Market Watch

The gap between the two prices on each row is what you pay to get into a trade. A chart usually draws only one of them, so this list is where you see that cost before you open the order window.

What each Market Watch row tells you

Every row is one instrument, called a symbol: a currency pair, a metal, an index.

Next to it sit two prices. The bid is the price you sell at. The ask is the price you buy at. The gap between them is the spread.

The picture below shows a typical layout with illustrative prices.

A Market Watch quote list with bid, ask and spread columns

A point is the smallest price step of a symbol. A pip is the standard unit traders quote moves in: the fourth decimal on most pairs. On a pair quoted to five decimals, 10 points make 1 pip, so the 12 points on the highlighted row are 1.2 pips. On a three-decimal pair like USD/JPY, 10 points are also 1 pip, so 15 points = 1.5 pips. Gold's pip convention differs by broker, so do not copy this rule onto it. Check the symbol's specification instead.

The most common Market Watch misread is reading the spread column as pips. A 12 there looks like a costly quote, but it is 1.2 pips on a five-decimal pair. Read it as 12 pips and the spread test in the next section gives 12 ÷ 15 = 80% on a 15-pip stop, so you would skip a trade that actually passes.

Turning a Market Watch quote into a cost before you buy

The figures here are an illustrative example. The list shows EUR/USD at a bid of 1.10000 and an ask of 1.10012. You plan to buy 0.50 lots with a stop 15 pips away.

One standard lot is 100,000 units, so 0.50 lots is 50,000 units. One pip on that size is worth $5.

Spread cost of a 0.50 lot EUR/USD trade from the Market Watch quote

Spread in price1.10012 - 1.10000= 0.00012

Spread in pips0.00012 ÷ 0.0001= 1.2 pips

Pip value of 0.50 lots50,000 × 0.0001= $5

Spread cost1.2 × $5= $6

Money at risk to the stop15 × $5= $75

Spread as a share of risk8%

The trade starts $6 down the moment it fills. That is 8% of the $75 you are risking.

You can turn this into a rule and write it down: if spread ÷ stop distance is above 10%, wait for a tighter quote or skip the trade. The 10% is an example, and the limit itself is your choice. Checking the list before every entry is how you apply it.

Still in the illustrative example, the normal 1.2-pip spread gives 1.2 ÷ 15 = 8%. That is under the limit, so the trade passes. With a 20-pip stop the same 1.2-pip spread is 6%, further inside the limit. Around a news release the same row might show 3 pips: 3 ÷ 15 = 20%, so you wait or skip. The bars below put the three cases side by side.

EUR/USD example: spread as a share of the stop in three casesIllustration

Normal, 15-pip stop

8%

Wider 20-pip stop

6%

News spread, 3 pips

20%

The chart price is not always your fill price

Many charts draw only the bid. A buy fills at the ask, which sits above the line you are looking at.

This causes a common misread. A buy stop, a pending order to buy above the current price, or a short position's stop loss triggers on the ask, so it can fill while the chart candle never appears to touch the level. The chart below shows it with illustrative prices: the bid candles stop just under the short's stop loss, while the ask at that moment is already above it.

Bid candles stop just under a short's stop loss while the ask is above itIllustration

When that happens, compare the two prices in the quote list. The gap explains it. To avoid it, switch on the ask line on your chart. For a short, place the stop the spread's distance above the level you chose on the bid chart. For a buy stop, place the entry that distance above the level.

Opening and setting up Market Watch in MetaTrader 4 and 5

On desktop, Market Watch is a panel beside the chart. If it is closed, press Ctrl+M or choose View > Market Watch. In the MetaTrader mobile app the same list is the Quotes tab. Other platforms call it a watchlist or quotes panel.

The actions you will use most:

• Add missing pairs: right-click inside the list and choose Symbols to search for a symbol and show it, or Show All to list every symbol your account offers.
• Hide what you do not trade: a short list streams less data and is faster to scan on a small screen.
• Open a chart or an order: right-click a symbol to open its chart window or a new order.
• Add columns: switch on the spread, the day's high and low, and the time of the last quote from the same right-click menu.
• Check the contract: right-click a symbol and choose Specification to see contract size, minimum lot and trading hours.

In MT5 the window has four tabs at the bottom. Symbols is the quote list. Details shows extra fields for each symbol. Trading gives buy and sell buttons for each symbol. Ticks draws a tick chart of the selected symbol. MT4 has two tabs: Symbols and Tick Chart.

Checks to run in Market Watch before you trade

• Is the quote moving? If every row is frozen, check your connection. If only one is, that market is probably closed or quiet. Check the time of its last quote. Do not send an order on a stale quote.
• Is the spread normal for this symbol? Spreads often widen around news and at the daily rollover, when the trading day resets and liquidity is thin. Compare with what you usually see at that hour.
• Is it the right symbol? Some brokers add a suffix to symbol names for different account types. The sign is the same pair listed twice with different endings, in a format such as EURUSD and EURUSD.x. Trade the one that matches your account.
• Which clock is it? The time shown is the broker's server time. Daily candles open and close on that clock, and session times on your chart are displayed in it, so work out the offset from your local time once.
• Are all the symbols you need in the list? A multi-symbol indicator or an Expert Advisor, an automated trading program, can usually read only the symbols that are shown.

FAQ