Hi, so I placed a limit sell order for copper this morning in MT5. I set the stoploss and take profit ahead of time. Price went well below my TP, but the trade wasn’t automatically closed. So I have to set a specific parameter for the trade to be closed once my TP is hit?
This is very concerning to me…I don’t want to enter any positions until I have this worked out.
Thanks!
What broker did you use for this trade?
If it’s that last candle where price has gone below your TP then good chance it’s spread which is often quite wide on comms.
On MT4 MT5 - right click on the chart, then Properties, then Common tab, then tick the Show Ask box and you get to see the spread on the chart.
If it’s a live account then look up the term “slippage”.
(slippage seldom occurs on demo)
If it’s the last candle, then it’s the spread.
The chart plots the green line, which is the ask line, this is the price you shorted at. It looks like this went down to 3.7450, maybe a little lower.
The TP would be based on the red, bid line reaching your TP value. On that chart, it’s 30 points higher than the ask line, so you’d have been around 3.7480 at the bottom of that candle. Therefore just missing out on triggering the TP.
I would assume that it’s due to the spread. I think you need the top red line to hit your TP.
However, if you’re convinced it should have paid out you should contact your broker with the evidence.
No need to worry pal, it happens. Let me explain what’s the matter here and it will serve as a lesson on how to properly put TP in future.
Good that you mentioned that this trade was on copper. This is an instrument with relatively wide spreads. Whatever broker you trade at, copper comes with a wide spread. Since this is a SELL trade, that means that your TP order to be activated the BID price needs to reach your level. In this case obviously, only the ASK price has reached that level but immediately retrieves. Because of the wide spread, the bid price never reached your TP level, so that’s why it was not triggered.
Next time you trade copper and place both TP and SL orders, mind the spreads and include their value in your calculations.
