Market Orders

To place a stock or ETF order through your Scottrade account, follow these simple steps:

1. Click on the Trade tab. In the next few steps, let's enter a basic market order for a fictional company, XYZ Corporation. View Graphic

2. Select whether you would like to place an order to buy or sell. For this example, we will place a Buy order. View Graphic

3. Next, type in the desired shares you would like to purchase. Our example shows 10. View Graphic

4. After entering the number of shares you would like to buy, enter the stock symbol. For this example, we are entering an order for XYZ. View Graphic

5. Next, we have reached the Order Type drop-down box. You can use the drop-down menu to select Market for your XYZ market order. Selecting Market as the type of order tells the market center that you would like to buy XYZ at the best prevailing price as soon as possible. However, there are no guarantees in regard to the price that you will receive. View Graphic

6. Last, choose the time in force or duration you would like to place on your order type. Market orders can only be good for Today. The reason behind this is that a market order should be filled as immediately as possible with very little delay. View Graphic

7. You are now ready to click the "Review Order" button and place your trade.

Watch Trading and Account Management in the Trading Website to see a demonstration of how to place a stock order and complete other tasks in the Scottrade Trading Website. To learn more about using different order types to enhance your trading, watch the Understanding Basic and Advanced Orders event recording.