Market Order

What is a market order?

A market order is an order to buy or sell a futures contract at whatever price is obtainable at the time it is entered in the ring, pit, or other trading platform. (Source: CFTC)

A market order is an order to buy or sell a stock at the current market price. Unless you specify otherwise, your broker will enter your order as a market order.

The advantage of a market order is you are almost always guaranteed your order will be executed (as long as there are willing buyers and sellers). Depending on your firm’s commission structure, a market order may also be less expensive than a limit order.

The disadvantage is the price you pay when your order is executed may not always be the price you obtained from a real-time quote service or were quoted by your broker. This may be especially true in fast-moving markets where stock prices are more volatile. When you place an order "at the market," particularly for a large number of shares, there is a greater chance you will receive different prices for parts of the order. (Source: SEC)

A market order is a buy or sell order to be executed by the broker immediately at current market prices. As long as there are willing sellers and buyers, a market order will be filled.

A market order is the simplest of the order types. Once the order is placed, the customer has no control over the price at which the transaction is executed. The broker is merely supposed to find the best price available at that time. In fast-moving markets, the price paid or received may be quite different from the last price quoted before the order was entered.

A market order for a large number of shares may be split by the broker across multiple participants on the other side of the transaction, resulting in different prices for some of the shares. (Source: Wikipedia)