Traders can enter the market in several different ways, and contingent orders tend to be one of the favorite. The contention order is simply in order that is triggered if certain amount of conditions is met. For example, you may send an order into your broker to buy the Euro if the EUR/USD pair reaches the 1.12 handle. This is the essence of a contingent order. There are several different types of contingent orders, but the most common are the following 6: the buy limit order, the sell limit order, the buy stop order, the sell stop order, the buy stop limit, and the sell stop limit. Because of this, the average trader has several different opportunities to enter the market in various conditions. These are the trading orders available in the Metatrader platform, the most common one out there. There are other less common contingent orders that you can run across, but these are by far the ones you will use the most. A buy limit order allows traders to specify the price that they are willing to pay for security, and the broker guarantees to honor that price or even better when it becomes available. The sell limit order simply does the same thing, but from the sell side. A buy stop order is an order that you give the broker to buy a security at a price above the current price, and is triggered when the market touches her goes through the buy stop price. Quite often this is used in order to take advantage of momentum building up. A sell stop order is often referred to as the stop loss order, it’s in order to close a position once the security reaches a specific price. This is a way to protect yourself from losses. The buy stop limit is executed when a specific price reached, as it becomes a limit order to start buying the asset at a specific price or better. The sell stop limit is a sell order that is triggered once we reach a specific price, and is guaranteed to be the price you ask or better. This is a great way to enter the marketplace while stepping away. In other words, if the move happens in the middle the night you can know how you’re going to enter the market. Obviously, stop loss orders are crucial, so you need to protect your trading accounts while you are not at your desk. At the very least, you should have a stop loss order to protect yourself from disaster. However, contingent orders to offer you an incredible amount of flexibility.