Placing Your First Order

An order is an instruction to buy or sell a quantity under conditions you set. It is not a trade yet. The order ticket is the form that holds those conditions. Some fields may already be filled in, so check them instead of trusting the defaults.

Start with what you are trading and where. ITC Ltd on NSE is one cash share. An ITC futures or options contract is a different instrument, with its own lot size, expiry and rules. NSE and BSE keep separate order books, even for a company listed on both.

Then read the rest of the ticket: buy or sell, quantity, order type, price, trigger, product and validity. Selling shares you own and opening a short position are different actions. Before a delivery sale, check that the shares are free to sell: not pledged, not unsettled, and with the debit permission in place.

Mr. Chartist's ticket: buy 10 ITC on NSE with a limit of ₹260.00. If all 10 fill, the share value can be at most 10 × ₹260.00 = ₹2,600.00 before charges (derived). A market order has no such ceiling, so its final value is not known in advance. Check free funds or required margin, not only the cash balance on screen.

Pick a quantity whose loss you understand. An exit plan helps, but no order field can promise a maximum loss. Price gaps, missing buyers, rejected orders and fees can all change the result.

Keep the review or confirmation step switched on while you learn. One extra zero turns 10 shares into 100, and the ₹2,600.00 ceiling into ₹26,000.00 before charges (derived).

Your order goes to the broker first. Sahi's risk checks look at funds, margin, holdings, segment permission, price and quantity rules, and any restrictions. Passing the app's review screen does not mean those checks, or the exchange's acceptance, are done.

An accepted order joins the exchange's order book. NSE stores orders by best price first, then by time at the same price: a better price goes ahead, and at the same price the earlier order goes ahead. Buyers meet sellers on the other side of the book. The order-book lesson shows this queue in detail.

A match creates a trade for the quantity that actually matched. Ten shares asked can become one trade, several trades at different prices, a partial fill, or no fill at all. An 'accepted' message does not mean all 10 traded.

Settlement is when the money and the shares actually move, through NSE Clearing and the depositories (CDSL and NSDL). All Indian shares have settled on T+1, the next settlement working day, since 27 January 2023. Holidays count. Mr. Chartist buys on Monday 19 October 2026. Tuesday 20 October is an NSE holiday for Dussehra. So T+1 is Wednesday 21 October, and that is when the shares reach his demat account. Optional same-day (T+0) settlement for eligible trades follows a different route.

You cannot cancel a trade that has already happened. To get out of a position you need a new trade, with its own price and costs. The exchange's power to correct or cancel trades is a rare, separate process, not an undo button for customers.

These steps describe normal continuous trading. The opening session and the closing auction have their own matching and order rules, so check which session you are in.

NSE defines a market order as an order to buy or sell at the best price you can get when it is entered. You set no worst price of your own. The last traded price (LTP) is a past trade, not a promise about the next one.

ITC's first trade on 19 October was at ₹262.70. Now picture the sellers waiting just after the open. This is an illustration: the prices are real ₹0.05 steps from the real open, but the quantities are invented. Sellers: 4 shares at ₹262.70, 3 at ₹262.75 and 3 at ₹262.80.

A market buy for 10 that meets this book takes all three levels: 4 × ₹262.70 = ₹1,050.80, 3 × ₹262.75 = ₹788.25 and 3 × ₹262.80 = ₹788.40. The total is ₹2,627.45, an average of about ₹262.75 a share before charges (derived). The price on screen was ₹262.70, but the whole order cost more.

A market sell works the other way and meets the buyers, starting with the best bid. The gap between the best seller (ask) and the best buyer (bid) is the spread, a cost you pay before the price even moves.

The book can change between the moment you look and the moment your order arrives. A market order is built to match at once, but it does not promise a full fill or a price. Halts, price controls and missing buyers or sellers can all get in the way.

Brokers and exchanges may add protection. Sahi's Market Price Protection (MPP) turns market orders in illiquid contracts into limit orders with a buffer. For shares priced above ₹100 and up to ₹1,000, the buffer is 1%. From ₹262.70 that is a limit near ₹265.33, set to a valid ₹0.05 step by the broker (derived). Exchanges run their own MPP on some stocks too. Protection caps the price, so part or all of the order may stay unfilled.

Check the protection, the instrument and the session before you confirm. A small spread a moment ago, or a famous company name, does not tell you what the book will hold when your order lands.

