Stock orders

1. Limit Order
Order to buy or sell a stated amount of stock at a specified price or better. [It guarantees the actual strike price to be better than specified (lower for selling and higher for buying).]

2. Stop Order
A stop order is an order to buy or sell a stock once the price of the stock reaches a specified price, known as the stop price. When the specified price is reached, your stop order becomes a market order, [which means the acutal price is not guaranteed to be better. The stop price is just a trigger point to activate the order.]

3. Stop Limit Order
An order to buy or sell at a specified price or better (called the stop-limit price) but only after a given stop price has been reached or passed. For example, an order to buy 100 MSFT 55 Stop 56 Limit, means that if the market price reaches 55 (stop price) or better (in the case of a buy, it would be less than 55) the order is then triggered to execute the order as a limit order at 56 or a better (lower) price. [the order is activated after the price hits 55, and will conduct the trade for anything better than 56, which could be 55.5 for buying, for example] Stop-limit orders avoid some of the risk a stop order has, but like all limit orders, carries the risk of missing the market all together, since the specified limit price or better may never occur.