when an investor places an order to buy or sell a stock there are two main execution options in terms of price place the order at the market or at the limit market orders are transactions meant to be executed as quickly as possible at the present or market price conversely a limit order sets the maximum or minimum price at which you are willing to buy or sell brokers will frequently set higher fees for completing the more complicated limit order 
buying stocks can be thought of as an analogy to buying a car with a car you can pay the dealer s sticker price and get the car or you can negotiate a price and refuse to finalize the deal unless the dealer meets your price the stock market can be thought of as working in a similar way a market order deals with the execution of the order the price of the security is secondary to the speed of completing the trade limit orders deal primarily with the price if the security s value is currently resting outside of the parameters set in the limit order the transaction does not occur 