In a limit order you state your price when you enter it. A buy limit at ₹260.00 accepts ₹260.00 or lower. A sell limit at ₹263.50 accepts ₹263.50 or higher. The limit is your worst acceptable price.

Test four limits against ITC's real range on 19 October (low ₹259.95, high ₹263.90), assuming each order waits all day. Buy limit ₹260.00: the price fell to ₹259.95, below the limit, so it could fill. Buy limit ₹259.50: the price never got that low, so it could not fill. Sell limit ₹263.50: the high of ₹263.90 went past it, so it could fill. Sell limit ₹264.00: the price never got that high, so it could not fill (derived).

'Could fill' is not 'did fill'. Price touching your limit on a chart does not prove your shares traded. Orders that came earlier at the same price go first, and the quantity there may run out.

A limit placed across the spread can fill at once. A buy limit at ₹263.00 when sellers are at ₹262.70 is not a waiting order: it can buy straight away at ₹262.70. 'Or better' means the buyer pays less or the seller gets more.

The limit controls the price, not whether the whole order completes. It may fill fully, partly or not at all. And it does nothing to stop the shares losing value after you buy them.

A plain limit order has no trigger. If you want to buy only after the price rises through a higher level, a buy limit above the current price will simply buy now. That idea needs a stop order, covered in section 6.

A partial fill means only part of your quantity traded. That part is a real trade. The rest still follows the order's status and validity. Cancelling the rest later does not undo the part that filled.

Illustration: Mr. Chartist's buy limit at ₹260.00 for 10 shares gets 4 shares at ₹259.95 and 3 at ₹260.00, and 3 stay open. Both prices sit inside ITC's real range that day, but the split is invented. Value: 4 × ₹259.95 = ₹1,039.80, plus 3 × ₹260.00 = ₹780.00, so ₹1,819.80 for 7 shares (derived).

Divide by the 7 shares that filled, not the 10 you asked for. ₹1,819.80 ÷ 7 = about ₹259.97 a share (derived, rounded). Because it is rounded, ₹259.97 × 7 does not give back exactly ₹1,819.80. Use the separate trade prices when you check the exact amount.

The average price usually leaves out brokerage, taxes and other charges, so it is not your break-even price. Charges depend on the trades that actually happened.

Before you place another order, read four things: quantity asked, quantity filled, quantity left and the latest status. Here 7 have filled. Sending a fresh order for 10 could leave you with 17 shares if it also fills.

Any exit must match what you actually hold. A stop planned for 10 shares may be wrong after only 7 filled. Check how your broker handles it; do not assume a protective order resizes itself.

A stop order has a condition. The trigger decides when it wakes up. The order it then becomes decides which prices it accepts. Stops can protect an exit or start an entry. The name 'stop-loss' does not guarantee a loss limit.

SL means stop-loss limit. It has two prices: a trigger and a limit. NSE's rule: a sell stop triggers when the last traded price reaches or falls below the trigger; a buy stop triggers when it reaches or goes above the trigger. Until then the order waits in NSE's stop-loss book and is not in the market. Once triggered, it joins the regular book as a limit order, time-stamped at the moment it triggered. NSE's own example: a buy SL with trigger 93 and limit 95 while the last price is 90.

Sell stop on ITC, 19 October: Mr. Chartist holds 10 shares and sets trigger ₹260.00, limit ₹259.90. The price fell to ₹259.95, which is at or below ₹260.00, so the stop triggered. It could then sell at ₹259.90 or higher (derived from the real low).

A stop that never wakes: a sell stop with trigger ₹259.90 would not have triggered that day, because the low was ₹259.95. The order would just keep waiting.

Buy stop, the other direction: trigger ₹263.50, limit ₹263.70. The high of ₹263.90 went past ₹263.50, so it triggered, and it could then buy at ₹263.70 or lower (derived). Buy stops can start a position or protect a short one. Opening a short needs the right product and delivery arrangements.

The trigger is not a second price limit. A triggered sell with limit ₹259.90 can fill above ₹260.00 if buyers are there. For a sell stop the limit is usually at or below the trigger; for a buy stop, at or above. A tight gap between the two may leave the order unfilled in a fast move; a wide gap accepts worse prices. No gap is safe in every case.

