order
Order means the exact instruction you give your stockbroker or trading app to buy or sell a share, stating what, how much, and at what price you will accept.
In plain English
Adaeze works in Lekki and had just started putting ₦20,000 a month into shares through an app on her phone.
One evening she saw a bank stock she liked at ₦28 and typed in her purchase, but she pressed buy without checking the price box, and the app filled her at ₦31 because the price had moved in the few seconds she was scrolling.
That gap is the whole lesson about orders. A market order tells your broker to buy or sell right now at whatever price is available, which is fast but can cost you more than you expected if the price is jumping around.
A limit order is the more patient cousin. You tell the broker, buy this share but only if it reaches ₦28 or lower, and the trade simply waits until the market meets your number, or it does not happen at all.
Someone in Manchester sending money home to invest in Nigerian shares through a custodian account faces the same choice every time they place an instruction, and picking the right type of order is often the difference between a good entry price and a costly surprise.
Once Adaeze understood this, she started using limit orders for everything, and she says it feels less like gambling and more like actually deciding what she pays.
Adaeze places a limit order to buy 500 units of a bank share at ₦28. The order only executes if the price falls to ₦28 or below, so instead of paying the ₦31 she was charged earlier, she waits two days and gets filled at ₦27.80, saving her roughly ₦1,600 on that single trade.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a market order and a limit order?
A market order executes immediately at whatever price is currently available, while a limit order only executes at the price you set or better, even if that means waiting longer or the trade never happening.
Why did my order not get filled even though the share price seemed close?
Limit orders only execute when someone is willing to trade at your exact price or better, so if trading volume is low or the price never quite reaches your level, your order simply sits unfilled until you cancel it or the market moves your way.
Can I cancel or change an order after I have placed it?
Yes, as long as it has not been executed yet, most trading apps and brokers let you cancel or amend an open order, though once it is filled the trade is done and cannot be reversed.
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