A market order is an instruction to buy or sell an asset immediately at the best price currently available in the market. Most Australian CFD and share trading platforms set this as the default order type, so understanding how it fills is essential before you click buy or sell.
Unlike a limit order, a market order prioritises speed of execution over price control. You get into the trade fast, but the exact fill price isn’t guaranteed.
How Market Orders Work — A Practical Example
Say you want to buy 1 CFD contract on the ASX 200 index, currently quoted at 7,850.2 / 7,850.6 (bid/ask). You hit the buy button with a market order.
Your broker fills you at 7,850.6 — the ask price — because that’s the best available offer at that moment. The 0.4 point gap between bid and ask is the spread, which is your first trading cost.
Now imagine the market is moving fast during a Reserve Bank announcement. By the time your order reaches the broker’s server, the ask has jumped to 7,851.2. You still get filled — but at the worse price. This gap is called slippage, and it’s the main risk of using market orders.
On a 1-contract position worth roughly A$78,500, that 0.6-point slippage costs you about A$6 extra on entry.
Why Market Orders Matter for Australian Traders
ASIC-regulated brokers must provide best execution under their AFSL obligations, meaning they should fill your market order at the best available price across their liquidity providers. A poorly run broker, by contrast, may show frequent slippage or requotes that quietly add to your costs.
For volatile assets like gold (XAU/USD), Bitcoin, or oil during US session opens, market orders can fill several pips away from the displayed price. This matters more if you’re trading with high leverage, where small price gaps translate to bigger AUD swings on your account.
A broker with deep liquidity and fast execution reduces slippage. A broker with slow servers or wide spreads makes every market order more expensive than it needs to be.
Market Order vs Limit Order
A market order fills now at whatever price is available. A limit order only fills if the market reaches a price you choose — but it may never fill at all. Market orders guarantee execution; limit orders guarantee price. In fast-moving markets, a limit order protects you from slippage, while a market order ensures you don’t miss the move. For most Australian traders, execution speed and slippage are the more important factors to check when picking a broker.
What to Check When Comparing Brokers
- Average execution speed: Look for brokers reporting execution under 50 milliseconds. Pepperstone and IC Markets both publish execution statistics and are ASIC-licensed.
- Slippage policy: Check whether the broker uses symmetric slippage (price can improve or worsen) or asymmetric (only worsens). Symmetric is fairer.
- Spread width during news: Test how spreads behave around RBA announcements or US NFP releases — narrow spreads mean cheaper market orders.
- Requote frequency: A quality ASIC broker rarely requotes. Frequent requotes suggest poor liquidity routing.
- Order type options: Make sure you can switch easily between market and limit orders inside the platform — useful for adapting to volatility.
See our picks for the best CFD brokers in Australia — all ASIC-licensed, all live-tested by our team.
Trading CFDs carries significant risk. 70–80% of retail accounts lose money. ASIC regulated. We may earn commission via links.