Note: This article covers order types for Australian shares. For US order types, click here. For Hong Kong (HKEX) order types, click here.
ASX order types explained
Limit orders
A limit order lets you specify the exact price at which you're willing to buy or sell shares. As a buyer, your order will never fill above your limit price. As a seller, it will never fill below it — giving you full control over the price you transact at.
Example — selling: Bruce wants to sell 20,000 shares and sets a limit of $7.55. The market price is $7.50 when he submits the order, so it doesn't fill immediately. Thirty minutes later the price rises to $7.56 and his order is matched with a buyer.
Example — buying: Beth wants to buy 50,000 shares and sets a limit of $7.55, slightly above the current market price of $7.50, to improve her chances of a quick fill. Her order fills as the price moves up to $7.54, and she ends up paying an average of $7.52 per share.
Market to limit orders
A market to limit order fills at the best price currently available in the market — matching with the highest buyer (for a sell) or lowest seller (for a buy). If your order doesn't fill in full and the market price moves away, the unfilled portion automatically converts to a limit order at the price achieved on the initial fill.
Example — full fill: Cynthia places a market to limit order to buy 1,000 shares. The best available price is $7.50 and her entire order fills at that price.
Example — partial fill: Colin places a market to limit order to buy 100,000 shares at $7.50. Only 20,000 shares fill before the price moves up to $7.53. The remaining 80,000 shares automatically convert to a limit order at $7.50. A few minutes later the price drops to $7.48 and the rest of his order fills.
Brokerage and partial fills
Brokerage of $9.50 is charged once your order begins to fill — and only once per order, regardless of how many stages it fills in. It's quite common for larger orders to fill in stages, known as a partially filled order.
If your order only partially fills and the remaining portion expires at the end of the trading day, the $9.50 brokerage fee will still apply, as part of the order was successfully executed on market.
When placing an order, you can set it to expire either at the end of the current trading day or on a future date of your choosing. To give your order more time to fill in full — and reduce the chance of the remaining quantity expiring — consider using the Good Till Date expiry option.
Does Selfwealth offer conditional order types?
Yes — Selfwealth supports conditional order types for ASX shares, including stop loss orders. Click here for more information.