Limit order
A limit order instructs a to buy or sell a only at a specified price or better, rather than at whatever price happens to be available immediately. A buy limit order will only execute at the limit price or lower, and a sell limit order will only execute at the limit price or higher. If the market never reaches that price, the order simply does not fill.
The main advantage of a limit order over a is price control. An investor placing a accepts whatever price is currently available, which can matter a lot in a fast moving or thinly traded where the price can shift meaningfully between when the order is sent and when it executes. A limit order guarantees the investor will never pay more, or receive less, than the specified price, at the cost of certainty that the order will actually fill at all.
Limit orders sit in the at their specified price until they are matched against an opposing order or the investor cancels them, subject to whatever time-in-force condition is attached, such as a or a . A limit order priced so aggressively that it would execute immediately against the current market, for example a buy limit set at or above the current ask, is sometimes called a , since it behaves almost exactly like a despite technically being a limit order.