What is Limit order?
Limit buyurtma
In short
An order that executes only at your price or better. The price is guaranteed; the fill is not.
A limit order is an order where you set the price: a buy limit means "at this price or lower", a sell limit "at this price or higher". The price is guaranteed, the fill is not: if the market never reaches your price, the order keeps waiting.
How it works
A limit order rests in the order book and waits its turn. When several orders sit at the same price, the first one placed fills first. So if the price touches your limit once and turns away, the order may fill partly or not at all.
A buy limit above the current price (or a sell limit below it) fills immediately — this is called a "marketable limit". It is as fast as a market order, but the price cannot go beyond your limit. It is a simple way to protect yourself from slippage.
When to use it
- Buying at a planned entry price (for example, near support).
- Taking profit at a target — a take-profit is usually a sell limit.
- Stocks with wide spreads, pre-market and after-hours.
Time in force
Most brokers offer "Day" (today only) and "GTC" (good till cancelled, usually up to a set period). A forgotten GTC order can fill unexpectedly after the situation has changed.
Price is near $50 and you place a limit buy at $48. A few days later price dips to $48 and the order fills there. Had price never dropped, the order would simply not fill.
Example
A fictional stock is at $52. You want it cheaper and place a $50 buy limit for 20 shares.
- Case 1: the price dips to $49.80 → the order fills at $50.00 or better. You pay at most 20 × $50 = $1,000.
- Case 2: the price dips to $50.10 and then rises to $60 → the order never fills. You missed a 20 × ($60 − $50) = $200 opportunity, but you did not lose money either.
Marketable limit: the ask is $30.02. You place a $30.10 buy limit for 100 shares. It fills immediately at about $30.02, and even in the worst case no higher than $30.10 — the unexpected cost is capped at ($30.10 − $30.02) × 100 = $8.
Mistakes and tips
Setting a limit slightly above a round number ($50.03 rather than $50.00) often improves the chance of a fill — many orders cluster at round prices.
Review open GTC orders regularly: after earnings or news, an old limit may no longer make sense.
A limit order does not replace a stop-loss — for protection you need a stop order or a stop-limit.
Frequently asked questions
- Why didn't my limit order fill when the price touched it?
- Other orders were ahead of yours at that price, and the price turned away after they filled. To fill, the price usually has to trade through your limit or have enough size at that level.
- What happens if a limit order fills partially?
- The filled part becomes your position, and the rest keeps waiting until the order expires or you cancel it.
Learn it in the Academy
This term is covered with hands-on examples and a quiz in these lessons of the interactive course.
- How the US market worksExchanges and brokers, sessions in Tashkent time, spread and liquidity, five order types with examples, T+1, costs and fractional shares.Open lesson · 12 min
- Demo trading: practice without money, but seriouslyMaking demo realistic, a 30-day plan, which numbers to track and when to move to real money.Open lesson · 11 min
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