Bracket Order
Table of Contents
Bracket Order
A bracket order is an interesting order that allows stock market traders to be protected while selling and buying trading orders at the end of an intraday trading session. A bracket order provides stop-loss, which will trigger when a specified trigger price is hit, thereby protecting the user.
What is a bracket order
A bracket order can be defined as an intraday trading strategy that allows its user to buy and sell orders at a target price while being protected under the stop-loss. It contains three orders-
- Sell or buy order
- The upper limit is called the target price
- A lower limit called the stop-loss limit
Understanding a bracket order
Trading in a stock market has always fascinated people, but when the stock dips below market value, that’s when people start to panic. When bracket order is used, the stop-loss can protect your investment from a sudden market downfall. Essentially, it brackets/shields your order and hence the name. Intraday traders use it as a strategy to buy and sell stocks without too much variation in the stock price.
Let’s take a look at a scenario. You bought the stocks of a company at $4 per share and set your stop-loss and target level at $3.6 and $4.5 respectively. These limits will act as a bracket that will shield your investment from sudden loss. So, if the share price of your stock falls to $3.6, the stop-loss limit will be triggered and the upper limit will get cancelled and vice versa. However, both limits can’t be triggered at once. Also, since it’s an intraday trading order, nothing will get carried to the following day.
Benefits of a bracket order
Here are some of the benefits of bracket order-
- It is an essential strategy that allows intraday traders to square off all of their orders at a profitable point before the day is over.
- Traders can use it to place three orders at the same time.
- Traders can also implement a trailing stop-loss when trading in an intraday trading session. This allows the trader to make real-time adjustments to the stop-loss level depending on the position of the price and the direction it’s flowing towards.
- A bracket order allows traders to avoid a sudden risk by selling the stock at a profit or at a limited loss in the worst-case scenario. That’s because when you place a bracket order, two other orders are also placed simultaneously.
Types of bracket order
A bracket order can be divided into two types-
- Long bracket order: The long bracket order is when you need to make some bucks by selling your stock during an increasing rise in cost. In this case, the stop-loss level seems to be lower than what is usually set by the trader, yet the target price is higher than the buying order limit.
- Short bracket order: The short bracket order is often used by traders to benefit from a descending price trend of a stock. The trader will sell this stock at a higher price, only to later buy it again at a lower price. This may seem counterintuitive when many traders do this when they bet against the value appreciation of the asset.
Example for a bracket order
Suppose you decide to purchase a few equity shares of XYZ International company for $5 per share. But, in case the value of the stock increase to around $5.2, the target price may get triggered and the stop-loss will be cancelled.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the differences between a bracket order and a cover order-
- When you place a bracket order, two other orders are also placed simultaneously. That’s because the bracket order has three legs in total as opposed to the two legs of the cover order.
- Traders use the bracket order to profit from the purchase and sale of the stock as well as safeguard them in case of any loss.
- When it comes to a bracket order, the position can get squared off if the target/stop-loss price is triggered or if it does not get executed in the first place.
The stock market is subjected to price fluctuations and can be quite risky, so there are many traders who believe in intraday trading. Intraday trading means you can purchase and sell stocks on the same day. It allows traders to save their investments by selling or purchasing their stocks before the day ends. Since an intraday market closes at the end of the day, you will complete any and all of your transactions before the market closes. An opportunity once missed will be missed forever.
A bracket order is a type of intraday stock market order where traders will need to buy or sell their stocks before the market closes at the end of the trading day. This market can be very competitive but is less prone to risk, thanks to stop-loss orders.
Both bracket and limit order has a minimum and a maximum limit, and if the market price of a stock breaches this limit, it is either bought or sold. However, there are some slight variations to them that set them apart. Here are some of the variations between the bracket and limit order-
- A limit order can be valid for as long as 30 days, which cannot be the case with a bracket order as it is an intraday order, meaning the purchase and sale must happen on the same day.
- A limit order can be employed alongside others such as stop orders to avoid even larger losses. However, the same cannot be said for the bracket order.
- A limit order can be a hit or a miss because of the rather competitive market, but a bracket order tends to be generally safer.
Related Terms
- Option Adjusted Spread (OAS)
- Beta Risk
- Bear Spread
- Execution Risk
- Exchange-Traded Notes
- Dark Pools
- Firm Order
- Covered Straddle
- Chart Patterns
- Candlestick Chart
- After-Hours Trading
- Speculative Trading
- Average Daily Trading Volume (ADTV)
- Swing trading
- Sector-Specific Basket
- Option Adjusted Spread (OAS)
- Beta Risk
- Bear Spread
- Execution Risk
- Exchange-Traded Notes
- Dark Pools
- Firm Order
- Covered Straddle
- Chart Patterns
- Candlestick Chart
- After-Hours Trading
- Speculative Trading
- Average Daily Trading Volume (ADTV)
- Swing trading
- Sector-Specific Basket
- Regional Basket
- Listing standards
- Proxy voting
- Block Trades
- Undеrmargin
- Buying Powеr
- Whipsaw
- Index CFD
- Initial Margin
- Risk Management
- Slippage
- Take-Profit Order
- Open Position
- Trading Platform
- Debit Balance
- Scalping
- Stop-Loss Order
- Cum dividend
- Board Lot
- Closed Trades
- Resistance level
- CFTC
- Open Contract
- Passive Management
- Spot price
- Trade Execution
- Spot Commodities
- Cash commodity
- Volume of trading
- Open order
- Bid-ask spread
- Economic calendar
- Secondary Market
- Subordinated Debt
- Basket Trade
- Notional Value
- Speculation
- Quiet period
- Purchasing power
- Interest rates
- Plan participant
- Performance appraisal
- Anaume pattern
- Commodities trading
- Interest rate risk
- Equity Trading
- Adverse Excursion
- Booked Orders
- Bullion
- Trading Indicators
- Grey market
- Intraday trading
- Futures trading
- Broker
- Head-fake trade
- Demat account
- Price priority
- Day trader
- Threshold securities
- Online trading
- Quantitative trading
- Blockchain
- Insider trading
- Equity Volume
- Downtrend
- Derivatives
Most Popular Terms
Other Terms
- Protective Put
- Perpetual Bond
- Non-Diversifiable Risk
- Merger Arbitrage
- Liability-Driven Investment (LDI)
- Income Bonds
- Guaranteed Investment Contract (GIC)
- Flash Crash
- Equity Carve-Outs
- Cost of Equity
- Cost Basis
- Deferred Annuity
- Cash-on-Cash Return
- Earning Surprise
- Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR)
- Bubble
- Asset Play
- Accrued Market Discount
- Ladder Strategy
- Junk Status
- Intrinsic Value of Stock
- Interest-Only Bonds (IO)
- Interest Coverage Ratio
- Inflation Hedge
- Industry Groups
- Incremental Yield
- Industrial Bonds
- Income Statement
- Holding Period Return
- Historical Volatility (HV)
- Hedge Effectiveness
- Flat Yield Curve
- Fallen Angel
- Exotic Options
- Event-Driven Strategy
- Eurodollar Bonds
- Enhanced Index Fund
- Embedded Options
- EBITDA Margin
- Dynamic Asset Allocation
- Dual-Currency Bond
- Downside Capture Ratio
- Dollar Rolls
- Dividend Declaration Date
- Dividend Capture Strategy
- Distribution Yield
- Depositary Receipts
- Delta Neutral
- Derivative Security
- Deferment Payment Option
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