CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Excess volatility increases risk further. Be cautious. Past performance is not an indication of future results.
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Click, then fill

Your first trade happens in the second nobody watches · Taiwan

The interesting part of a first order is not the decision — it is the short interval between pressing Send and the position appearing, and the price it appears at.

Pressing Send does not stamp the figure on the screen onto the trade. The order travels to the server, and the position is opened at the quote available when it arrives. Most of the time that is the figure that was on screen. Sometimes it is a little better, sometimes a little worse — the difference is called slippage, and on a first practice trade it is worth more attention than the profit line. Delays, slippage may occur. No guarantee of execution speed, precision.

The journey of one order, moment by moment

Follow it on a demo, where a mis-set field costs nothing.

  1. Choose the order kind before the direction

    A market order says «fill me now, at whatever is quoted». A pending order says «fill me only if the price reaches this figure» and then sits there waiting. Check: the kind named out loud before any button is pressed.

  2. Write down the quote you intend to be filled at

    Note the figure under the button you are about to press, and the second on the clock. Without that note there is nothing to compare the fill against. Check: a number and a time on paper before Send.

  3. Press Send and let the interval pass

    The order leaves the terminal, reaches the server and comes back as a position. Depending on the account, the platform either fills at the market figure on arrival or returns a re-quote for confirmation. Both are ordinary behaviour, not a fault. Check: the ticket closed by itself, with a position or a message, and nothing clicked twice.

  4. Read the fill price off the position, not the chart

    The open position carries the exact figure the trade was filled at. That figure — not the one remembered from a moment ago — is the level everything is measured from. Check: the fill price copied next to the intended one.

  5. Subtract, and name the difference

    Intended minus filled, in pips, then in money at the size used. A tiny figure either way is slippage. A large one asks what the market was doing at that second. Check: one line of arithmetic written under the two prices.

The log sheet for the first ten orders

One row per order, filled in as it happens. The columns are the whole exercise — nothing in them requires an opinion about the market.

What the platform didWhat it meansWhat to write down
Filled at once, position visibleA quote was available on arrivalIntended price, fill price, the second
Filled a little away from the figureThe quote moved between click and arrivalThe difference in pips, with its sign
Offered a fresh price to confirmThe previous figure had expiredBoth figures, and whether it was accepted
Refused the order outrightA field or a condition blocked itThe exact wording of the message
Left a pending order sittingThe trigger level has not been reachedThe trigger price and the live one beside it

Ten rows are enough to see the shape of it. The column that teaches most is the middle one, because it is the only one written from evidence rather than from memory.

When a fill is more likely to land beside the figure

Slippage is not a punishment and not a constant. It grows where there is less trading to match an order against, and shrinks where there is more:

  • Around scheduled news. Prices step rather than glide, and the quote on arrival can be a step away from the quote at the click.
  • At the thin edges of the day. When a market is quiet the two quotes sit further apart and move in larger jumps.
  • On a large size in a small instrument. The order needs more of the market to be filled, and the parts of it need not fill at one figure.
  • Never in one direction only. The gap between the intended and the filled price can fall on either side, which is why it is worth recording rather than assuming.

Recording it is the whole exercise: ten orders on a demo, each with an intended price, a fill price and the difference, produce a picture of handling that no article can hand over.

What the interval does not decide

  • A good fill is not a good trade. Being filled at a pleasing figure says nothing about where the price goes afterwards.
  • The exit is billed too. Closing is an order like any other, filled at a quote of its own — and where commission is charged per side, charged again.
  • Speed is not promised. Delays, slippage may occur. No guarantee of execution speed, precision.
  • A demo result is no promise of the same on a funded account. Virtual money reads calmly in a way real money does not.

This site is an independent guide, not a broker: it opens no accounts, holds no money and takes no documents. CFDs are complex instruments and trading them is risky.

Questions asked with the first position open

The position opened at a different price from the one I clicked. Was the order mishandled?

Not by itself. A market order is filled at the quote available when it reaches the server, and that can differ from the figure on screen a moment earlier — in either direction.

A minus appeared instantly. Did the price really move that fast?

No. The position opened at one quote and is valued at the other, so it starts the gap behind. That is the opening charge, described in what a CFD is.

The platform asked me to confirm a new price instead of filling. What is that?

A re-quote: the previous figure was no longer available, so a fresh one is offered for confirmation. Accept it once or cancel it — pressing repeatedly is how a duplicate order happens.

Where is the exact fill price recorded?

On the open position, and afterwards in the account history alongside the time. That record is what a comparison with the intended price is built on.

Does a pending order avoid the whole problem?

It fixes the price you are asking for, not the one the market has when the level is reached. It also may simply never trigger.

The order was rejected. What is worth checking first?

The size field, the free margin on the account and whether the instrument is trading at that hour. The message usually names one of the three.

How long should a first position stay open?

Long enough to close it deliberately and read the exit fill. A position carried past the daily rollover starts a second kind of charge — see start here.

Can all of this be practised without money?

Yes. A demo account carries virtual funds and fills orders against live quotes, so the whole interval can be rehearsed at nil cost. See the demo guide.

Keep going

Account types

Where the charge on that fill is placed, and how the two forms compare.

Compare the forms

Risk basics

The size and the exit distance that decide what a wrong trade costs.

Learn the rules

Beginner mistakes

The handling slips that show up in the first ten orders.

See the list

Rehearse the interval where it is free.

Open a demo at Exness — virtual money, no documents, no time limit. Ten orders, each with an intended price and a fill price written beside it, and the handling stops being a mystery.

Open a free demo at Exness