Brokers and exchanges can also reject a stop whose trigger and limit are too far apart, or check the price again after it triggers. NSE's derivatives segment has such checks. Use the current rules for your instrument. The order-book lesson has another ITC stop example at different levels.

SL-M means stop-loss market. Where it is allowed, reaching the trigger releases a market order instead of a limit order. The trigger only wakes the order. It is not the price you get.

ITC shows why. It closed at ₹263.50 on Friday 16 October and opened at ₹262.70 on Monday 19 October. No trade happened between ₹262.75 and ₹263.45 across that weekend: the price jumped over that zone (derived from the real close and open).

Illustration: picture a sell stop with trigger ₹263.00 that is active when Monday's trading starts. The first trade, ₹262.70, is already below the trigger, so it fires at once. The first price it can get is near ₹262.70, not ₹263.00.

As an SL with limit ₹262.95, it cannot sell at ₹262.70. It waits. ITC did trade up to ₹263.90 later that day, so a sale at ₹262.95 or better was possible at some point, but daily data cannot say when, and the queue still applies. As an SL-M, it sells to whoever is buying. With invented bids of 4 shares at ₹262.70 and 6 at ₹262.60, 10 shares bring 4 × ₹262.70 + 6 × ₹262.60 = ₹1,050.80 + ₹1,575.60 = ₹2,626.40, about ₹262.64 each, against ₹2,630.00 at the trigger: ₹3.60 less (derived from invented bids).

So the limit protects the price but may leave you holding the shares. The market version gets you out but leaves the price open. Both depend on the rules, the buyers and market conditions.

Where can you use SL-M? NSE withdrew SL-M for index and stock options from 27 September 2021 (circular NSE/FAOP/49677), and kept stop-loss limit orders. BSE stopped SL-M in all segments, including equity, from 9 October 2023. For NSE cash shares like ITC, whether SL-M is accepted depends on the exchange and your broker today. Check the order types your app actually offers.

A broker screen that offers 'Market' for a stop-loss or take-profit exit does not prove the exchange takes native SL-M orders. The broker may route it another way. And no market exit is certain during a halt, a circuit or when buyers disappear.

Order type is about price and timing. Product is about how the broker treats the position: who pays, and how long you can hold it. A limit order can go with any product, and picking a product does not pick an order type.

Delivery (called Normal or CNC by some brokers): you pay the full amount plus charges, and the shares reach your demat account after settlement. For Mr. Chartist's 10 ITC bought on 19 October, that is Wednesday 21 October. Delivery does not set how long you must hold, and the broker can still sell if you fail to pay what you owe.

Intraday (MIS at some brokers): the position must be closed the same day under the broker's square-off policy. Margin rules depend on the instrument. Intraday margin is not a free loan, and a failed automatic square-off can leave you with the problem instead of a safe exit.

The brokerage in this example is the same either way. Sahi charges ₹10 or 0.05% per executed order, whichever is lower, for equity delivery and intraday. On ₹2,600.00, 0.05% is ₹1.30, so ₹1.30 applies (derived), and Sahi charges zero brokerage for the first 30 days. A DP charge of ₹13.5 per company applies only when you sell from your demat. Other statutory charges are covered in the charges lesson.

Carry-forward derivatives (NRML at some brokers) have ongoing margin, expiry and settlement rules. Some stock contracts end in physical delivery of shares.

MTF, the Margin Trading Facility, is a separate way to buy shares with borrowed money, where offered. It means interest, collateral and ongoing duties, not free buying power. Read the margin lesson first.

Codes like CNC, MIS and NRML are broker labels, not exchange order types. Sahi's AMO guide uses Normal and Intraday. Check what each label means in your app. Mr. Chartist wants a fully paid delivery purchase, so he checks that the product says so.

Validity tells the exchange what to do with the part that has not filled. NSE: a Day order is valid for the day it is entered and is cancelled automatically at the end of the trading day if it has not matched. Anything that filled stays a trade.

IOC means Immediate or Cancel. NSE: it trades as soon as it reaches the market, or it is removed. Part of it can match, and the rest is cancelled at once. Illustration: of 10 shares asked, 3 match and 7 are cancelled. IOC is not all-or-nothing.

AMO, the After Market Order, is a broker feature, not an exchange validity. The broker holds your order and sends it at the next session. Sahi accepts AMOs any time after 3:30 pm and sends stock AMOs to the exchange at 9:00 am on the next trading day, in the pre-open session. Sahi AMOs are limit orders only, with Normal (delivery) or Intraday products. Sahi does not publish when the AMO window closes.

