Order

What is an order?

Orders are a way for you to manage your investments without having to watch the markets 24/7. They are instructions you give to your broker to buy or sell securities at certain prices or at specific times. But there are very many different types of orders as we shall see.

Where have you heard about orders?

If you manage your investments through a broker, you are likely to have set up orders in order to try to keep the value of your portfolio within certain bounds, taking advantage of the ups while limiting the downs.

What you need to know about orders...

Orders allow investors to set an investment strategy and let their broker do the hard work of implementing it. There is a huge range of different orders and it is a fascinating and complex area. Here are just a few of them: fill or kill (an order that must be fulfilled immediately or cancelled); pegged to market (an order to buy and sell on the best bids or offers); minimum quantity (ensuring the minimum number of units are filled for your order); limit (quite possibly the original order, it simply mandates the broker to buy or sell at a specified price or better) and the box-top order (which turns into a limit order should it not transact immediately at the market price).