Cfd Orders

extremely new to this !
can anyone tell me the meaning of the following

limit buy , limit sell , stop buy , stop sell

i have only begun trading cfds this week ,without much success i have to say

i am trading through hargreaves lansdown

thanks

say RBS is at 1500 and you want to short at 1510 then you limit short ie you are asking your cfd provider at best to short at 1510minimum or as close as. So if it opens at 1515 then this will become your limit short.
Stop buy say you see RBS falling but you want to go long at 1455 then you will make a stop buy at this price. You can use limits if they to short if they are above the current price or limits to close if they are in your favour. Stop orders are far more precise. Its an impossible one to type and make sense but your provider should talk a live example through to you. ETRADE have a superb help desk service so try them?

thanks for that bede i think things are a little clearer in my murky mind now

When you want to sell, (and this is what you do when you short!) you want to sell at as high a price as poss. So your Limit (Sell) is the lowest price at which you want to sell. If more, so much the better.

However there are occasions when you want to sell at a lower price when it occurs (act against your interests, in a sense). This is when you use the Stop order (sell) to distinguish it from the Limit order, (which acts in your favour). When for instance you believe that RBS now at 1510 is sure to retest 1470 but only if it goes below 1500. So you place your Stop order to sell at say 1497

The opposite for buying..

HIH

The main point my little befuddled mind was trying to make is a limit order is an ''at best'' order where as a stop order is precise. Beware whenusing futures YMU4 etc as there are no stops on cfds even though the spread is very tight and cfd indices are very expensive with a spread equal to a SB firm. Often it is cheaper to scalp with Cantor or IG on cash indices.

I don't believe there is such thing as precise orders.. hence slippage. I believe however that most CFD companies will guarantee a stop order at a certain price, but you pay for it in the form of wider spread

Loadsa check out the glossary on http://www.financial-spread-betting.com/spreadbetting-a-to-c.html

I think you will find it useful.

All the best.

Andy