When you buy or sell stocks on the stock exchange, you can use several order types.

Below you can find a selection of the most frequent order types:

• Market orders (Market order)

  A market order allows to buy or sell shares immediately at the best price available on the market as long as there is counterparty for the whole quantity. The non-executed part of a market order remains in the orderbook as a 'market order' (without a price limit) and is executed at the price of any new order incoming at the opposite in the orderbook. However, the final price is not guaranteed, especially if there is high activity in the share in question. When placing market orders, the "price" field should be left empty. Market orders are only accepted for the continual segment of the forward market (groups A0, A1, A2, A3, A4).

  Example :
  You place a buy order for 200 shares. In the order book, the best sell limits are 70 shares at € 62 and 300 shares at € 63. Your order will be executed as followed: 70 shares at € 62 and 130 shares at € 63. As you can notice, this order type doesn’t give you any guaranty for the executed price.

• Limit orders (“Limit order”)

  A limit order is more precise than a market order.
  It allows to set a limit both when buying and selling, but of course gives no guarantee concerning the execution of the order.

  Limit orders can be placed both on the cash and forward markets. When setting the price of a limit order, it is important to respect the following principle: The limit must be a multiple of 0.01 EUR.

  Example 1 :
  You would like to buy shares quoting at the moment € 63 but you do not want to pay more than € 60 for these. You will place a limit order at € 60 and your order will not be executed as long as the share is quoting above € 60.

  Example 2 :
  Suppose you want to sell shares at a minimum price. The share is quoting € 61 at the moment and you would like to sell your shares only if the price is above € 63. You will place a limit order at € 63 and your order will be executed only if the share price reaches € 63.

• Open orders

  An open order is placed when you want an execution at the opening of the stock exchange or at the fixing. (With this type of order you do not place a limit and you don't know before at what price your order will be executed.) You can enter this type of order when:

  • the Brussels stock exchanges is still closed
  • there is a period of pre-opening in case a share is suspended
  • you place an order on the simple and double fixing before the fixing

• Stop orders

  A stop order is a market price order, where you decide at which quote your order becomes a market order (Please note: This is therefore not an order limited to the specified stop price!)
  As soon as the share price has reached or passed the specified stop price, your order will be transformed into a market order. There is a high probability of execution, but you have no guarantee on price. These orders are valid both when selling and buying.

  Example 1 :
  You bought a share at 100 USD that is quoting 98 USD at the moment. You wish to cover yourself against any fall in stocks, so you place a stop sell order with as stop 95 USD. This means that if the share quotation drops till 95 USD, your order will be activated and becomes a market order that will be executed against market price.

  Example 2 :
  A stop order can also allow you to protect a capital gain. Suppose you bought a share at 80 USD and this has increased until 100 USD. Then you can place a stop order at 95 USD. If the share quotation decreases until 95 USD, the shares will be sold and you will receive the capital gain.

• «Stop Limit » orders

  Stop Limit orders are similar to regular Stop orders in the way they are triggered. The difference is in the way they are executed: while a Stop order is launched "at market price" (and therefore does not allow any control over the execution price), a STOP Limit order is launched as a Limit order, the limit being determined when the order is placed.When placing a sell stop limit order, please keep in mind that your stop price and limit have to be below the BID price at the moment you place your order. When placing a buy stop limit order, your stop price and limit have to be above the ASK price at the moment you place your order.

  Example :
  You bought a share at 100 USD, which was currently quoted at 98 USD. You wish to cover yourself against further loss. You place a stop limit sell order. With as stop 95 USD and as limit 93 USD. This means that if the share quote drops till 95 USD, your order will be activated and becomes a sell limit order with 93 USD as limit. We recommend using this type of order rather than a regular Stop order as it is safer in turbulent market conditions.

• Iceberg orders

  'Iceberg' orders allow the execution of high volume orders without displaying the total quantity of that order (to gain efficiency). 'Iceberg' orders need to be showing at least 10 times the minimum trading unit of the stock concerned.

  This type of order is well adapted for illiquid stocks.

  For instance, you can sell 10.000 shares by displaying only 1.000 at a time. Every time 1.000 pieces will be executed, another 1.000 will be displayed in the order book (you do, however, loose your priority if another seller comes and places a sell order at the same limit. This would not be the case if you would sell the 10.000 shares in one block).

  'Iceberg' orders are only possible on Euronext Brussels and Amsterdam and are only compatible with limit orders.