How to Place a Trade on Interactive Brokers (IBKR): Buy and Sell Orders Explained
Last updated: 3 July 2026 · By Spencer Li, CFTe
To place a trade on Interactive Brokers, open the Order Ticket, search the product you want, click Buy or Sell, set your quantity and order type, then click Submit Order. That is the whole flow. Inside the IBKR Client Portal (the web platform) or Trader Workstation (the desktop app), the path is: Trade, then Order Ticket, then search the symbol, then choose Buy or Sell, set quantity, pick your order type (Market, Limit, Stop, and so on), and submit. A market order fills immediately at the current price; a limit order only fills at your price or better. The two settings beginners skip are time-in-force (how long the order stays live) and attached orders (an automatic profit target and stop loss bracketed around your entry). Get those two right and your trade manages itself even when you are not watching.
Here is the click-by-click flow, then every order type explained in plain English, so you know which one to use and when.
How do I place a buy or sell order on Interactive Brokers?
The buy and sell flow is the same. Here it is, start to finish.
- Click Trade.
- Click Order Ticket.
- Choose which product you want to trade.
- Type the company or symbol you want. For example, say I want to buy 2 shares of Coca-Cola. I key in the company name and press enter.
- Select the correct product from the results.
- The page updates for that product. Click Buy (or Sell).
- Adjust the quantity. In this example I set it to 2.
- Click Submit Order. That is it, the 2 shares are bought.
[screenshot: IBKR Order Ticket with Coca-Cola selected, Buy side, quantity 2, before submission]
Before you can do any of this, you need a funded IBKR account. If you have not opened one yet, do that first, then come back to this guide.
Steps 7 and 8 hide the two settings that actually matter: the order type, the time-in-force, and any attached orders. The next sections cover all three.
What are the order types on Interactive Brokers?
An order type tells IBKR how to fill your trade. The two you will use most are Market and Limit. The rest are variations that give you more control over price or timing. Here they are side by side.
| Order type | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Market | Buys or sells at the current bid or ask. Fast and likely to fill, but no price protection, it can fill far from the price you saw. | You want in or out now and the exact price matters less than the fill. |
| Limit | Buys or sells at a specified price or better. Will not fill worse than your limit, but is not guaranteed to fill at all. | You have a price in mind and you would rather miss the trade than overpay. |
| MidPrice | Splits the bid-ask spread and fills at the midpoint of the NBBO (National Best Bid and Offer) or better. You can set a price cap. | You want a better price than market without naming an exact limit. |
| Stop | Sends a market order once your stop trigger price is hit. No guaranteed execution price, it can fill well away from the stop. | Protecting a position. A sell stop sits below price to cap a loss; a buy stop sits above. |
| Stop Limit | Sends a limit order once the stop trigger is hit. Removes the slippage risk of a plain stop, but the limit may never fill, you can “miss the market”. | You want stop protection but refuse to fill below a set price. |
| Market on Close (MOC) | A market order set to execute as close to the closing price as possible. | You want the closing print, not an intraday price. |
| Limit on Close (LOC) | Submitted at the close; fills only if the closing price is at or better than your limit. | You want the close, but only at your price or better. |
A stop order, to be precise, is an instruction to submit a buy or sell market order if and when your specified trigger price is reached or penetrated. A sell stop is always placed below the current market price and is typically used to limit a loss or protect a profit on a long position. A buy stop is always placed above the current price and does the same job on a short.
A stop-limit has two prices: the stop (the trigger) and the limit (the worst price you will accept). When a trade occurs at or through the stop price, the order becomes executable and enters the market as a limit order. It eliminates the slippage risk of a plain stop, but it exposes you to the risk that the order never fills even if the stop is reached. That is the trade-off: price certainty in exchange for fill uncertainty.
Personally, for swing trading I keep it simple. I use limit orders to enter, and stop orders to protect. I rarely need the exotic ones. The point of knowing all of them is so you can tell when a situation actually calls for one, not so you feel obliged to use them.
What does time-in-force mean on IBKR?
Time-in-force defines how long your order keeps working before it is cancelled. If your order does not fill, this setting decides whether it dies today or waits for you.
