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What actually happens when you place an order, from order types to trading hours and the costs most people miss.

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An illustrative order book showing sell offers from $50.05 to $50.10 and buy bids from $49.92 to $50.00, with a market order to buy 1,000 shares filling at an average of about $50.06.

Limit Order vs. Market Order: What's the Difference?

A plain-English guide to the two most common order types, the market mechanics behind them, and what regulators learned when market orders went badly wrong.

Oscar Moncada · Oct 24, 2026 · 8 min read

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