Market Orders and Limit Orders: Why a Market Total Is an Estimate

There are two basic order types when buying or selling. A Market Order is a request to execute immediately at whatever price is currently available in the market at the moment the order arrives. A Limit Order is an order where you set the maximum price you accept to buy at, or the minimum price you accept to sell at, and it only executes if the price reaches that level or better. Because the market price keeps changing between the moment you submit an order and the moment it actually executes, any total cost shown to you on a market order before execution is an estimate, not a guaranteed final number. The difference is usually small, but it can happen, especially when prices are moving quickly. A limit order gives you more control over price, but at the cost of certainty of execution: it may not execute at all if the price never reaches the level you set during the day.

Illustrative example

Suppose you submitted a market buy order for a fictional company with the symbol DEMO_ENERGY, and the total shown at submission was about {workedExampleTradeKwd} (in your funding currency). By the moment it actually fills, the total may differ slightly from that number because of price movement. This is an illustrative example with placeholder numbers only.

Common mistake

Some beginners think the number shown in the order review before confirming is never going to change. That is only the case for a limit order that fills exactly at your set price; for a market order, the number stays an estimate until the actual fill.

Quick check

1. What is the basic difference between a market order and a limit order?

   A market order executes immediately at whatever price is available, while a limit order only executes at a price you set — because each order type balances execution speed against price control differently.

2. Why is a market order's total an estimate?

   Because the price can change between submitting the order and it actually executing — the market keeps moving during that short window.

3. Does a limit order always execute?

   No, it is not guaranteed to execute — it only executes if the price reaches the level you set within the order's validity.

This content is educational only and is not investment advice.

Try it: In the order ticket, switch between the market and limit options and notice how the required fields change (screen: IW-07).