Order Type Simulator
Place market, limit, stop and stop-limit orders on a practice market, move the price and watch exactly when each one fills.
Order Type Simulator
Buy limit
- Buy only at this price or lower.
- Where it goes: Below the current price.
- Why use it: To buy on a pullback, at a better price than the market offers now. It may never fill if price never gets there.
What is happening
- The practice market is at 1.1050. Choose an order type and place an order.
This is a simplified practice market with a single price: it has no spread, no other traders and no liquidity limits. Real orders can fill at different prices, or not at all. Nothing here is real money or a trading signal.
What does this mean?
An order is an instruction to the market. Market orders fill immediately at the best price available. Limit orders wait for a better price than the current one. Stop orders wait for a worse price, then fire as a market order. Stop-limit orders combine the two.
The placement rules are easy to forget and easy to see here: a buy limit sits below the current price, a buy stop above it. Watching price travel to each line makes the differences obvious, including why a stop can fill at a worse price in a fast market and why a limit order can stay unfilled.
The formula
Buy limit: fills when price falls to the order price or lower
Sell limit: fills when price rises to the order price or higher
Buy stop: becomes a market buy when price rises to the order price
Sell stop: becomes a market sell when price falls to the order price
Worked example
With the market at 1.1050, a buy limit at 1.1000 waits. As price falls 1.1030, 1.1010, 1.1000, the order fills at 1.1000. A buy stop at 1.1100 does the opposite: it waits above, then buys as price breaks upward, and in a sudden jump it fills at whatever price is reached, which can be worse.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a limit order and a stop order?
A limit order sets the best price to accept and waits for the market to come to it. A stop order waits for the market to reach a level and then trades at the next available price. Limits protect the price; stops protect the entry or exit.
Why can a limit order remain unfilled?
Price may never reach the level, or it may touch it without enough trading volume to fill the order. A limit order gives price control in exchange for no guarantee of execution.
What is slippage?
The difference between the price an order was expected to fill at and the price it actually filled at. It is most common with stop and market orders in fast-moving markets.
What is a stop-limit order?
An order with two prices. When the stop price is touched, it becomes a limit order at the limit price. It avoids bad fills but can be triggered and still never fill.
Learn more
This tool is for education and general information only and is not financial advice. Results are estimates that exclude spreads, commissions, swaps and slippage. Trading carries a risk of loss. Preferences you choose, such as your account currency, are remembered only in your own browser.