What is a fill?
Fill is the term used to refer to the satisfying of an order to trade a financial asset. It is the basic act of any market transaction – when an order has been completed, it is often referred to as ‘filled’ or as the order having been executed. However, it is worth noting that there is no guarantee that every trade will become filled.
For an order to be filled, there are certain parameters or conditions that have to be met. To successfully fill an order there has to be enough trading volume on the market – if there is no one to buy from or sell to, then your transaction cannot take place. It is also important to make sure that your trade has not expired and that the market is currently within trading hours, as only orders that are open and on live markets can be filled.
There are different ways that trades can be filled, depending on the type of order being given. Market orders, for example, are filled at the best available price as quickly as possible, whereas limit orders are filled at a specific price. If the conditions of your order are not met, it means that your trade will not be filled, and it will remain on the market or expire worthless.
Market orders are the most common way of filling an order – with IG, our platform default is the equivalent of a market order.
