Stock Market Order

Here's how to place an order to buy 1000 shares of Google stock at the stop price of $471.00 with a limit of $471.01 that is good till cancel.

First, login to your online brokerage account. The order screen should look something like the following that includes a place to enter the ticker symbol, the type of order, the order quantity, the time frame that the order is active for, an option to specify dividend reinvestment if available and any special conditions.

For this example, the symbol to use for Google stock is GOOG. The action is a buy order and not sell or not sell short. A buy order is used to open an order if you think the stock is going up. Sell or sell short is if you expect lower prices.

Since we are using a Stop Limit order, we need to specify both parts of the order, both the stop and the limit. For a buy stop limit order the stop limit needs to be above the current market price and the limit price needs to be greater than or equal to the stop order (check with your stock broker, some brokerage firms have different rules).

For the time frame, a Good Until Canceled order is active until either the order is filled or a certain time has passed since the order was placed and it remains unfilled. Sixty days is a typical time frame for a good-until-canceled order. You could also specify Day Only which closes by the end of the day, Fill or Kill which says to attempt to fill the order immediately or else close it if the broker can't fill the order immediately.

Additionally, you can typically have special conditions apply to your trade like specifying a minimum quantity or an "all or none" requirement. Be sure to check with your stock broker on the types of orders accepted.