How do you place your first trade step by step?

On 4h, EURUSD is making higher highs and higher lows above a rising 50 EMA. You marked support at 1.0815–1.0820. On 1h, price pulls back into the zone and a hammer closes with its low at 1.0812.

The plan: buy near 1.0840, stop below the zone and the wick at 1.0808 (32 pips), take profit at the next resistance, 1.0890 (50 pips). The ratio is about 1:1.6. That meets a minimum of 1:1.5, so the trade passes. If resistance had been at 1.0860, it would not.

1. Choose Market to enter now at the ask, or Limit at a lower price with a time in force such as Good till cancelled.
2. Press Buy. The ticket shows the ask, the bid and the spread.
3. Switch sizing to Risk % and enter 0.5.
4. Press + Stop loss and enter 1.0808 as a price. Press + Take profit and enter 1.0890.
5. On a $10,000 account, Risk at SL should show about $50, with the volume near 0.15 lots.
6. Read the share of the daily loss left that the order uses, and the box If the stop loss hits: your daily and overall loss limits before and after.
7. Open Order value & limits for margin, applied leverage and commission. Then send.

The trade appears in the Positions panel, and the stop shows on the chart. From here the plan does the work: do not widen the stop, and do not add to a losing trade. Closing or reducing a position stays allowed during the news window if you need to step aside.

When the trade closes, take a chart snapshot and fill in your journal card: reason, prices, risk, result in R, and whether you followed the plan.

• One market and one setup.
• The same risk on every trade, for example 0.5%.
• No more than two trades a day, and stop for the day after two losses.
• A personal daily loss limit under Details, below the plan’s. On a $10,000 1-Step Challenge account the plan’s limit is $500.
• A review at the end of the week, in R.

The goal of the first week is a clean record, not a profit figure. A week where every trade had a stop, the same risk and a journal entry is a good week, whatever the result. Once that is routine, you can add a second market or a second setup, one at a time.

How do you place an order with a stop loss and take profit?

Pick a symbol, choose Buy or Sell and the order type, set the volume and a stop loss, and read what the stop would cost against your daily and overall limits before you send it. Add a take profit, then manage the trade with break-even, a partial close or a trailing stop.

• Buy or Sell. The direction of the trade.
• Order type. Market, or a pending limit, stop or stop-limit order.
• Volume in lots. Drag or set it; the figures below update as you move.
• Stop loss in pips from the entry, and a take profit.
• If the stop loss hits. The dollar loss at your stop, before gaps and slippage.
• Daily loss limit and Overall loss limit, each with the dollars that would be left if the stop hits.
• Fit to limits and a status that tells you whether the order is within your limits.

1. Pick the symbol in the watchlist, for example EURUSD.
2. Choose Buy or Sell, and Market as the order type.
3. Set the stop loss where your idea is wrong, say 25 pips.
4. Set the volume from your risk. On a $10,000 account at 0.5% risk you can lose $50. At $10 per pip per lot, 25 pips cost $250 per lot, so the volume is $50 ÷ $250 = 0.20 lots.
5. Check the line under the volume: it should show a loss of about $50 if the stop hits, and the dollars left on both limits.
6. Add a take profit, for example 40 pips, then send the order.

The ticket figures are estimates before gaps and slippage. The server checks every order, and your plan’s rules still apply.

Fit to limits sets, in one tap, the largest volume that keeps your stop inside a safety margin below your smallest remaining limit. It is useful when the volume you typed runs past your daily room: press it and the ticket brings the size back.

Treat it as a ceiling, not a size. On most days the largest volume that fits is far more than a sensible risk per trade. Size from your own risk first, as in the steps above, and use Fit to limits as a check that the order fits.

Set the stop loss when you place the order, not later. A trade without a stop can run through the daily or maximum loss limit in one move, and a breach can end the account.

A limit order enters at a better price than now, a stop order enters once price moves through a level, and a stop-limit combines the two. You can attach a stop loss and take profit to any pending order, and they apply the moment it fills. That means a breakout order placed before the news is protected from its first tick.

• Break-even. Move the stop to your entry in one tap, or let it move by itself.
• Partial close. Take part of the position off, or set a partial take profit, and keep the rest running.
• Trailing stop. Trail by a fixed distance, a percentage or ATR. It runs on the server and keeps working when you close the browser.
• Reverse. Turn a long into a short at the same size, in one order you review first.

The terminal keeps one net position per symbol, so hedging is not possible. After the trade, the Report shows MAE and MFE: how far it went against you and for you before you closed it.