Supported Order types
Most market standard order types are available, i.e. Market, Limit and Stops including 'No Slip' Stop, Stop If Bid, Stop if Offered with Trailing Stop support.
Trailing Stops, where the Stop level moves in line with the market price, are supported for all three Stop order types.
All Stop and Limit Orders can be placed as either:
Day Order – automatically expires at the end of the given business day (i.e. at 17:00 EST - Eastern Standard Time).
Good till Cancelled (GTC) – order stays open until cancelled or when filled.
One-Cancels-Other (O.C.O.) Order - One-Cancels-Other Orders really consist of two orders. If either of the orders is executed because its market conditions have been met, the related order is automatically cancelled.
Market Orders
A Market Order, for a currency pair and amount within the streaming liquidity, is treated in the same way as if you are requesting to trade FX spot directly from a Trading Module (i.e. 'Trade on Quote') with the exception that a Market Order will never in normal market conditions be rejected (but therefore can result in a slippage).
Market Orders are always filled at the current available price for the given amount.
Limit Orders
Limit Orders are used to take profit or to enter the market at a certain price level:
Limit Orders to buy can only be placed below the current market price.
Limit Orders to sell can only be placed above the current market price.
Aggressive Limits - Standard Bank allows for the placement of slightly in the money limits (for clients to use as a limited Market Order).
Limit Orders are always filled at the limit price, as well as when market gaps beyond the limit price. Never worse, never better.
An exception to the rule is in case of a large price gap during a closed market. Thus, during the period of the market opening (Monday, 5:00am Sydney time) when the liquidity is thin, the relevent third party improves Limit Order fills when possible depending on the amount of total Orders that are triggered and the liquidity available in the market.
Stop Orders
Stop Orders are typically used to limit losses at a certain price level. Stop Orders are typically filled at the stop level selected by the client, except for 'Buy Stop if Bid' and 'Sell Stop if Offered' where the fill is done on the opposite side of the spread from the stop level. These Orders are typically filled at the stop level adjusted for the spread at the time.
Stop Orders are filled on transparent prices with +99% of Stop Orders in for example EURUSD filled at the expected level set by the client.
Trailing Stop
A Trailing Stop Order is a stop order where the stop price trails the spot price. As the market rises (for long positions) the stop price rises according to the proportion you set, but if the market price falls, the stop price remains unchanged. This type of stop order helps you to set a limit on the maximum possible loss without limiting the possible gain on a position. It also reduces the need to constantly monitor the market prices of open positions.
Example:
Let's say that you expect the price of an instrument to rise and reach at least 1.5710 by the end of the day. You open a long position at 1.5680. To limit any potential loss, you place a trailing stop order at 1.5670 with a distance to market of 10 and a trailing step of 5. During the day the market rises as predicted and the trailing stop follows. When the price suddenly drops to 1.5700, the trailing stop price has reached 1.5705 and is triggered. You have thereby not only protected our initial investment, but you have also managed to keep a good proportion of the profits.
When setting the stop price you should be careful not to set it too close to the current market price, especially in a volatile market, as the stop price might be hit before the price starts to go up/down as you expect. On the other hand you should carefully consider how much you can afford to lose, if your prediction does not hold.
Stop if Bid / Stop if Offered
Stop if Bid Orders are typically used to limit losses on short positions.
Stop if Offered Orders are typically used to limit losses on long positions. This is to prevent Orders from being triggered just because of a temporary large spread (maybe for a split of a second).
Standard Bank therefore encourages you to only use Stop if Bid for Buy Orders and Stop if Offered for Sell Orders.
To help you select the right Stop order type, the 'FX Order' Ticket on the platforms automatically defaults to Stop if Bid for Buy and Stop if Offered for Sell Orders unless you actively change it before placing the order.
Stop if Bid Orders to buy are when triggered most often filled at the order level plus the client spread, which means no slippage.
Stop if Offered Orders to sell are when triggered most often filled at the stop order level minus the client spread, which means no slippage.
During volatile markets with price gaps, orders may be slipped to the current market bid price. Stop if Bid Orders to sell are when triggered filled at the client Bid price at the time.
Stop if Offered Orders to buy are when triggered filled at the client Offer price at the time.
The use of Stop-if-Offered Orders to buy or Stop-if-Bid Orders to sell for Forex positions can result in positions being prematurely closed if a market event causes the Bid/Ask spread to widen for a short duration.
Our order management system has certain client protection mechanisms in place that ensures that the vast majority of Orders are filled without any slippage.
Automatic Order fill
The vast majority of FX Orders placed on Webtrader are filled automatically without any manual intervention from our third party broker.
For very large orders, during very volatile market conditions (for example during release of key economic figures) and in certain non-streaming currency pairs, manual review from the relevent third party is performed.
Manual Order fill
Typically, only a very small proportion of orders placed with Standard Bank require manual intervention. These orders are either too large in size for automatic execution for that particular currency pair, in an illiquid currency pair without streaming price or it is such that there are high volatile and/or illiquid market conditions.
During illiquid market conditions there are fewer market participants and thus dealers will need to check the price and also that the desired trade amount is actually available in the market. For some currency pairs, such as USDRUB and USDCZK, all orders are filled manually, regardless of size. This is due to very low trading volumes / liquidity in these pairs.
Partial Order fill
Partial fills of orders are not supported in FX Spot.
For very large orders, the relevant third party broker may manually fill orders partially, and insert a new order for the remaining amount.
