# Placing an order

This guide walks you through all aspects of placing an order with the Investment API, including the related cash balance and position updates.

Orders can be created as nominal orders, i.e. buying/selling a security for a specified amount (e.g. EUR 1,000), or as unit orders, i.e. buying/selling a security by specifying the quantity of securities (e.g. 10 shares).

In this guide we'll provide examples of both a nominal buy order and a unit sell order to illustrate this functionality.

## Prerequisites

- **Authentication scopes** — `orders:admin`, `portfolios:admin`
For more information, refer to [Authentication scopes](/products/tol/concepts/api_concepts/authentication/authentication_oauth#list-of-authentication-scopes).


We recommend that your read the [Orders introduction](/products/tol/guides/orders) if you are unsure how Orders work within the Upvest Investment API.

**Webhook handler ready** — Set up a webhook endpoint to listen for order status changes. This removes the need to poll for order execution or settlement.
For more information, refer to [Implementing webhooks](/products/tol/getting_started/implementing_webhooks)

- Subscribe specifically to [`ORDER.*` and `EXECUTION.*`](/products/tol/guides/orders/orders_webhooks) events to receive automatic notifications when orders execute or settle