well hello everyone. I’m new to forex and practising it from last 3 weeks and I’m often facing a problem which is the take profit option in the mt4 terminal of InstaForex brokerage is not working at all. It’s like whenever I make a sell order it just don’t calculate the spread by itself further it hits the take profit line or sometimes even crosses it!!! But does not triggers the order. SO my question is that is it my problem or the broker’s or something else and what is the solution?
Hi @IFTI786,
It seems like you’re not taking into account the bid-ask spread. Your MT4 charts show you the bid or sell price in the market. When you have a sell or short position open in the market, it is the ask or buy price that will trigger your take profit order.
Your demo account with that other broker is showing a 3 pip spread on EUR/JPY (incidentally, our typical spread for that pair is only 1.8 pips with no commissions 
). If that is the case, then the bid (sell) price you see on your MT4 chart has to go 3 pips below your take profit level in order for your buy order to trigger and close your short position.
No. You seem to be mistaken.
Based on the 3 pip EUR/JPY spread of that other broker, the sell/bid/chart price would have to drop to 131.08 in order for the buy/ask price to hit your take profit level at 131.11. However, the screenshot of your MT4 platform with that broker shows the sell/bid/chart price to be 131.11, which means the buy/ask price is 131.14 which is 3 pips higher than your take profit level.
I don’t understand what you are trying to tell me. Could you explain me?
okay, why the spread does not count when I make an order? If I make an order at 131.08 with spread it should start with 131.05 but why it starts from 131.08?
You are shown 2 prices, the buy price and the sell price.
So, if buy was 131.05 and sell was 131.08, you begin at the one YOU chose
I didn’t understand.
So that it is easier for you to follow, let’s use the example from your screenshot and assume for simplicity that the broker in question has a fixed spread* on EUR/JPY of 3 pips.
Your screenshot shows you sold EUR/JPY at 131.15 which means the sell price (AKA bid price AKA chart price) was 131.15 and the buy price (AKA ask price) was 131.18 at the time you opened this that trade to take a short position in the market.
Your screenshot shows you set your take profit order at 131.11 which means you need the buy price (AKA ask price) to trade at this level in order for your trade to close. That is 7 pips away from where the buy/ask price was when you opened your trade.
Again assuming the broker in question has a fixed spread* on EUR/JPY of 3 pips, in order for the buy/ask price to fall 7 pips from 131.18 to 131.11, the sell/bid/chart price must fall 7 pips from 131.15 to 131.08. This makes sense, because you seek a net profit of 4 pips by selling at 131.15 and buying at 131.11 and the spread cost is 3 pips.
To summarize, in order to net 4 pips profit when your spread cost is 3 pips, the market must move 7 pips in favor of your trade. Seven pips minus three pips equals four pips.
*Note FOREX.com has a variable spread on EUR/JPY which is typically 1.8 pips, so you would typically need the market to move 5.8 pips in favor of your trade in order to net 4 pips profit.