Trade vs. Order in TWS
Find out how the management of trades and orders in TWS differs from their management in MetaTrader.
MetaTrader
In MetaTrader, you trade an asset by either opening a new trade or closing an existing open trade.
This means that you can accumulate different open trades on the same asset, even in the opposite direction, one long and one short.
MetaTrader calculates the profit and loss of each trade individually, in real time.
Each trade's P&L is based on the difference between its individual opening price and the current market price.
On the other hand, you can close trades in any order you want, regardless of the opening date.
Trader Workstation (TWS)
TWS allows you to place long or short orders, but these are not associated with any previously opened trade — each order is independent.
If an order is placed in the opposite direction to the open exposure on an asset, TWS automatically reduces the exposure and generates closed trades by closing the oldest orders first until the opposing order volume is matched — this is known as the FIFO (First In, First Out) method. This means partial closures are possible if the opposing order volume does not fully offset the existing exposure.
For open exposure, there is a single profit or loss value per asset that is obtained by calculating the average price of the exposure that remains open and the current price of the underlying.