IBKR Desktop Market Orders

When the investor wants to sell or buy shares at the market bid or offer price, they are choosing to execute a Market order. This type of order may not only increase the likelihood of a fill, but also the speed of execution. However, unlike a Limit order, Market orders do not provide price protection. In fact, they may fill at a price worse than the displayed bid or ask price.

Set up of Market order in IBKR Desktop

The order panel in IBKR Desktop can be populated by either clicking on a symbol in the Portfolio or Watchlist screens or typing in a symbol in the search bar. Once the symbol is selected the investor can click “Buy” or “Sell” to create an order window. In this example the investor chooses to create a “Buy” order and can select the quantity and whether to trade in shares or fractional shares if they have been enabled. The investor chooses 100 shares. Directly below are three order types; Limit, Market, and Stop. The investor chooses Market and the limit price in the line below automatically changes from a value to Market. Because this is a Market order there is no need to change the Time-in-Force field.

Submitting a Market order in IBKR Desktop

When the investor is satisfied with the order inputs they can either click on “Preview” to see a breakdown of the order as well as its effect on margin, “Save” to save the order to be transmitted later, or “Transmit” to send the order. The investor chooses “Preview” and the Order Preview window appears. Once satisfied they click “Transmit” to send the order.

Since this was a Market Order it is filled upon sending. Please note Market orders can only be used during regular trading hours.

Overall, Market orders may be useful to investors when markets are liquid, and their order size is unlikely to move the share price. However, if markets are less liquid, this order type could move prices adversely, especially for larger orders. It’s therefore important to consider both market conditions, as well as regular volume, for the specific stock the investor is trading.