what is held order 
a held order is a market order that requires prompt execution for an immediate fill this can be contrasted with a not held order which provides brokers with both time and price discretion to try and get a better fill for a customer understanding held orderin most cases a trade is expected to be executed at the best offer for buy orders or at the best bid for sell orders market orders are a common example of held orders when filling a held order traders have very little discretion in finding a price because time is scarce typically they will be required to match the highest bid or lowest offer to facilitate an immediate transaction 1for example if the bid ask market spread in apple inc aapl is 156 90 157 00 and a trader receives a held order to purchase 100 shares they would place a buy order at the offer price of 157 00 which would be executed immediately under normal market conditions held orders are used by investors who need to change their exposure to a particular stock and want their order s executed without delay there are times when a placing held order is not advisable one such instance is when you are dealing in illiquid stocks suppose a small cap stock has a wide bid ask market spread of 1 50 2 25 a trader who uses a held order is forced to pay the 33 3 spread 0 75 2 25 to get prompt execution in this instance the trader may get a better price if they use discretion and sit at the top of the bid and incrementally increase the order price to entice a seller out of the woodwork of course the 33 3 spread may be a reasonable price to pay if the trader is playing a breakout or closing a position that was a fat finger error to begin with held orders implicitly come with an immediate or cancel ioc condition attached to them held order usesmost investors want to get the best price possible but there are three situations that held orders are ideal for 