#1 Best guide on how to use forex pending order on IQ Option

Last updated: 4 October 2026. Parts of this guide were re-checked on the platform that day; untested parts are marked.

By Bart Bregman · Updated October 4, 2026 · Reviewed January 29, 2026 by Bart Bregman · How we research and update articles

A good number of forex traders on IQ Option don’t understand how to use forex pending orders. This useful feature makes it easy for the platform to automatically open a trade position once certain conditions are met.

Even better, it will also automatically close open positions once certain conditions are met. Consider this scenario. You’re trading the EUR/USD currency pair. From your technical analysis, you predict that the price keeps falling to a support range before bouncing back up.

However, the price is still up. Now you have two options. First, you can wait until the price drops to the support zone before entering your trade. Second, you can place a pending order.

These are commands set within your trading interface that once the price reaches the support zone the platform will automatically open a buy position. Given both choices I’d take the latter. This guide will teach you how to open pending orders when trading forex on IQ Option.

Creating and cancelling a pending order (checked 4 October 2026)

On Sunday 4 October 2026 we placed a pending order on a Bitcoin CFD (×20) with $1 of virtual money on the Practice balance of an account registered in Brazil. Crypto CFDs were open that day; forex CFDs were closed for the weekend.

1. Open Bitcoin (×20) and set Invest to $1. The Price field of the order panel starts on Market. We had already set TP +50% and SL −25% (type each value and press Enter; see auto closing on IQ Option).
2. Click the Price field. It switches to Pending. We typed 84000, and the buttons became BUY AT 84000 and SELL AT 84000.
3. Click BUY AT. IQ Option answered: “Pending order created — Buy Bitcoin spending $1 at the level of 84000. Your position will be automatically opened when the specified price is reached.”
4. The Details card listed Open Price 84000, Investment $1, Leverage ×20, Volume $20, Point Value <$0.01 and Swap –. The “Pending Isolated Margin (1)” tab of the positions panel showed the order with its entry price (84000.000), the current price, Take Profit +$0.50, Stop Loss −$0.25 and a Cancel button.
5. To cancel, click Cancel. It turns into Confirm. After we confirmed, the tab said “You have no pending positions yet”.

• Percentage take profit and stop loss are measured on the amount invested: on our $1 order they showed as +$0.50 and −$0.25.
• We were in Simple mode (isolated margin: you allocate a set amount to each trade). Advanced mode is cross margin: your entire balance supports all cross margin trades, and risk is spread across all trades and can impact your entire balance. You switch in Settings → Trading. We did not place a pending order in Advanced mode.
• We cancelled the order before the price reached 84000, so we did not see it fill. Leverage magnifies losses as well as gains: at ×20 our $1 order had a volume of $20.
• Not seen or not tested on 4 October 2026: a start-time field for pending orders, a trailing-stop option in the TP or SL windows, and changing a pending order after placing it. The original text below mentions these.

See also how to open a position automatically.

Recorded by IQ Option Wiki on 4 October 2026 on an IQ Option Practice account (registered in Brazil) on the global platform. Trades used the virtual Practice balance and nothing was paid. Screens and conditions can change; personal data is not shown.

Opening a pending order on IQ Option

Once you’ve logged into your iqforex trading account, set up a 5 minutes candles forex chart. For purposes of this guide, I’ll also use Bollinger Bands. This indicator makes it easy to identify possible trend reversals (space between bands widens). Our original guide describes two ways to open a pending order. On 4 October 2026 we used the price method: a Price field in the margin order panel that switches from Market to Pending (we saw no start-time field there). The first way to open a pending order is by time. That is, the IQ Option platform will automatically enter a trade position at some time in the future.

The problem with this approach is that you can never know where the prices will be at any given time in the future. So it’s advisable to avoid this method.

The second and recommended way to open a pending order is through price. That is, the platform will automatically enter the trade position once the asset’s price reaches a specific level.

The good thing about this approach is that you can easily predict that an asset’s price will reach a certain point based on previous price movements.

Advantages of using pending orders on IQ Option

Forex pending orders partially automate the trading process. This leaves you with more time to analyze the charts. When trading forex, the trade entry point isn’t the current price.

It is a price that’s higher or lower than the current price. Forex pending orders allow you to enter position at a price point of your choosing. This removes the pressure of having to keep track of price movements which could lead to emotional trading.

Partial automation allows you to keep trades open even when you’re not physically working on your trading interface.

