To buy or sell a share you place an order through a broker registered with SEBI. That broker is connected to an exchange such as the NSE or the BSE, which matches buyers with sellers. The order is simply your instruction — and the type of order decides what you are asking the market to do.
Two everyday order types sit at opposite ends of one trade-off: certainty about whether the trade happens, versus certainty about the price you get. You cannot have both at once.
A market order prioritises execution
A market order says: 'buy (or sell) this many shares right now, at whatever price is available.' It is matched against the best prices currently sitting in the order book — the queue of standing buy and sell orders. The priority is that the trade completes; the price is whatever the market offers at that moment.
A limit order prioritises price
A limit order says: 'only trade at this price or better.' A buy limit sits at or below a price you choose; a sell limit sits at or above it. The price is under your control, but the trade only happens if the market reaches your price while your order is waiting. If it never gets there, nothing happens.
The trade-off in one table
| Order type | What you control | What is uncertain | When it tends to suit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market | How many shares | The exact price you will get | When completing the trade matters most |
| Limit | The price you will accept | Whether the trade happens at all | When the price matters most |
Neither order is better — they simply prioritise different things.
Order book simulator
See how a hypothetical order would be filled against the resting buy and sell orders.
Sellers (asks)
| Price | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ₹105 | 500 |
| ₹104 | 300 |
| ₹103 | 200 |
Buyers (bids)
| Price | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ₹102 | 400 |
| ₹101 | 700 |
| ₹100 | 900 |
Place a hypothetical order
Filled quantity
500 shares
Average fill price
₹104
Unfilled
0 shares
Fill breakdown
- 200 @ ₹103
- 300 @ ₹104
Liquidity matters