Market order
An order to buy or sell immediately at the best available price — guaranteed fill, no guarantee on price.
Market orders fill instantly at whatever the current best bid (for sells) or offer (for buys) is. They guarantee execution but accept whatever price the market hands you, including any slippage during fast moves.
Used for: entries when you need to be in immediately (the setup is now), exits during volatility when you need out without negotiation, and as the execution mechanism that fires when a stop order triggers. Generally avoid for normal limit-style entries — you give up control of fill price for speed.
Related terms
- Limit order
An order to buy at a specified price or lower, or sell at a specified price or higher — only fills if the market reaches that price.
- Stop order
An order that becomes a market order once a trigger price is hit — most commonly used to limit losses on an open position.
- Slippage
The difference between the price you expected to fill at and the price you actually got — usually worse than expected, especially in fast moves.