Margin trading allows you to leverage the funds in your account to potentially generate larger profits by depositing just a fraction of the full value of your trade. This means that you can enter into positions larger than your account balance. The downside, however, is that you can also potentially incur significant losses if the trade moves against you.

Below are the three most common reasons why your trade was not successful:

1. ‘Bid’ or ‘ask’ price did not reach your specified target

The most likely reason why your trade did not execute is because the applicable market price has not reached the price you specified. Depending on your chart settings, the chart you are viewing may not be showing the type of price applicable to your trade.

Many of the charts on our trading platform use the average price, meaning an average between the ‘bid’ and ‘ask’ prices, so they don’t take into consideration the spread. The spread is the difference between the actual buy and sell price of a financial product at any given time.

A long (buy) trade will open at the ‘ask’ and close at the ‘bid’ price. A short (sell) trade will open at the ‘bid’ and close at the ‘ask’ price. With our mobile app, you can see the full range of prices by adding a ‘low bid’ or ‘high ask’ price overlay to the chart by selecting Overlays, then the Min Overlay to show the lowest bid and Max overlay to show the ‘highest ask’ price.

With our web platform, you have the choice of having your candles drawn by the ‘mid’, ‘ask’ or ‘bid’ price.

Note: the MT4 platform only shows the ‘bid’ price. To see the historical ‘low/high’, ‘ask/bid’, you will need to go to the OANDA trading platform and follow the steps mentioned above.

1. Insufficient funds

On your trade ticket (new order window), you can type in the size of the trade you wish to open in order to see the margin needed to open that trade. If you are placing a market order, our platform will tell you right away if you do not have sufficient margin (available funds) to place the trade. If you are trying to place an entry order, our platform will not stop you from placing the order if you do not have the current margin (available funds) necessary but the order will fail to execute if you have not increased the available funds on your account when the pre-specified entry price is reached.

1. Take profit or stop loss was set too close to your order price

The third reason your order likely did not trigger is because your take profit or stop loss was set too close to your order price. A valid take profit and stop loss must be placed farther away than the current spread on the financial instrument that you are trading. As spread is dynamic and can increase during news events or volatile market hours, we recommend your take profit and stop loss to always be set at a range farther away than the maximum spread for any instrument. Review our historical OANDA spreads to determine your take profit and stop loss levels. Be sure to click on 'Maximum', located on the top-right corner of the spread chart (please see below).

Whenever you have questions about your trades and/ or orders, we are happy to assist. Below is information that will help you with this process.

Please submit all the relevant information about your trades and/or orders, so that we can investigate and provide you with a detailed analysis. You can do this by clicking on and filling out the Trade enquiries form. Once it is downloaded and filled out, you can then email it back to us.

Please submit the form using the following format:

• Email the form to frontdesk@oanda.com
• In the subject line include: "Trade investigation" followed by the instrument involved, for example: EUR/USD, BCO/USD, UK100/GBP or XAU/USD​​​​. Attach the corresponding form.

To ensure accurate and speedy processing, please provide as much information as possible about your trades or orders such as those listed below:

• Your username and account ID number (for example, 001-001-1234567-001 or MT4 account ID 7654321)
• The trading platform used at the time such as fxTrade or MT4. Also, which medium you used to access the platforms such as desktop, mobile, web or any third-party system.
• The ticket number or transaction ID of the trades or orders involved
• The instrument(s) involved
• The time and date of the transaction
• Please describe the issue with your trades or orders
• Screenshots of your platform regarding the trades or order
• What remediation or assistance you would like us to provide.

As trade inquiries vary in their complexity, so too does the time it takes to respond to these inquiries. However, you should receive a response in two to five business days.

See our full list of frequently asked questions.