Field Guide to Trading Terms

Orders


Family II · 57 entries

This family covers the instructions a trader gives to an execution venue: the order types that specify when, at what price, and under what conditions a trade is sent. The terms answer a single practical question — how do you convert a trading decision into an instruction the market can act on? A newcomer should read market order first, because it is the simplest instruction and the baseline against which every other order type is understood.

The most common mistake is treating order types as interchangeable labels rather than as distinct sets of execution conditions, which leads to unintended fills or missed entries.