Order book
Also called: limit order book
The live list of all waiting buy and sell orders for a share, with their prices and quantities.
For every listed share, the exchange keeps an order book: buy orders sorted from the highest price down, and sell orders sorted from the lowest price up. New orders are matched against it using price-time priority.
Trading apps usually show the top few levels on each side as "market depth". A deep order book, with large quantities near the best prices, means a share can be traded without moving the price much.
Learn more in these lessons
- How stock exchanges workHow does a stock exchange match buyers and sellers?
- Market orders and limit ordersWhat is the difference between a market order and a limit order?
- Bid, ask, spread and liquidityWhat are the bid price, ask price and spread?
- Reading a stock quoteWhat do the numbers on a stock quote mean?
- Support and resistanceWhat are support and resistance, and how reliable are they?
- Market microstructureWhat really happens when an order meets the market?
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