# Market Orders vs Pending Orders in an MT5 API

> A market order trades now; a pending order waits at the broker for your price. How each behaves in an MT5 API, with one example and a comparison table.

Published 2026-10-14 by fxapis. Canonical: https://fxapis.com/blog/mt5-market-orders-vs-pending-orders

## In short

- A market order executes now, at the price available. Its result is a fill — or a rejection.
- A pending order waits at the broker until the price reaches a level you set. Its result is a working order, not a position.
- A limit waits for a better price; a stop waits for the price to break through. Buy limits sit below the market, buy stops above it.
- Placing a pending order and having it fill are separate events. Treat working and filled as different states in your code.

Every trade in MetaTrader 5 starts as one of two kinds of order. **A market order says "now". A pending order says "when the price gets here".** They return different results, and code that treats them the same eventually tells someone they are in a trade they are not.

## One scenario

EUR/USD is trading at **1.1000**. You want to buy.

- **Buy now.** Send a market order. It fills at about 1.1000 — the price available when it reaches the broker.
- **Buy if it dips to 1.0950.** Send a pending **buy limit** at 1.0950. It waits at the broker and fills only if the price falls there.
- **Buy if it breaks above 1.1050.** Send a pending **buy stop** at 1.1050. It waits and fills only if the price rises there.

## Side by side

| | Market order | Pending order |
|---|---|---|
| When it executes | Immediately | When the price reaches your level |
| The price | The market's, now | Your level (a stop can slip past it in a fast market) |
| Result of placing it | `filled` — a position exists | `working` — no position yet |
| Can be cancelled | No — close the position instead | Yes, until it triggers |
| Where it waits | Nowhere; it executes | At the broker's trade server |
| fxapis endpoint | `POST /v1/accounts/{id}/orders/market` | `POST /v1/accounts/{id}/orders/pending` |

## The three pending kinds

| Kind | A buy waits | A sell waits | Use it to |
|---|---|---|---|
| `limit` | Below the market | Above the market | Get a better price |
| `stop` | Above the market | Below the market | Trade a breakout |
| `stop_limit` | A stop triggers, then places a limit | The same | Trade a breakout with a price cap |

The side is the usual mistake: a buy limit above the market is not a limit. fxapis refuses the wrong side before anything is sent, with a message naming the order you probably meant.

## In the API

A market order needs no price:

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.fxapis.com/v1/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/orders/market \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FXAPIS_KEY" -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "symbol": "EURUSD", "side": "buy", "volume": "0.10" }'
```

A pending order names its kind and its price:

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.fxapis.com/v1/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/orders/pending \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FXAPIS_KEY" -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "symbol": "EURUSD", "side": "buy", "kind": "limit", "volume": "0.10", "price": "1.0950" }'
```

Both take a stop loss and take profit as absolute prices, and both should carry an idempotency key.

## Working is not filled

A placed pending order comes back `working`. That means it is waiting at the broker — **no position exists**. Some brokers answer a pending placement with the same return code as a fill; fxapis reads it as working, not filled, so your code does not report a trade that has not happened.

When it triggers, a position appears in `GET /v1/accounts/{id}/positions`. To call it off first, `POST /v1/orders/{id}/cancel`. If it has already triggered, the cancel is refused — there is a position now, and what you want is a close.

## Which to use

- **Signals and copy trading** usually want market orders: the point is to act on the signal now, on every account.
- **Entries at a level** — a pullback, a breakout — want pending orders, which wait at the broker even while your own systems are offline.

Pending orders are included on fxapis's Starter, Scale and Enterprise plans; Free has market orders only. See [pricing](https://fxapis.com/pricing).

## Next steps

- [Pending orders in the trading guide](https://docs.fxapis.com/trading#pending-orders) — every kind, states and cancelling.
- Why an MT5 trade can fail — what a rejection tells you.

## Questions

### What is the difference between a market order and a pending order in MT5?

A market order is executed immediately at the current price. A pending order is an instruction stored at the broker to buy or sell when the price reaches a level you choose; until then no position exists.

### Does a pending order need my terminal to be running?

No. Pending orders are held by the broker's trade server and trigger there, whether or not a terminal is connected.

### What is a buy stop limit?

An order that waits for the price to rise to a stop level, then places a buy limit at a second price. It is used to enter a breakout without paying any price after the break.

### Which fxapis plans include pending orders?

Starter, Scale and Enterprise. The Free plan includes market orders only.