The holiday matters here too. An AMO placed on Friday evening, 16 October, went out on Monday 19 October at 9:00 am. One placed on Monday evening, 19 October, went out on Wednesday 21 October at 9:00 am, because Tuesday was the Dussehra holiday. Until it is sent and accepted, an AMO is not in the exchange's book, it can still be rejected, and the next day may open far from your price.

NSE's pre-open, from 7 September 2026: 9:00 to 9:05 am takes market and limit orders; 9:05 to 9:10 am takes limit orders only; 9:10 to 9:12 am matches orders and sets the opening price; 9:12 to 9:15 am is the move to normal trading, which starts at 9:15 am.

The close is different for stocks with futures and options, like ITC. Since 3 August 2026, NSE runs a Closing Auction Session for them, so ITC's normal trading ends at 3:15 pm. From 3:20 to 3:25 pm the auction takes limit and market orders, from 3:25 to 3:30 pm limit orders only with a random close, and matching runs from 3:30 to 3:35 pm. Stop-loss orders are not allowed in the auction and are not carried into it, so a stop still waiting at 3:15 pm stops protecting you. Other stocks trade until 3:30 pm. The timing lesson covers the full schedule.

So a Day order or a stop does not protect an overnight holding. Check when your order ends, whether its type is allowed in that session, and whether you need a new one tomorrow. An open app does not mean the market is open.

GTT, Good Till Triggered, is held by the broker, not the exchange. NSE says GTC and GTD orders are not available on its system as per SEBI directives, so long-lived orders live with brokers. When the GTT's trigger is met, the broker sends a new order. Waiting, sending and filling are three separate stages.

Illustration: a GTT to buy ITC with trigger ₹258.00. It did not fire on 19 October, when the low was ₹259.95, or on 21 October, when the low was ₹260.15 (derived). NSE never saw it, because it waited at the broker.

Once triggered, the new order still needs funds, holdings and permissions. It can be rejected, fill in part or not fill at all. Check it after it fires.

Read the terms. Sahi's GTT policy page says 365 days, delivery only, limit orders only, and that an order not filled that day is cancelled. Sahi's GTT FAQ says a stock GTT stays active until triggered or cancelled, and that it can execute as Market or Limit. The two pages disagree, so confirm in the app or with Sahi's support. A derivative GTT does not survive the contract's expiry.

Disclosed quantity shows only part of a big exchange order at a time. NSE's example: an order for 1,000 shares with a disclosed quantity of 200 shows 200 to the market at a time, so 5 slices in all. An iceberg order is a broker tool that splits an order into separate child orders. The aim is similar, but the mechanics differ.

A basket sends several orders together, but they stay separate: one can fill while another is rejected or waits. OCO, One Cancels the Other, links a stop-loss and a target so one cancels the other. Two independent exit orders do not cancel each other. Leaving both live after a manual exit can open a new position you did not want.

A trailing stop moves its trigger by set rules. It is still a stop with the same execution risks, and it does not lock in the best profit you saw.

Market: 'Buy or sell now at the best prices available.' You set no price. A full fill is not promised, and broker protection may change how it is sent. On ITC, 19 October, a market buy at the open met a first trade of ₹262.70.

Limit: 'Buy at this price or lower, or sell at this price or higher.' It may fill now, later or never, and the rest follows the validity. A buy limit at ₹260.00 could fill that day; one at ₹259.50 could not.

SL: 'When the trigger is reached, place my limit order.' Two prices with two jobs. A sell stop at trigger ₹260.00, limit ₹259.90, triggered that day. The limit can block a bad price but may leave you holding the shares.

SL-M: 'Where allowed, when the trigger is reached, place a market order.' No price limit after it wakes, so the buyers who are there decide the price. Whether NSE cash shares accept it depends on the exchange and your broker.

Match the type to what you want. To buy only at a lower price, use a buy limit. To buy only after a rise through a higher level, use a buy stop. A buy limit above the current price just buys now.

This is how each type works, not a ranking of which is safest. Product, validity, quantity, market conditions and the broker's routing are separate choices. If no field says what you mean, fix the order before you send it.

