order routing futures

Hi guys

i was wondering if anybody knows that when when place a order on your dome including stops are those orders sent directly to the exchange i.e where if your system goes down they will be excuted or do they sit with your brokers website or worse they are just on your computer

as with futures its also first in first out or does size also matter

one last question about stops say the market is trading at 1300 by 1300.25 i place a stop at 1299.75 when does my stop activate say the market down ticks to 1300 by 1299.75 or does the market need to tick down to 1299.75 by 1299.50 to activate my stop

Thank You

An order to open a position will be placed as a limit order in a queuing system at the price you specified and it's a first in first served basis irrespective of size. This is stored on the exchange's servers and not the broker's servers.

With stops it varies. On some trading platforms (like Ninja Trader for example) you have the option of a stop that's held on your machine and will not trigger until the number of contracts at your stop price drops below a certain limit. Then it's issued as a market order so you risk not getting the stop price if you cut it really fine.