Determining How to Buy Your Stock

In virtually every movie I see that has a stock market scene, people are screaming "Buy, sell, limit, stop, market order," and so on at the top of their lungs. (Usually these same people are also involved in substantially more intrigue than ever happens on the stock floor, but that's another matter.) Here we finally get to clear up the confusion regarding the terms used in purchasing and selling stock. Contrary to popular belief, these terms are not interchangeable and they actually do mean something.

After you've decided to buy stock in either a round or an odd lot, you need to tell your broker how to order the stock.