Placing Conditional Orders

Place Conditional Orders to send orders to the market only when certain market conditions occur. They can help you manage risk on open positions or help you take advantage of opportunities as favorable market conditions appear, depending on the type of conditions you use to trigger the order.

Conditional orders can be placed from the Conditional Orders tab of the Trade tool or Symbol Hub. Check the status of or edit your conditional orders from the Order Status tab in the Account Details tool.

1. In the Conditional Orders tab either in the Trade tool or Symbol Hub, enter a Conditional Order Name.
2. Select an Expiration date. The default is the current day, but you can set alerts to expire up to 60 days out. Type in a date or click on the calendar to select a date.
3. If you want the conditional order to only last for the current market session, check Day Alert.

TIP: Active conditional orders remain active even when you log off. They only deactivate if they expire, or are day orders and the market closes, or are triggered.

4. If you wish to use a template to automatically fill in portions of the conditional order, select one from the Templates drop-down and click Load. For more on using templates, see Conditional Order Templates.
5. Now, set up the Conditions that will trigger your order. For more information about each of the choices available when setting up your conditions, see Alert & Conditional Order Conditions.
6. Set up the Orders you want to place when/if your condition is met. You may set up as many as 3 orders on 3 different symbols, if desired, to send to the market when your condition(s) are triggered.

• Click Stock/ETF to send an equity order and follow the instructions for placing an equity order.
• For options, click Call or Put to send an option order, and follow the instructions for placing a Call or Put order.
• Note that the Special Conditions settings available with regular stock and option orders are not available with Conditional Orders.

7. Choose how the software will alert you when your conditions are met by clicking View Notifications. You can either choose the default notification settings or set up one-time-only notification settings. For more information, visit Alert & Conditional Order Notifications.
8. A summary of your conditional order displays below the Orders panel showing what the conditional order will do and when.
9. Once your conditional order settings are to your liking, you can either choose Review Order, Save as Template, and/or save as a template to a file .

TIP: Due to the complexity of Conditional Orders, turning off Order Verification in the Trade Settings will not apply to conditional orders. You must confirm conditional orders before placing them.

You will have an opportunity to make changes to your order after reviewing it by clicking the Edit Order button in the review window.

10. If you want to start over, click Clear. 
11. Once the conditional order is submitted, it will display in the Order Status tab of Account Details. There you can edit the order until its conditions are met, or once the order is triggered, orders are displayed like any regular order with the potential to cancel or change the order before it is filled.