Pending orders do not trigger the instant price touches
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 6:34 am
A buy stop at 1.0900 should trigger when price reaches 1.0900. In practice, a buy stop triggers when the ask reaches the level, and the ask is already a spread above the bid that most charts display. The candle can print 1.0900 on the bid and the order still sits idle.
That detail trips up a lot of breakout traders. They place orders at the visible high, watch the bar poke through, and wonder why nothing happened. Then price reverses and the missed trade turns into a lucky escape, which builds a false sense of control.
Another small delay comes from server processing. Pending orders are checked against incoming ticks, and during bursts of volume, the check can lag by a hundred milliseconds or more. The fill then arrives after the first pip of the move is gone.
A workable fix is to place pending orders with the spread in mind, adding a fraction above buy levels and subtracting from sell levels, or to switch to market orders with a tight deviation when the entry timing matters most.
How much padding gets added for the spread when placing breakout orders, and does it change by pair?
That detail trips up a lot of breakout traders. They place orders at the visible high, watch the bar poke through, and wonder why nothing happened. Then price reverses and the missed trade turns into a lucky escape, which builds a false sense of control.
Another small delay comes from server processing. Pending orders are checked against incoming ticks, and during bursts of volume, the check can lag by a hundred milliseconds or more. The fill then arrives after the first pip of the move is gone.
A workable fix is to place pending orders with the spread in mind, adding a fraction above buy levels and subtracting from sell levels, or to switch to market orders with a tight deviation when the entry timing matters most.
How much padding gets added for the spread when placing breakout orders, and does it change by pair?