Investing term
What is Market order?
Buy (or sell) now at whatever the ask (or bid) is.
A market order buys or sells immediately at the best available price right now — the ask if you're buying, the bid if you're selling. It prioritizes speed and certainty of execution over price control. On liquid stocks that's fine, but on thinly traded ones a market order can fill at a surprisingly bad price by sweeping through the order book.
For example
You place a market buy and it fills instantly at the $20.05 ask — fast and certain, but you took whatever price the market offered.
Market order is taught hands-on in Stage 5 — How Markets Work Globally.
See the lesson →