I’ve opened a demo account with a broker using MT4. When trying to place an order, the dropdown menu for selecting “pending order” is greyed out, and it is locked at “market execution”.
I tried opening an account with a different broker, and it’s the same story.
Does this have anything to do with the markets being closed now, since it’s the weekend? Or am I missing something? Or is this a way the brokers force you only to make market orders or something?..
hi mate
if you are opening accounts with different brokers but yet have the same issue… can’t place a pending order
BUT YOU CAN PLACE A MARKET EXECUTION ORDER
well, it’s not that market is closed, because , if it was, you wouldn’t be able to place the market order either.
IT’S A SETTING IN MT-4
now. we can do 2 things here
Let’s start like this
i don’t have this problem
and here are my settings
MAKE SURE YOUR SETTINGS ARE THE SAME
IN MT-4 GO TO …
TOOLS
OPTIONS
now if all of the above are the same on your end as well.
you have to understand this as well
Just like … if you go into a Market order and you open a BUY ORDER at the price of 1.12345
you can’t then edit it and place a TAKE PROFIT at 1.12300
it will get greyed out, because it’s upside down
the same applies to pending orders
if you open a pending order and select the wrong one and then put in a weird entry price, or Stop loss or Take profit, it won’t let you excecute the order
have a read of this
also read this
also , when placing a pending order
also have you tried asking your broker what the problem is.
i highly doubt there is a restriction on their end regardless of the multiple brokers you use
i would say this is a local problem with MT-4 or User Error
but the broker would help you figure it out
have you tried live chat with the broker ?
also check if you have any Trade Managers going in the background that are stopping you from taking control over manual trades
let me know if this helps
@Quantonium
hey mate, how did you go, did you get a chance to try all that, or , are you waiting until monday of course.
@anon81929759
Hi! Thanks for the extensive answer, and following it up! 
I should have been a little clearer in the first post…
(Keep in mind, I haven’t tried this at all on week days yet!)
This is what happened today and yesterday, which is saturday and sunday:
1: “Type” is locked at Market execution (aka market order).
2: I try to place an order on EURUSD. 0.01 standard lots, well within my margin*leverage.
Price at 1.30000, take profit at 1.40000, stop loss at 1.20000. I get the message “Market is closed”. This makes sense… Since the market is closed, I’m obviously not going to be able to do a direct market order (right?).
3: After doing this once, strangely, “Type” suddenly unlocks, letting me choose Pending order. I try placing a Buy Stop with same parameters as above, but to buy at price 1.35000, expire one week ahead. All seems sensible, right? Yet, I get the same message saying “Market is closed”. Which does not make sense.
So basically, I can understand that the market order can’t be executed, but I don’t get why I can’t even place a pending order!
ALSO, what the hump is going on with the “greyed out until I try to place a market order” thing? The option to choose pending order dissapears again if I actually exit the order box/screen, going back to charts…
Hope that wasn’t too confusing. I really appreciate the help!
P.S: Haven’t talked to the brokers yet, as they open chat on monday! Just figuered I’d ask here, since forums are always active
You can’t because the market is closed… IT DOES MAKE SENSE
i can’t place a pending order now (Sunday) either
try it on monday see what happens
Really? Huh… well, that was simpler than I thought then…
I thought I was possible to place orders in the weekends…
Is this something specific to MT4?
I seem to be able to place a type of pending order on the web based platform one of the brokers provide!
No… this is a broker thing.
You can’t place orders when the market is closed. there are brokers that trade over the weekend, but… THAT’S BS (let’s be honest hehe) so… that aside
yeah… you can’t trade over the weekend , you can’t place a market order, a pending order… whatever. because even placing a pending, IT NEEDS TO BE PROCESSED AND ACCEPTED BY THE BROKER.
it’s outside of their trading hours, nothing is going to be accepted .
like i said…try it on monday
which broker ?
Allright, thanks for clearing it all up!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
you too mate. let me know what happens tomorrow. be cool
No orders can be placed in a closed market. Like if you go to a closed cafe, sit in or take away, makes no difference. its closed.
I just checked again, and I am now able to place market orders, as the market is open.
I am even able to place pending orders… however, ONLY after I try to place an invalid market order, get an error message, and suddenly “pending order” is not greyed out any longer, allowing me to place one… This is really strange!
oh well, there you go
at least it’s working now
as for the weird stuff, ask your broker, get them to have a look at it
Allright, solved the problem on my own!
It kind of makes sense, but still a bit of a strange way to do things…
I only get the “greyed out” drop down list problem when clicking on the “buy now” kind of button on the actual chart.
When I randomly tried placing an order with the “New order” button in the toolbar instead, everything works fine!
The blue box does not do pending orders.
If you want to use pending orders, you can right click on the chart where you want the order,
Select the drop down arrow from “Trading” and then you can select a pending order (limit or stop).
The value in that blue box (currently 0.01) will be the value of the pending order. You can drag and drop the pending order if you slightly misplace it.
Edit, then double click the green line for the order to edit the stop loss and take profits
@Quantonium
just to be clear
AS @DFM8 already said, when you click on the those boxes THEY EXECUTE AT MARKET PRICE,.
When you click on them YOU ARE AGREEING TO THAT PRICE, hence it’s a Market Execution order at MARKET PRICE
those boxes do not do Pending Orders
this is how you should be placing a pending order
first of all, minimize these boxes… i personally dont’ even use them
obviously this is a demo account with a $5000 starting balance, FYI.
now CLICK ON THE CHART you want to trade on TO SELECT IT (this avoids you selecting the wrong instrument) assuming you have multiple open
Now RIGHT CLICK ON THE BLANK AREA IN THE TERMINAL
THEN SELECT NEW ORDER
or JUST PRESS F9 to make it quicker
You will then see the ORDER WINDOW as shown here
SELECT TYPE - Market Execution or PENDING ORDER
when you select PENDING ORDER it will change to look like this, with these options
you then select the TYPE OF PENDING ORDER
and you fill in your Entry, Stop Loss and Take profit details then hit PLACE
if certain values are incorrect, it will be greyed out
simple as that
IS THIS WHAT YOU ARE DOING ?
That’s how I’m doing it now, yes. And all seems to be working fine! Thanks
When I click the “buy now” box, it just brings up the same order window as the other option you showed here, except the drop down menu is locked at marked execution. which of course makes sense, given the context.