- Day: Cancelled if it does not execute by the close of the trading day. Unless you specify otherwise, every order is a Day order by default. Worth remembering, a limit you set in the morning is gone by tonight unless you change this.
- Good Till Cancel (GTC): Keeps working until it fills or you cancel it. This lets you place a resting bid well below the current price (or an offer well above) and leave it for days, weeks, or months without re-entering it each day.
- At the Opening: Sends a market-on-open (MOO) or limit-on-open (LOO) order, set to execute at the market open.
For swing trading, GTC is the quiet workhorse. Set your entry below price, walk away, and let the market come to you instead of staring at the screen.
What are attached orders (Profit Taker and Stop Loss)?
Attached orders are the bracket around your entry: the moment you are filled, IBKR places an automatic exit on each side. This is how you make a trade manage itself.
- Profit Taker: An opposite-side limit order that closes the position while it is profitable. Example: you buy a stock at $10. You set your profit-taker limit price at $11 to lock in $1 per share.
- Stop Loss: An opposite-side stop order that closes the position at a user-specified, limited loss. Example: you buy a stock at $10. You set your stop-loss stop price at $9 to cut the loss if the stock plummets.
[screenshot: IBKR attach-orders panel showing a Profit Taker limit above entry and a Stop Loss stop below entry]
Do note that, attaching both at once turns your trade into a bracket order. You define your exit before the trade goes against you, while you are calm, instead of inventing one mid-panic. That is the entire reason I teach attached orders early. The order ticket is not just for getting in; it is where you pre-commit to getting out.
Where the human edge comes in
IBKR will execute any of these orders for you in milliseconds, and an AI can name every order type faster than you can read this. What neither will do is decide which order this particular trade needs, where the stop actually belongs, or how many shares to buy so the loss is one you can live with. The platform is the easy part. Knowing your exit before your entry, and sizing so a wrong call costs you a flesh wound and not a limb, is discipline and sizing. That is the second of the Five Edges, and it is the one the order ticket quietly rewards.
FAQ
How do I place a trade on Interactive Brokers?
Click Trade, then Order Ticket, search the product you want, click Buy or Sell, set the quantity and order type, then click Submit Order. You need a funded IBKR account first.
What is the difference between a market order and a limit order on IBKR?
A market order fills immediately at the current bid or ask with no price protection. A limit order fills only at your specified price or better, but is not guaranteed to fill at all. Use market when speed matters most, limit when price matters most.
What is the default time-in-force on Interactive Brokers?
Day. Unless you specify otherwise, every order is a Day order and is cancelled if it does not fill by the close. Choose Good Till Cancel (GTC) if you want the order to keep working across multiple days.
What is the difference between a stop order and a stop-limit order?
A stop order becomes a market order when the trigger is hit, so it is likely to fill but can fill away from your stop price. A stop-limit becomes a limit order, so it protects your price but may never fill if the market gaps past it.
How do I set a profit target and stop loss on IBKR?
Use attached orders on the order ticket. A Profit Taker is an opposite-side limit order above your entry; a Stop Loss is an opposite-side stop order below it. Attaching both creates a bracket that closes the position automatically at whichever level is hit first.
Now that you can place an order and bracket it, the next question is which trade to place. That is where a repeatable setup beats a fast platform.
For the full set of IBKR walkthroughs, read the pillar: The Complete Guide to Interactive Brokers (IBKR).
Want a system to point the order ticket at? Grab the free 15-Minute Swing Trading Starter Kit. It is the exact routine I use to scan once a day and trade any market in 15 minutes, entry, stop, and target included.
About the author. Spencer Li is the founder of Synapse Trading and a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe) with 15 years of trading across stocks, forex, crypto, commodities, and bonds. His trade log is public, 404 trades, losses left in. He teaches low-risk swing trading in 15 minutes a day, one system for any market.
Education, not financial advice. Synapse Trading is not licensed by MAS to advise on investment products. Trading carries risk of loss; past performance is not indicative of future results.
Related
Complete Guide to Interactive Brokers (pillar) · How to open an Interactive Brokers account · Market vs limit orders explained · How to set a stop loss
