to buy above resistance and to buy at the trendline.

Other ways to link Entry Orders as OCO:

An alternative way to link orders would be to “drag & drop.” Select the orders that you want to link in the “Orders” tab. To select multiple orders simply hold the control key down. Then drag the orders over to the OCO Orders tab and drop them in. You will receive a confirmation box asking you whether you would like to create the OCO order, and then simply click Yes to confirm.

Editing an OCO Entry Order

The easiest way to make changes to existing OCO orders is to right click on the OCO order number in the “OCO Orders” window. Here you can edit the order, remove it from OCO (in which case all orders will go back in the “Orders” window, or “Delete Orders” in which case all orders will be removed entirely.

If you right click on a particular order you can choose to Move this order from the OCO Orders tab (in which case it will go back in the “Orders” window as an unlinked order. Or “Remove the Order” entirely.

As you edit your OCO orders, you may notice that an entry order can remain in the “OCO Orders” window even after they have been unlinked. In these cases, if the price is executeded the order will act as a regular Entry Order and execute at the next best price.