Setting initial Stop Loss and Profit Target by Price

Futures Trading Platforms IG Forex Trading Platform
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This is my first post, so please feel free to let me know if I have put it in the wrong place, etc.

On the IG web platform, when setting up a market order, and setting your stop loss and profit target, there seems to be only the option to do so by “pips away” (or else monetary amount), which can be pretty sloppy if you are putting a trade in after the NY close when the bid/ask spread is high. Is there no way to set the order up from the beginning according to the specific price you want your stop loss and target to sit at rather than in relation to wherever your buy/sell happens to end up? I realize you can go in after executing the order and adjust these, but I would prefer to avoid this extra step with extra potential for making mistakes.

Thanks for any help you can offer!
Michael

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Hi @michaelhallhorn!

Welcome to the community forum and thanks for your question (this is the correct location for this question by the way :wink: )

In regards to the question you’ve asked, have you considered using If/Then Orders?

An If/Then (contingent) order is inactive until its parent order is filled. Once active, this order won’t be linked to its parent and will act independently of position updates. IG essentially handles If/Then orders as OCOs. An OCO (one cancels the other) orders are placed in pairs. When one order is filled, the other is automatically deleted.

Unfortunately, you still only have the option of configuring an If/Then order’s stop and limits with pips away and they will still be in relation to where you buy/sell ends up, but at least with an If/Then order you have to ability to select the specific price level of your order rather than with a market order that will fill out at the next available price.

You can access If/Then orders by opening up a chart/trade window for an Instrument and then selecting the Order Tab. Once the order tab is selected, you can individually enable both stop and limit orders and then configure price distances as needed as shown below:

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I hope you find this helpful. Please let us know if this is on the right track to what you are looking for. If you require additional assistance with this topic, we can continue to look for additional options for you and get in touch with IG if needed.

Thanks for your question!
Jake
Optimus Futures Support :optimus_logo_no_backroug:

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Jake, thanks so much for your answer on this. I am glad to be aware of this option, especially if I am want to be very picky about my entry price. However, I will generally be okay with market orders, and either way, I still don’t get to have my SL and TP ordered at a set price–only my actual buy or sell order. I am hoping that IG will make this option available at some point, because it really is a big deal, particularly after the NY close when there could be a spread of 5-10 pips and your stop loss is only 40 pips away, and has been chosen with some specificity in order to be protected behind a swing point, etc. It is, so far the only thing I dislike about the IG web platform, but it is kind of a deal breaker if it means that I essentially have to enter my trade twice. Once when I enter it, and then once again after I’ve entered it…in order to correct it back to where I wanted it in the first place.

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Hi @michaelhallhorn,

Thanks for following up.

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find any other order entry options on the IG Trading Platform other than the ones we discussed above, but I will attempt to reach out to IG to see if they can provide an alternative.

Like you alluded to, you can potentially manually set up the situation you are attempting to achieve, but it does not look like there is anyway to set specific price levels for stops and targets attached to an order before a trade is even entered.

If we are able to find a solution to this issue with IG, we will update this thread with an accurate response and solution.

UPDATE: We have reached out to IG Support and received the following response: “There is not a way to set a take profit/stop loss level by price. The only thing I could advise is to set an order to execute at the desired price level.”

So as you can see in the update above from IG support, this seems to be a limitation that the IG Trading Platform does not support.

Thanks for your time and looking forward to future questions!
Jake
Optimus Futures Support :optimus_logo_no_backroug:

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Thanks for looking into that Jake–how did you get that done so FAST?!

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I have a new thought on this after spending a week interacting with MT4 and missing some of the other super straightforward features on the IG web platform, particularly the ability to see immediately what your per pip value is going to be at the lot size you’ve set. Last night I decided to put a trade in on the IG platform, set my SL (stop loss) and TP (take profit) by pips away and then go into the positions tab to adjust them once the trade was executed. Using the up/down arrow buttons to move the SL and TP a few pips up/down to where I originally wanted them to be took less than 10 seconds, and it also gave me a chance to do that one last double check. I’m not sure why I thought it was going to be such a hassle to do this–maybe I thought there would be more steps (as there indeed are if you are doing this on MT4), and so I was hyper concerned about more chanced to introduce user errors into the process. But making the adjustment after the fact is about as easy as you could hope for, SO, I am back to sticking with simple and using the IG platform for my trade entry. With apologies to Jake for the time he took helping me get set up on MT4. But, at least I know for sure now. Thanks again Jake and Matt.

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Hi @michaelhallhorn,

Not a problem at all! It’s good to know that you were able to find a good solution for what you need. At the end of the day, this is your trading account so you need to be comfortable with the platform you are using for execution as well as your decision making.

Keep us up to date with how IG works out for you!

I was able to get in touch with them so fast through IG’s Live Chat: Contact Us | IG | IG US :smirk:. You’ll see the Live Chat button on the right-hand side of the page where you can get in touch with their support team directly if needed.

Thanks for following up!
Jake
Optimus Futures Support