Market order: now, at the available price

A market order executes immediately at the best available price. It is the right tool when the priority is being in — on a confirmed breakout, in urgent management — and you accept that the exact price may vary slightly (slippage) in fast markets. It prioritises execution over price.

Limit orders: price guaranteed, execution not

Limit orders wait for the market to come to you: Buy Limit buys below the current price (you expect a pullback), Sell Limit sells above it (you expect a bounce off resistance). They fill at the configured price or better — never worse — making them immune to negative entry slippage. The cost: if price never reaches your level, you stay out. They prioritise price over execution.

Stop orders: confirm before entering

Stop orders do the opposite: Buy Stop buys above the current price and Sell Stop sells below it. Their logic is confirmation — «I only want to be long if price proves strength by breaking this level». On trigger they become market orders, so violent breakouts can carry slippage; the Execution Policy details that behaviour.

Stop-limit and trailing stop: the two refined ones

The stop-limit adds control to the breakout: when the trigger level is touched, instead of executing at market it places a limit order at a defined price — protecting you from slippage at the risk of missing the very move you expected. The trailing stop is a stop-loss that follows price at a fixed distance while it advances in your favour and freezes when it retraces: it automates «letting profits run» without giving back the whole pullback. In classic MT5 it runs in the platform — keep it open or use a VPS so it stays active.

Stop-loss and take-profit: not optional

Any of the orders above accepts an attached SL and TP: the price that invalidates your idea and the target where you take profit. Defining them before entering — while you still think coolly — is the habit that saves the most accounts. And remember the golden sizing rule: volume is computed from the stop distance, never the other way round.