Glossary / Order types
Market order
Definition
An instruction to buy or sell immediately at the best available price.
Why it matters
Fast and certain to fill, but the price is not guaranteed. In thin markets the slippage on a market order can exceed your intended risk.
Example
You click to buy ES at 5,000.25 but fill at 5,000.75 during a news spike - $25 per contract lost to slippage before the trade even starts.
How to track it in a journal
TradeStack calculates the core performance numbers — win rate, average win and loss, profit factor, expectancy, drawdown and consistency — automatically from imported trades, so market order stops being something you estimate and becomes something you read.
Related terms
Limit order
An order to trade at a specified price or better.
Stop loss
A resting order that exits a position once price reaches a set level.
Stop limit order
A stop that triggers a limit order rather than a market order.
Trailing stop
A stop that follows price by a fixed distance as the trade moves in your favour.
Keep reading
Trading journal guides
Expectancy, profit factor, drawdown, backtesting and the PDT rule.
Free trading calculators
Position size, risk-reward, expectancy and options profit.
Expectancy calculator
Expected profit per trade from your own numbers.
Broker CSV export guides
Step-by-step exports for Tradovate, NinjaTrader, IBKR and more.
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