Howto choose a marketplace while submitting an order for a stock trade
It depends on your cost structure and knowledge of the exchanges. It could be optimal to make a manual exchange selection so long as it's cheaper to do so. For brokers with trade fees, this is a lost cause because the cost of the trade is already so high that auto routing will be no cheaper than manual routing. For brokers who charge extra to manually route, this could be a good policy if the exchange chosen has very high rebates.  This does not apply to equities because they are so cheap, but there are still a few expensive option exchanges. This all presumes that one's broker shares exchange rebates which nearly all do not. If one has direct access to the exchanges, they are presumably doing this already. To do this effectively, one needs: For anyone trading with brokers without shared rebates or who does not have knowledge of the exchange prices and their liquidities, it's best to auto route.
The easiest route for you to go down will be to consult wikipedia, which will provide a comprehensive list of all US stock exchanges (there are plenty more than the ones you list!). Then visit the websites for those that are of interest to you, where you will find a list of holiday dates along with the trading schedule for specific products and the settlement dates where relevant. In answer to the other part of your question, yes, a stock can trade on multiple exchanges. Typically (unless you instruct otherwise), your broker will route your order to the exchange where it can be matched at the most favorable price to you at that time. The purpose of a market order is to guarantee that your order gets filled. If you try to place a limit order at the bid or ask, by the time you enter your order the price might have moved and you might need to keep amending your limit order in order to buy or sell, and as such you start chasing the market. A market order will guarantee your order gets executed. Also, an important point to consider, is that market orders are often used in combination with other orders such as conditional orders. For example if you have a stop loss (conditional order) set at say 10% below your buy price, you might want to use a market order to make sure your order gets executed if the price drops 10% and your stop loss gets triggered, making sure that you get out of the stock instead of being stuck with a limit order 10% below your buy price whilst the stock keeps falling further. I am able to place an 'all or none' order with my broker. But doing so reduces the number of potential sources to fulfill the order. As others have mentioned, try a limit order to get a specific price. There are a couple of things you could do, but it may depend partly on the type of orders your broker has available to you. Firstly, if you are putting your limit order the night before after close of market at the top of the bids, you may be risking missing out if bid & offer prices increase by the time the market opens the next day. On the other hand, if bid & offer prices fall at the open of the next day you should get your order filled at or below your limit price. Secondly, you could be available at the market open to see if prices are going up or down and then work out the price you want to buy at then and work out the quantity you can buy at that price. I personally don't like this method because you usually get too emotional, start chasing the market if prices start rising, or start regretting buying at a price and prices fall straight afterwards. My preferred method is this third option. If your broker provides stop orders you can use these to both get into and out of the market. How they work when trying to get into the market is that once you have done your analysis and picked a price that you would want to purchase at, you put a stop buy order in. For example, the price closed at $9.90 the previous day and there has been resistance at $10.00, so you would put a stop buy trigger if the price goes over $10, say $10.01. If your stop buy order gets triggered you can have either a buy market order or a limit order above $10.01 (say $10.02). The market order would go through immediately whilst the limit order would only go through if the price continues going to $10.02 or above. The advantage of this is that you don't get emotional trying to buy your securities whilst sitting in front of the screen, you do your analysis and set your prices whilst the market is closed, you only buy when the security is rising (not falling). As your aim is to be in long term you shouldn't be concerned about buying a little bit higher than the previous days close. On the other hand if you try and buy when the price is falling you don't know when it will stop falling. It is better to buy when the price shows signs of rising rather than falling (always follow the trend). "You might consider learning how the ""matching"" or ""pairing"" system in the market operates.  The actual exchange only happens when both a buyer and a seller overlap their respect quotes.   Sometimes orders ""go to market"" for a particular volume.  Eg get me 10,000 Microsoft shares now.  which means that the price starts at the current lowest seller, and works up the price list until the volume is met.  Like all market it trades, it has it's advantages, and it's dangers.  If you are confident Microsoft is going to bull, you want those shares now, confident you'll recoup the cost.  Where if you put in a priced order, you might get only none or some shares. Same as when you sell.  If you see the price (which is the price of the last completed ""successful"" trade.  and think ""I'm going to sell 1000 shares"". then you give the order to the market (or broker), and then the same as what happened as before.  the highest bidder gets as much as they asked for, if there's still shares left over, they go to the next bidder, and so on down the price... and the last completed ""successful"" trade is when your last sale is made at the lowest price of your batch. If you're selling, and selling 100,000 shares. And the highest bidder wants 1,000,000 shares you'll only see the price drop to that guys bid.  Why will it drop (off the quoted price?).  Because the quoted price is the LAST sale, clearly if there's someone still with an open bid on the market...then either he wants more shares than were available (the price stays same), or his bid wasn't as high as the last bid (so when you sale goes through, it will be at the price he's offering).   Which is why being able to see the price queues is important on large traders. It is also why it can be important put stops and limits on your trades, een through you can still get gapped if you're unlucky.  