The reason to do this is that a single limit price is a prediction, and it is usually wrong in one of two ways. Set it too close and you fill immediately at a level you did not have to pay. Set it too far and the market turns half a point above your order and leaves without you. A scaled order stops you having to be right about the exact level, which is the part of an entry nobody is actually good at. It is now available on Ouinex derivatives.
Watch the walkthrough: How to Use Scaled Orders on Ouinex
What a scaled order does
You give it four inputs: a Price Range Start, a Price Range End, a Quantity of Orders, and a Total Quantity. It places that number of individual limit orders, spaced across the range, dividing your total size between them.
Five orders between 100 and 96, with a total of 10 lots, becomes limit orders at 100, 99, 98, 97 and 96 for 2 lots each. If the market trades down to 98 and turns, you are filled on three of them, 6 lots at an average of 99. If it runs all the way to 96, you are filled on all five at an average of 98.
There is a Variance setting that controls how size is distributed between the orders rather than splitting it evenly, so you can weight more of your size toward the far end of the range if that is where you would rather be buying.
Why the average entry is the number that matters
Traders tend to judge an entry by the first fill. A scaled order makes that meaningless. You have several fills, and only the blended price affects your result.
This is why the preview table on Ouinex is the most useful part of the ticket. As you fill in the range and the order count, the form builds a table showing every order with its price, rate and amount, and gives you the estimated Average Entry Price at the bottom. You can see exactly where the position will sit before you place anything.
Use it to check the honest version of your plan. A range that looks aggressive often produces an average entry barely different from a single market order, because most of the size sits near the top. Widening the range or shifting the variance changes that, and the table tells you by how much before you find out the expensive way.
The trade-off nobody mentions
A scaled order improves your average entry in the scenarios where it fills. It also changes which scenarios those are, and that is the cost.
If the market moves in your favour immediately, you are filled on one or two orders out of five and you are holding a fraction of the size you intended. The trade works and you barely participate. That is not a malfunction. It is the direct consequence of asking for a better price. You were paid a better average in exchange for accepting that you might not get the whole position.
If the market runs through your entire range, you are filled on everything at a good average, and you are fully positioned in a market that has just moved decisively against your direction. A completed scaled order is not automatically good news.
So the useful question before placing one is not "what average entry do I want" but "am I happy being partially filled, and am I happy being completely filled?" If the answer to either is no, the range is wrong.
When a scaled order is the right tool
Accumulating into support or distributing into resistance. You have a zone rather than a level, and you want exposure across it.
Size too large to fill cleanly at one price. Several smaller orders spread across a range each take less of the available liquidity than one large fill would, so the slippage on each is smaller, and no single conspicuous order sits on the book advertising your full size. Ouinex shows the estimated slippage before you place an order, and lets you cap the maximum negative slippage you will accept.
Entries you cannot sit and watch. The orders rest and work without you.
And when it is the wrong tool: momentum entries, news reactions, anything where being in the trade matters more than the price you pay. A scaled order placed under a breakout you expect to run is a plan to miss it.
Scaled, TWAP, and iceberg
All three break one order into many. They divide it along different lines, and mixing them up is the most common mistake.
Splits by | Fills when | |
|---|---|---|
Scaled | Price | The market reaches each level |
Time | The clock says so, regardless of price | |
Visibility | Each visible slice fills, releasing the next |
A scaled order may never complete, it depends entirely on where the market goes. A TWAP completes when the window ends. An iceberg completes when the full size has been worked through. Choose by which constraint you actually have.
Setting up a scaled order on Ouinex
Scaled is in the order type menu at the top of the trade form.
- Choose Long or Short.
- Enter your Total Quantity and set your leverage.
- Set the Price Range Start and Price Range End.
- Choose the Quantity of Orders to spread across the range.
- Optionally set a Variance to weight the distribution.
- Check the preview table and the estimated Average Entry Price.
- Confirm.
Once placed, all the individual limit orders appear on the chart across your range, each with its own quantity and its own TP and SL controls, so you can manage them individually if the plan changes mid-fill.
The scaled order itself lives in the Algo tab, showing the contract, side, total quantity, price range, progress such as 1 of 5 orders filled, and the status. That progress figure is the one to check: it tells you how much of the position you actually have, which on a scaled order is rarely the number you planned for.
FAQ
What is a scaled order? An order type that places multiple limit orders spread across a price range you define, dividing a total quantity between them, so a position is built gradually as the market moves through the range rather than filled at a single price.
What is the difference between a scaled order and a TWAP order? A scaled order splits by price, each sub-order fills only if the market reaches its level, and the order may never complete. A TWAP splits by time, slices execute on a schedule regardless of price, and it completes within the window you set.
Does a scaled order guarantee a better entry price? No. It gives a better average on the fills you get, and in exchange you may end up with only part of the intended position if the market turns early, or the full position if the market runs through your whole range. Both outcomes are normal.
Can I set a take profit and stop loss on a scaled order? Yes. Each individual limit order appears on the chart with its own TP and SL controls, so the exits can be managed per order or across the position once the fills come in.
How many orders should I use in a scaled order? Enough that the spacing is meaningful relative to how much the instrument moves, and few enough that each order is a size worth filling. A five-order ladder across a range the instrument covers in an hour is reasonable; fifty orders across the same range produces fills too small to matter individually.
The bottom line
A scaled order replaces one guess about price with a range you are willing to be filled across. Read the preview table before you confirm, the estimated average entry is the only number that describes the trade you are actually placing, and decide in advance whether a partial fill is acceptable, because a partial fill is the most likely outcome. Used on a zone you genuinely want exposure to, it is a better entry than a single limit order. Used under a breakout, it is a way to watch a trade work without being in it. Scaled orders are live now with the rest of the order types on Ouinex.