Market order
A market order indicates a preference for quick execution relative to price specificity. This generally means you’re willing to accept the next available price and a certain price isn’t guaranteed.
With your Robinhood account, you can place a market order during regular market hours if it is a dollar-based order (where you select the dollar amount of your buy or sell order) or a share-based sell order (where you select the amount of shares you want to sell).
If you want to buy at a specific price, place a limit order.
Our venues don’t support market orders during extended-hours trading. If your market order is placed outside of regular market hours, the order will be queued for the start of regular market hours on the next trading day.
Depending on the price your order is filled at, the final dollar amount of your share-based order may change when you place a market order. Similarly, depending on the price your order is filled at, the final share amount of your dollar-based order may change.
The market price shown in the app is the last trade price on a Nasdaq exchange (the Nasdaq Stock Market, NASDAQ OMX BX, or NASDAQ OMX PHLX), which might not be the best available price when the order is executed.
We generally cancel queued fractional market orders (share-based orders that include a fractional share and dollar-based orders) if they’re unexecuted after 5 minutes of being eligible for execution.
Robinhood defaults to share-based or dollar-based orders. The following shows the default order behavior for trading during regular market hours versus extended-trading hours with Robinhood. Market orders submitted during the overnight trading hours, or when the market is closed, are queued for market open and therefore follow the Market hours order schedule.
Our app will show you the equivalent Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or British Summer Time (BST) that matches up with the US Eastern times for trading hours. For example, 9:30 AM ET is 5 hours behind GMT and BST, so it'll be 2:30 PM GMT or BST.
| Order type | Market hours (9:30 AM–4 PM ET) and Overnight hours (8 PM–7 AM ET) | Extended hours (7–9:30 AM and 4-8 PM ET) |
| Share-based buy orders | Market* | Limit |
| Share-based sell orders | Market | Limit |
| Dollar-based buy orders | Market | Limit |
| Dollar-based sell orders | Market | Limit |
*Over-the-Counter (OTC) securities are an exception and will remain as Limit orders during all trading sessions.
Your last order type will be the default for your next order, unless the last order type is unavailable in the current trading session of the next order.
To protect your account against overspending, we’ll over-reserve 5% of your buying power for market orders placed outside of regular market hours that are queued for the next trading day.
These percentages might change in response to extreme volatility.
If the market price increases, and we can’t reserve the additional buying power required as of market open, then we’ll cancel the order. If you have multiple orders queued, we'll try to fill them in the order they were received. However, if your buying power is insufficient for one or more orders, we’ll cancel those orders.
Let’s say you have 10 open orders totalling $100 with no remaining buying power. The 9th order is the only one that increased in price. Then we’ll cancel the 9th order and execute the 10th order.
During Market volatility, circuit breakers, and trading halts or Stock trading halts, you cannot place any new share-based market buy orders and any pending ones will be canceled.
However, you can place other orders as usual (all but share-based market buys) during a trading halt and they’ll remain pending. When the halt ends and markets reopen, your orders will be processed.
Orders held or placed during a halt or a closed market may fill at a very different price when trading resumes.
Understanding order types can help you manage risk. However, you can never eliminate market and investment risks entirely. It’s best to choose an order type based on your investment goals and objectives.
All investments involve risks, including the loss of principal. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing. Trading during extended and overnight hours comes with additional risks, such as lower liquidity and higher volatility. You can learn more in the Extended-Hours Trading Disclosure.
Fractional shares are not liquid outside of Robinhood and not transferable. For a complete explanation of conditions, restrictions and limitations associated with fractional shares, see the Fractional Shares section in our Customer Agreement.
Not all securities are eligible for the entry of fractional orders during Robinhood’s extended-hours trading. If a security isn’t eligible, the order will be queued for the opening of market hours. Only whole share orders are available for a limited number of securities during overnight hours.
You can learn more about eligible securities and the risks of extended-hours trading in Extended-hours trading and for overnight hours in Robinhood 24 Hour Market.