However putting prices (""Open Orders"" vs ""(at)Market Orders"") can mean that you're sitting there waiting for a bounce/spike while the action is all going on without you). safer but not as much gain (maybe ;) ) that's the excitement of the market, for every option there's advantages...and risks... (eg missing out) There are also issues with stock movement, shadowing, and stop hunting, which can influence the price. But the stuff in the long paragraphs is the technical reasons." I don't have all the answers. On a illiquid stock, such situations do arise and there are specific mechanisms used by exchanges to match the order. It is generally not advisable to use market order on illiquid stock. There are lots of different variations here. I guess this comes down to specifications for individual exchanges, but I'm wondering if there's a standard here or a way to approach it from basic rules that clears up all these situations. There are quite a few variations and different treatments. Market order that are placed when the market is closed or just around market opening are traded at Market Open price that each exchange has a formulae to calculate. In the process Market Buy are matched to Market Sell at the Exchange calculated price. Not all order get matched and there could be spill over's. These are then matched to limit orders. Is this determined based on which sell order came first, or based on which would result in the best deal for the incoming buyer? Generally Market orders have highest priority of execution. "There needs to be a buyer of the shares you are offering.  There are a lot of feature rich options for buying and selling.  I don't understand them all in depth, but for example on TD Ameritrade here are some of the order types ""Limit"", ""Market"", ""Stop Market"", ""Stop Limit"", ""Trailing Stop %"", ""Trailing Stop $"".  This web page will explain the different order types https://invest.ameritrade.com/cgi-bin/apps/u/PLoad?pagename=tutorial/orderTypes/overview.html Stock with a higher volume will allow your trade to execute faster, since there are more frequent trades than stocks with lower volume. (UPDATE: More specifically, not more frequent trades, but more shares changing hands.) I'm a bit of a noob myself, but that's what I understand." Try Google Finance Screener ; you will be able to filter for NASDAQ and NYSE exchanges. "As mentioned in other answers, you find out by reading the Rulebook for that commodity and exchange.  I'll quote a couple of random passages to show how they vary: For CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) Random Length Lumber Futures, the delivery is ornate: Seller shall give his Notice of Intent to Deliver to the Clearing   House prior to 12:00 noon (on any Business Day after termination of   trading in the contract month. 20103.D. Seller's Duties If the buyer's designated destination is east of the western boundaries of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska,   Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, and the western boundary of Manitoba,   Canada, the seller shall follow the buyer's shipping instructions   within seven (7) Business Days after receipt of such instructions. In   addition, the seller shall prepay the actual freight charges and bill   the buyer, through the Clearing House, the lowest published freight   rate for 73-foot railcars from Prince George, British Columbia to the   buyer's destination. If the lowest published freight rate from Prince   George, British Columbia to buyer's destination is a rate per one   hundred pounds, the seller shall bill the buyer on the weight basis of   1,650 pounds per thousand board feet. The term ""lowest published   freight rate"" refers only to the lowest published ""general through   rate"" and not to rates published in any other rate class. If, however, the buyer’s destination is outside of the aforementioned   area, the seller shall follow the same procedures except that the   seller shall have the right to change the point of origin and/or   originating carrier within 2 Business Days after receipt of buyer’s   original shipping instructions. If a change of origin and/or   originating carrier is made, the seller shall then follow the buyer's   revised instructions within seven (7) Business Days after receipt of   such instructions. If the freight rate to the buyer's destination is not published, the   freight charge shall be negotiated between the buyer and seller in   accordance with industry practice. Any additional freight charges resulting from diversion by the buyer   in excess of the actual charges for shipment to the destination   specified in the shipping instructions submitted to the Clearing House   are the responsibility of the buyer. Any reduction in freight charges   that may result from a diversion is not subject to billing adjustment   through the Clearing House. Any applicable surcharges noted by the   rail carrier shall be considered as part of the freight rate and can   be billed to the buyer through the CME Clearing House. If within two (2) Business Days of the receipt of the Notice of Intent   the buyer has not designated a destination, or if during that time the   buyer and seller fail to agree on a negotiated freight charge, the   seller shall treat the destination as Chicago, Illinois. If the buyer   does not designate a carrier or routing, the seller shall select same   according to normal trade practices. To complete delivery, the seller   must deposit with the Clearing House a Delivery Notice, a uniform   straight bill of lading (or a copy thereof) and written information   specifying grade, a tally of pieces of each length, board feet by   sizes and total board feet. The foregoing documents must be received   by the Clearing House postmarked within fourteen (14) Business Days of   the date of receipt of shipping instructions. In addition, within one (1) Business Day after acceptance by the   railroad, the Clearing House must receive information (via a telephone   call, facsimile or electronic transmission) from the seller giving the   car number, piece count by length, unit size, total board footage and   date of acceptance. The ￼date of acceptance by the railroad is the   date of the bill of lading, signed and/or stamped by the originating   carrier, except when determined otherwise by the Clearing House. For some commodities you can't get physical delivery (for instance, Cheese futures won't deliver piles of cheese to your door, for reasons that may be obvious) 6003.A. Final Settlement There shall be no delivery of cheese in settlement of this contract.   