Scrag, An at market order will sell to the highest bid....
Some explanation.
Each stock or instrument has a bid and ask price. The bid is what buyers are willing to pay, the Ask is what sellers are willing to receive.
The quoted price is the last price that the stock went for, and may be the result of either a sell order or a buy order. this last price may not reflect the current bid and ask prices.
Except at the auctions times (pre-market and market close), there will always be a difference between the bid and the ask prices.
An at market order, whether buy or sell, will match to the appropriate bid or ask... that is, if it is an at market sell order, the order will match to the highest bid, and an at market buy will match to the lowest ask. The order will be filled only if there is enough volumen at the level of the bid or ask.
The difference between the bid and ask price is called the spread. In these times the spread can sometimes be huge...
This is more apparent on the more illiquid stocks like the small speccies.
The bid and ask prices can be far different from the last transaction price...
As an example... take NHD, a highly illiquid speccy stock.
The current ask is 1.4 cents
The current bid is 1 cent.
The last price that the stock sold at was 1.4 cents.
If someone was to sell at market now, the price they would get is one cent. That is a 33% (ish) drop in price from that of the last transaction.
As someone else has mentioned in this thread, at market orders are best used if you MUST get out or get in to a stock...
Before you sell or buy, check the depth of the stock you are trading in, or at least the current Bid and Ask prices. That will tell you wwhat the price you will actually get if you trade the stock immediately.
Hope that helps, and if any further explanation required, please don't hesitate to ask and I'll try to sound knowledgable... lol
