What is a limit order and how do you place one?

What is a limit order?

A limit order, sometimes called a limit-entry order, is an instruction to your trading provider to open a trade when the market level reaches a better, preselected price. If you’re buying, ‘better’ means a lower price but if you’re selling, it means a higher price.
You can place a good-till-cancelled or good-till-date order – but selecting a price that’s better than the current price will always be a limit order. If the price you set is worse than the market price, it’s a stop order.

The bid price is the best price to sell at, and the ask price is the best price to buy at.

What’s the difference between a limit-entry order and a limit?

While a limit-entry order is a type of working order to open a position, a limit (also called a take-profit) is a risk management tool that you can attach to a trade to set a predetermined level to close your position if the market moves in your favour.

For example, for a long position on BHP Group shares, you can set a limit-entry order at a lower price that will automatically open your position if the share price hits this level or gaps beyond it. You can place a take-profit on a contract for difference (CFD) limit order, but it won’t come into effect until the price is reached and the order is filled.

How to place a limit order

1. Open a CFD trading account to get started, or practise on a demo account
2. Conduct technical and fundamental analysis on the market you want to trade
3. Select the 'Order' tab on the deal ticket of the market you're trading on
4. Decide whether you’re going long or short
5. Put in your position size
6. Pick your price level – the ‘better’ price at which you want your limit entry to be triggered – and place your order (based on the opening price that you choose, our platform will show you whether it’s a stop or limit order on the ‘Place order’ button)
7. Choose between a ‘Good till cancelled’ limit entry, which will run until the predetermined price level is met (unless you cancel it), and a ‘Good till date’ order, which will be cancelled automatically on a predetermined future day if the order isn’t executed
8. Click on the ‘Place limit order’ button
9. Your position will normally open automatically when the market hits your price level¹

Example of a limit order

Let’s say you want to go short on Tesla shares and place a limit-entry order. You’ve conducted your own analysis and believe that Tesla shares will likely fall soon. Your prediction is that this will happen when the share price, which is currently at 257.50, hits 259.00.

So, you decide to open a CFD trade and set up a limit-entry order to sell (go short on) 10 Tesla shares when the price hits 259.00. If Tesla’s share price rises to 259.00, you’ll have an open position as your limit-entry order will be executed.

Suppose you also placed a limit (take-profit) at 249.00 so that your position will close out profitable if the market reaches this level. If your take-profit is triggered, you’d make a profit of $100.00 (10 x [259.00 – 249.00]). However, if the share price rallies to 269.00, you’d make a loss of $100.00 (10 x [259.00 – 269.00]).²

How to place a share trading limit order

1. Open a share trading account to get started
2. Conduct technical analysis and fundamental analysis on the shares you want to invest in³
3. Select ‘Buy’ (you’d choose ‘Sell’ if you want to close an existing position)
4. Put in your position size
5. Choose ‘Limit order’ under ‘Order type’. Remember, you can’t place limits (take-profits) on our share trading platform
6. Enter your chosen price level. This is the level at which you want your limit-entry order to be triggered – we’ll open your position at the closest available price
7. Choose the order expiry: ‘Day’, ‘Execute and eliminate’ or ‘Good ‘til cancelled (GTC)’*
8. Place your limit-entry order
9. Your position will normally open automatically when the market hits your chosen price level¹

Benefits and risks of a limit order

Benefits of using limit orders

• Limit orders are designed to work automatically¹ – this can be useful as you don’t have to open positions manually at your preferred price, especially in volatile markets when prices change rapidly
• In the case of very volatile markets, this could even lead to a phenomenon called ‘positive slippage’ – where the market suddenly moves beyond your set price, fulfilling your order at an even better price

Risks of using limit orders

• There’s the chance that a position may never be opened, which could affect your trading strategy, because a limit order is ‘your price or better’
• In times of market volatility, an order price might be missed as it will only fill at that price or better and no fill may happen
• Limit orders don’t protect against losses when the market moves against your position – for that, you’ll need a stop-loss. However, a limit order could act as a stop loss if you set a working order to ‘net off’.⁴ In fact, that’s how you’d do it on a share trading account with us. While this is also possible on a CFD trading account with us, it’s generally not an efficient way to go about it as you could place a stop loss to a position instead of opening a separate position, unless the aim is to partially close an existing position