Market order

A market order is an instruction to buy or sell an asset immediately at the best prices currently available in the order book, rather than at a price you specify. It prioritises speed and certainty of execution over price control: a market buy consumes the lowest asks, and a market sell hits the highest bids, moving through the book until the requested quantity is filled.

Because large orders can sweep through several price levels, the average execution price may differ from the price seen when the order was placed—an effect related to slippage. A market order trades quantity for immediacy, not for a guaranteed price.