Can someone fill my limit order even if price doesn't hit the specified limit?

I'm a little confused about the way limit orders work on an ECN like MBTrading. From what I understand, you can put in a limit order and the market will see it immediately, and you can see a list of limit orders waiting to be filled on both sides, each with various sizes and prices offered.

Say price is currently 1.1250 and I put in a limit order to sell if price falls to 1.1225. I assume my order then gets put in line with the other limit orders waiting to be filled which everyone can see. Can someone fill my trade even if price doesn't fall to 1.1225?

Like, can they say, "Trank wants to sell at 1.1225...hmm, well shit, I'll just buy it right now. That way I'll be buying it 1.1225 when it's worth 1.1250!"

lol reread ur post

I know it sounds stupid. hah. But for some reason it's confounding me.

I take it that your reply means, no, it can't be filled before the price is hit.

If that's the case, then when looking at a list of limit orders through an ECN, is it possible to select the exact limit order you want to fill from those posted? Because if not, then what's the point of seeing a list of orders, which is supposed to be a positive thing with an ECN?

lol didn't mean to post fluff up there...anyway but here...there's two scenarios which make sense for me...

1) You want to make sure the pair is trending down before you sell...therefore you wait for the price to go down 25 pips and then sell.

2) You want to sell now because you think the price will go down, so you sell it at the market.


Neither one of these scenarios fits your question properly!!

Technically a limit order says to your broker "I would like to transact at this price or better". In your example, since 1.1250 is a better bid than 1.1225, your broker will fill your order immediately but @ no worse price than 1.1225. The type of order that you're looking for is a "stop-limit" order.

edit: some brokers will automatically change your limit orders on the wrong side of the market into stop-limit order.

edit2:
The quotes above the market are sell limit orders and the quotes below the market are buy limit orders. You wouldn't want to transact at a worse-than-market price. The volumes can give you some idea of interest at those levels however its just local data from your ECN, not worldwide, and probably not a good representation of the overall market.

Thanks guys, makes more sense now.