Example for opening a pending order on IQ Option

Let’s use the EUR/USD chart above. Notice the price point of 1.13762. During the uptrend, this price point formed a strong resistance where price consolidation occurred. Once the price broke out of this level the uptrend continued. I would expect prices to bounce off this price point during the downtrend.

So I’ll place my forex pending order (buy) at the 1.13762 price point. But before going into the details, let’s take a look at the steps to take. The first step involves choosing the amount to invest in this trade. Step two involves selecting the multiplier. This is simply the leverage applied on this trade.

So when trading with $10 and a leverage of X300 (the multiplier in our 2019 example), it’s like I’m trading with $3000. On 4 October 2026 the forex multipliers we saw ran from ×200 to ×1000, and the Bitcoin CFD we tested used ×20. Leverage magnifies losses as well as gains. The third step involves setting the auto close parameters. This includes setting the take profit and stop loss. The +100% take profit simply means that the platform should automatically close the trade when the profit reaches 100% of the amount invested.

The -95% stop loss means that the platform should automatically close the trade when the loss reaches 95% of the amount invested, which leaves about 5% of it. In our October 2026 test the percentages were also measured on the invested amount: -25% on a $1 trade was -$0.25.

How do I make a pending order?

Now that I’ve decided to enter a buy position once the price drops to 1.13762, how do I do it? First, I’ll hover my cursor along the prices (left side of your trading chart) until a small black box with 1.13762 appears.

Then I’ll click once. Next, I’ll click on the “Buy” button. (This is the 2019 method. On 4 October 2026 we typed the price into the Price field of the order panel instead, and the buttons read BUY AT and SELL AT; see the box above.) Once this is done, IQ Option will send a notification on my trading interface indicating the pending position has been created.

Now, what happens when the pending position has been opened? IQ Option will send a notification indicating that the trade entry has been executed. If you look at the chart below, there are 3 different points.

Point 1 shows the price point where forex pending order will be triggered. Point 2 shows the price the chart was reading when I entered the pending order command.

Point 3 shows the point where the take profit and the auto close feature will be triggered. That is, the price must rise from point 1 to point 3 for the take profit feature to automatically close the trade.

Pros and Cons of Using Forex Pending Orders

Forex Pending Orders Settings

Changing the settings of forex pending order on IQ Option

One great thing about IQ Option pending orders is that you can change their settings. You can increase the trade amount – if the trade goes your way and you want to increase profit. You can also adjust the take profit and stop loss percentage (or amount).

You can also apply the trailing stop as well as set the trade to use the available account balance (not just the amount you invested in the trade). On 4 October 2026 the STOP LOSS window offered the “Use Balance to Keep Position Open” checkbox, but we saw no trailing-stop option in the TP or SL windows, so check your own panel before relying on one. To make these changes, simply click on the pending order. Your chart should look like the one below. Once all adjustments are made, you should click apply to save the new settings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I use forex pending orders on all trading instruments?
A: Our original guide says yes: forex, stocks, CFDs and other instruments. On 4 October 2026 we tested only a Bitcoin CFD (a margin asset), and the right panel for options had no Price field, so check your own panel.

Q: Can I modify a forex pending order once it has been placed?
A: Our original guide says yes, including a trailing stop. On 4 October 2026 we did not test changing a pending order and saw no trailing-stop option; we only cancelled one (Cancel, then Confirm).

Q: How do I cancel a forex pending order?
A: On 4 October 2026 we cancelled a pending order from the “Pending Isolated Margin” tab of the positions panel at the bottom of the traderoom: click Cancel, then click Confirm. Our original guide described a transactions tab with a close button.

Q: Do forex pending orders guarantee a trade will be executed?
A: No, a pending order will only execute if the specified price level is reached.

Q: Can I set multiple forex pending orders simultaneously?
A: Yes, you can set multiple pending orders for different price levels and trading instruments.

Note: You can also cancel the pending order manually. On 4 October 2026 our order was listed in the “Pending Isolated Margin” tab of the positions panel at the bottom of the traderoom; click Cancel, then Confirm. (Our original steps used a transactions tab on the left of the interface and a close button.)

Pending orders are a good way to open future trades on IQ Option. This feature is available for forex, stocks, CFDs and other instruments.

Now that you’ve learned how to open forex pending orders on IQ Option, try them out on your practice account. We’d love to hear about your results in the comments section below.

Good luck!