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A stop order (also called a stop-market order) sits dormant until the market touches your stopPrice. The moment it does, the stop converts to a market order and executes at the best available price. It’s the classic tool for cutting a loss or protecting a profit when you can’t watch the market.
A stop guarantees execution once triggered, not a price. In a fast or gapping market the fill can be worse than the stop level. If you need a price ceiling/floor on the triggered order, use a Stop-Limit order instead.

When to use it

  • Stop-loss: you’re long AAPL at 150 and want to exit if it falls to 145 → a SELL stop at stopPrice: "145.00".
  • Protect a gain: trail your exit up as the position profits.
  • Breakout entry: buy only once price breaks above resistance → a BUY stop above the current price.

Which way does the stop trigger?


How it works

  1. You POST /v1/orders with type: "STOP" and a stopPriceno price.
  2. The order is accepted and waits, inactive, off the visible book.
  3. When the market touches stopPrice, it becomes a market order and routes immediately.
  4. It fills (FILLED / PARTIALLY_FILLED), streamed as account.order events.

Request

Example — stop-loss: sell 100 AAPL if it drops to 145

cURL
Request body
stopPrice is required for stop orders; price must be absent. Stops are commonly placed GTC so they persist across sessions until triggered or cancelled.

Response

NEW here means the stop is armed and waiting — it is not yet executing.

Watch it trigger and fill

Until the trigger is hit you’ll see the order resting. When stopPrice is touched, it converts and fills — delivered as account.order events:
account.order — triggered & filled
Note avgPrice (144.92) came in below the stopPrice (145.00) — that’s the market-order behavior after triggering. See the Limit order → Listen for updates section for the connect/subscribe handshake, or the full Account Updates WebSocket reference.

Next steps

Stop-limit order

Add a price limit so the triggered order can’t fill worse than you allow.

Limit order

Full REST + WebSocket round-trip walkthrough.

Place Order API

Interactive reference for POST /v1/orders.

Order Flow

How all order types fit together.