Contingency Order: What It Is, How It Works, Examples

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Updated May 30, 2022

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What Is a Contingency Order?

A contingency order is a buy or sell order that is executed from a broker's 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:trading platform only when specific, trader-defined conditions have been met. These prerequisite conditions rang♎e in scope and depthᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ.

A simple example of a contingency order is a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:limit order to buy or sell a security at a specified price or better. A more complex contingency order, known as a conditional order, might specify buying a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:defensive stock when the S&P 500 Index fall🐬s ꦐbelow a certain price.

Conditional orders can involve even more complex criteria. For example, a trader can make the purchase of an option dependent on two or more variables, such as the price of the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:underlying stock and the price of the option contract itself. The number and complexity of conditions to the order is limited only by the broker's platform and the trader's imaginat✨ion.

Key Takeaways

Contingency orders are those that require trader-specified conditions to be met before the order can be executed.
In their simplest form, such orders include a stop loss order or a limit order.
More complex forms of contingency orders may specify how the order is filled or under which conditions it is filled.
The terms contingency order and conditional order are often used interchangeably.

How a Contingency Order Works

In a broad sense, any order that uses a specific condition to trigger its execution could be considered a contingency order. Under that definition, any order other than a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:market order would be considere𒁏d a contingenཧcy order. However, most brokerage platforms refer to contingency orders as something that has a more complex, or even a conditional, execution.

The terms 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:contingent order and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:conditional order are often used interchangeabꦰly with contingency order. However, in some contexts subtle distinctions can be made. These distinctions vary from one broker to the next, though in conversation among trad🎃ers they are usually trivial. A contingency order can include several different order types that will only execute after certain conditions have been met.

Examples of Contingency Orders

Perhaps the simplest form of a contingency order is a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:limit order. This specifies that an order will only be executed at (or better tha🐼n) a specified price. For a buy limit order, this will represent a pre-determined minimum price, and for a sell limit order a pre-determined maximum. Actual orders may be filled at a price more favorable than the specified limit, but never worse.

A 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:stop-loss order can also be viewed as a contingency order, because it does not become a market order until the price of the security being sold reaches a predetermined level. A stop loss is very useful when applied to options trading, as well as establishing exit points in stock positions during a bear market. Other modifications to stop loss orders include the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:trailing stop.

An 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:all or none (AON) order is one that executes contingent on getting the full order size executed at once. If a trader wants to buy 10,000 shares of Company XYZ all or none,𝄹 then they would refuse an exe💙cution of anything less than the full 10,000 shares.

An 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:immediate or cancel (IOC) order is contingent upon being executed immediately. If an order cannot be filled in whole or in part within a very short period of time, the order is canceled. Say a trader wants to buy 10,000 shares of Company XYZ for a limit price of $20 and specified immediate or cancel. If there are only 2,500 shares on off🎐er at $20, other sellers will have to come in. But since it is designated IOC, only⛎ the 2,500 shares may end up trading.

A 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:fill or kill (FOK) order is one that combines all or none and immediate or cancel. In the example above, the order would only ༒be executed if all 10🅺,000 shares could be filled in a very short period of time.

Other contingency orders include the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:day order, which is a limit or stop order that expires at the end of the trading day. Other orders specify buying the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:market price on the open (MOO) or the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:market on close (MOC), whi♈ch๊ can also be specified as a limit order instead of at the market.

There are many types of conditional orders, such as 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:bracketed buy or 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:bracketed sell orders, or oth🧸er kinds of multiple-part orders that are oཧften specific to a single broker.

To research the variety of order types available, you can review our comparative research in this article, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:To💃p Technical Analysis Tools for Traders. Or check out Investopeღdia's reviews on brokers and trading platforms included i෴n the following helpful rankings:

澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网

What Is a Contingency Order?

Key Takeaways

How a Contingency Order Works

Examples of Contingency Orders

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