Bracket order

Two orders working as one object. Against an open position the pair is a take profit order on the favourable side and a stop loss order on the adverse side, linked so that an execution on either leg withdraws the other. The linkage is the whole of what distinguishes a bracket from two unrelated resting orders: without it, a position closed by one leg would leave the other still working, and a later touch of that level would open a new position in the opposite direction.

The mechanism watches for an execution, not for a price. A leg that is triggered but not filled cancels nothing, and a leg that is partially filled leaves both legs alive for the size that remains, which is the case platforms handle differently and the reason the order list rather than the ticket is where the state is read. Where the pair is used to enter rather than to exit, the same structure places one instruction above the market and one below it so that whichever the market reaches first becomes the position and the other is withdrawn.

A bracket changes what happens automatically and changes nothing about what a stop can do. The adverse leg is an instruction level rather than a guaranteed exit: in a gapping or fast moving market it deals at the first available price beyond the level, and on a leveraged position the resulting loss is not limited to the amount deposited. Pairing it with a favourable leg leaves that limitation exactly where it was.