GIO4X Labs · Experiment

Trade Anatomy

One order, followed from the click to the balance. Seven stages, each with the branches where its path can change, and what can go wrong at every one.

Stage 1 of 7: the decision and the ticket. Order type: Market order. The picture illustrates the text; it carries no data.

With a keyboard: Tab to any of these buttons, then the Left and Right arrow keys move between stages. Auto-play rests on each stage for a few seconds and stops at the end.

Choose a branch

Order type

SimulationAn illustration of general mechanics on no market data: there are no prices in it. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade.

Stage 1 of 7

The decision and the ticket

Every order starts as a decision that is entirely the trader’s: what to trade, in which direction, and how much. The order ticket records it as an instrument, a direction (buy or sell), a size in lots and an order type.

On this branch the ticket holds a market order: an instruction to trade now, at the price available when the order arrives.

Nothing has been traded yet. Until the ticket is sent it is only an intention.

What can go wrong here

Most avoidable mistakes are made on the ticket: the wrong size, the wrong direction, or a level typed on the wrong side of the price. A size chosen without working out what one pip is worth can make a position far larger than intended.

At GIO4X

Orders at GIO4X are placed on its trading platforms, which are described on the platforms page. Minimum trade sizes are listed with the account types.

Terms used

Work out a size from the risk

Method

General mechanics. Not a description of one broker.

The walkthrough describes how an order is commonly handled in margin trading, in the order things happen. Practice differs between brokers and platforms, which is why the text says “may”, “commonly” and “depends on the broker” where it does. The branches are the points at which two orders that look the same on the ticket can end differently.

What it is not. There is no market data in it, no price, no symbol and no figure. It does not describe how GIO4X routes or fills orders: the note under each stage says what this site publishes on that subject and what it does not yet publish, and links to the page concerned. It is not advice, and it does not suggest a trade.

The scene is an illustration. Everything it shows is written in the panel beside it, so the page reads the same with the animation switched off; with reduced motion each stage is a still picture and the stepper works as before. To see where each order type rests against a moving price, use Order Anatomy in the Trader Toolkit.

01The decision and the ticket
02Checks before it leaves
03Routing to a price
04The fill
05The open position
06The close
07Settlement into the balance

Continue

Fetching the page

The decision and the ticket

On this branch the ticket holds a market order: an instruction to trade now, at the price available when the order arrives.

Nothing has been traded yet. Until the ticket is sent it is only an intention.

What can go wrong here