An order is not "buy" or "sell" — it is an instruction with conditions. The difference between order types is the difference between controlling your price and controlling your entry. Professionals choose deliberately; the platform makes all of it one dropdown.
The three basic instructions
- Market order — execute now at the best available price. You are guaranteed the fill, not the price: in fast markets the fill can slip beyond the quote you clicked.
- Limit order — execute at your price or better. You are guaranteed the price, not the fill: the market may never come to you.
- Stop order — a dormant market order that activates when price touches your trigger. Used to enter on breakouts, and as the mechanism behind every stop-loss.
The protective pair
A stop-loss defines where your idea is wrong and closes the position there; a take-profit banks the target without you watching. Attach both on the ticket at entry — one action, no discipline required later. Be honest about what a stop is: once triggered it becomes a market order, so through a violent gap it can fill beyond the level. Negative balance protection caps the catastrophe at your account, but the working risk control is the stop itself, placed at a level you chose with a clear head.
What execution quality means
IEXS executes straight-through with no dealing desk: orders route to the aggregated book, and slippage — when it happens — cuts both ways, in your favour as often as against. Spreads are visible live on every quote. Two habits protect you regardless of venue: avoid market orders in the seconds around major data releases, when the book is thin by design, and always know your worst-case fill before you click.
Next module, we start reading the chart itself — but the ticket is the tool you will use every single day. Master it on a demo first.