Received or submitted means the order reached a system, not necessarily the exchange. An AMO or a waiting GTT is held by the broker and is not an exchange order yet. Look for the actual stage and the order reference.

Open or pending means an accepted order is waiting to fill. Trigger pending means the stop's trigger has not been reached. Triggered means it woke up; it does not mean it filled.

Partly filled means some shares traded. Complete means all of them did. In section 5, Mr. Chartist's order shows 10 asked, 7 filled, 3 open. The filled quantity, average price and trade details are the proof, not the price you typed.

Cancelled, expired and rejected are three different endings for the unfilled part. You cancel it, its validity runs out, or it fails a check. Shares that already filled stay traded.

Read a change or cancel response apart from the order itself. A rejected change can leave the old order live. A cancel request still waiting for an answer can be followed by a fill.

Your broker's orders screen should show the status and any rejection reason, and labels can change between app versions. Remember: complete is not settled. A complete order on Monday 19 October settles on Wednesday 21 October.

A rejected order should come with a reason. Read it before you change anything. Common causes: not enough free funds or margin, shares not available, debit permission missing, segment not enabled, product not supported, wrong price step, wrong quantity, or a market restriction.

The price step is the tick size. On NSE, from 15 April 2025, cash shares priced below ₹250 move in ₹0.01 steps, ₹250 to ₹1,000 in ₹0.05, above ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 in ₹0.10, above ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 in ₹0.50, above ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 in ₹1, and above ₹20,000 in ₹5. ITC near ₹260 is in the ₹0.05 band, so a buy at ₹260.03 is rejected, while ₹260.00 and ₹260.05 are fine.

Price bands and other protections can block a price even when it fits the tick. Lot sizes apply to derivatives. Some stocks must be settled by delivery only, and some derivative bans stop new positions. Read the actual message; do not switch products just to get around a restriction.

A stop can fail a check when it is placed, or again after it triggers. Being accepted once does not mean it will pass every later check.

A change usually applies only to the unfilled part. Changing the price or raising the quantity can send your order to the back of the queue. Check whether the quantity box means the total or what is left. Lowering it cannot undo shares already traded.

Illustration of a race: Mr. Chartist's order for 10 has 4 filled. He sends a cancel, but 3 more match before NSE processes it. The result is 7 filled and 3 cancelled, not 4 filled and 6 cancelled. The shares that traded were not erased; the cancel simply arrived later.

After any request, wait for the final answer before sending a new order. If the connection drops or the answer is unclear, check the order and trade records with the reference. Do not keep tapping submit. A request message alone does not prove nothing traded.

Filled shares carry charges even if the rest is cancelled. Check the broker's current price list for other charges. Keep the error message and reference when you ask support for help.

Here is the whole journey as a teaching example. On Monday 19 October 2026, Mr. Chartist reads his ticket: ITC Ltd on NSE, Buy, quantity 10, Limit ₹260.00, Delivery, Day.

He reads each field back and checks his free funds and the expected charges. The ₹260.00 limit caps the share value at ₹2,600.00 if all 10 fill; it does not cap the total cost, because charges come on top. He checks that the market is in normal trading, before ITC's continuous trading ends at 3:15 pm.

After sending, he checks acceptance and then the fills. Illustration: if all 10 fill at ₹260.00, a price inside that day's real range, the trade value is ₹2,600.00 before charges (derived). If only 7 fill, he works from the actual fills and decides about the other 3. If none fill, the Day order ends at the close and he has bought nothing.

He matches the order and trade records with the contract note and his funds ledger. The contract note lists the trades and their charges: here brokerage of ₹1.30 at Sahi's 0.05% rate (derived), or zero in the first 30 days, plus statutory charges that the charges lesson explains. The average price and the all-in cost answer different questions.

On Wednesday 21 October, the T+1 settlement day after the Tuesday holiday, he checks that 10 ITC shares were credited in his CDSL demat statement. If a record is missing or looks wrong, he asks the broker's official support, with the order, trade and statement references.

Selling later is a new order, with its own price, available quantity, debit permission and charges, including Sahi's ₹13.5 DP charge on the sell. Before he exits, he removes any old stop or linked order so it cannot fire after the position is gone.

Mr. Chartist ends by naming the exact result: what he asked for, what traded, what is still open and what settled. That habit is the point of this lesson. To rehearse the same steps on paper first, use lesson 12.