All contracts open as of the termination of trading shall be cash   settled based upon the USDA monthly weighted average price in the U.S.   for cheese. The reported USDA monthly weighted average price for   cheese uses both 40 pound cheddar block and 500 pound barrel prices. CME gold futures will deliver to a licensed depository, so you would have to arrange for delivery from the depository (they'll issue you a warrant), assuming you really want a 100 troy oz. bar of gold: CONTRACT SPECIFICATIONS The contract for delivery on futures contracts shall be one hundred   (100) troy ounces of gold with a weight tolerance of 5% either higher   or lower. Gold delivered under this contract shall assay to a minimum   of 995 fineness and must be a brand approved by the Exchange. Gold meeting all of the following specifications shall be deliverable   in satisfaction of futures contract delivery obligations under this   rule: Either one (1) 100 troy ounce bar, or three (3) one (1) kilo bars. Gold must consist of one or more of the Exchange’s Brand marks, as provided in Chapter 7, current at the date of the delivery of   contract. Each bar of Eligible gold must have the weight, fineness, bar number, and brand mark clearly incised on the bar. The weight may be   in troy ounces or grams. If the weight is in grams, it must be   converted to troy ounces for documentation purposes by dividing the   weight in grams by 31.1035 and rounding to the nearest one hundredth   of a troy ounce. All documentation must illustrate the weight in troy   ounces. Each Warrant issued by a Depository shall reference the serial number and name of the Producer of each bar. Each assay certificate issued by an Assayer shall certify that each bar of gold in the lot assays no less than 995 fineness and weight of   each bar and the name of the Producer that produced each bar. Gold must be delivered to a Depository by a Carrier as follows: a. directly from a Producer; b. directly from an Assayer, provided that such gold is accompanied by   an assay certificate of such Assayer; or c. directly from another Depository; provided, that such gold was   placed in such other Depository pursuant to paragraphs (a) or (b)   above." My broker collates the order book by price and marketplace, displaying the number of shares available at each level, sorted as in Victor's screencap. You can glean information from not just a snapshot of the order book but also by watching how it changes over time. Although it's not always a complete picture -- many brokers hold limit orders internally until the market is close, at which point they'll route to an exchange or trade internally. And of course skilled market participants know that there's people out there looking to glean information from the order book and will act to confuse the picture. The order book can show you: Combined with a list of trades (price & size, and whether it was a buy or sell), you can get a much more complete picture of what's going on with a stock than by looking at charts alone. "There are a number of choices: I prefer Dilip's response ""Have you tried asking etrade?"" No offense, but questions about how a particular broker handles certain situations are best asked of the broker.  Last - one should never enter into any trade (especially options trades) without understanding the process in advance. I hope you are asking this before trading." "- In a quote driven market, must every investor trade with a market        maker? In other words, two parties that are both not market makers        cannot trade between themselves directly? In a way yes, all trades go through a market maker but those trades can be orders put in place by a ""person"" IE: you, or me. - Does a quote driven market only display the ""best"" bid and ask        prices proposed by the market makers? In other words, only the        highest bid price among all the market makers is displayed, and        other lower bid prices by other market makers are not? Similarly,        only the lowest ask price over all market makers is displayed, and        other higher ask prices by other market makers are not? No, you can see other lower bid and higher ask prices. - In a order-driven market, is it meaningful to talk about ""the current stock price"", which is the price of last transaction? Well that's kind of an opinion. Information is information so it won't be bad to know it. Personally I would say the bid and ask price is more important. However in the real world these prices are changing constantly and quickly so realistically it is easier to keep track of the quote price and most likely the bid/ask spread is small and the quote will fall in between. The less liquid a security is the more important the bid/ask is. -- This goes for all market types. - For a specific asset, will there be several transactions happened at    the same time but with different prices? Today with electronic markets, trades can happen so quickly it's difficult to say. In the US stock market trades happen one at a time but there is no set time limit between each trade. So within 1 second you can have a trade be $50 or $50.04. However it will only go to $50.04 when the lower ask prices have been exhausted.   - Does an order driven market have market makers?  By definition, no. - What are some examples of quote driven and order driven financial markets, in which investors are commonly trading stocks and derivatives, especially in U.S.? Quote driven market: Bond market, Forex. Order driven market: NYSE comes from an order driven market but now would be better classified as a ""hybird market"" Conclusion: If you are asking in order to better understand today's stock markets then these old definitions of Quote market or Order market may not work. The big markets in the real world are neither. (IE: Nasdaq, NYSE...) The NYSE and Nasdaq are better classified as a ""hybird market"" as they use more then a single tactic from both market types to insure market liquidity, and transparency. Markets these days are strongly electronic, fast, and fairly liquid in most cases. Here are some resources to better understand these markets: An Introduction To Securities Markets The NYSE And Nasdaq: How They Work Understanding Order Execution" "Market orders do not get priority over limit orders.  Time is the only factor that matters in price/time order matching when the order price is the same. For example, suppose the current best available offer for AAPL is $100.01 and the best available bid is $100.00.  Now a limit buy for $100.01 and a market buy arrive at around the same instant.  The matching engine can only receive one order at a time, no matter how close together they arrive. Let's say that by chance the limit buy arrives first.  The engine will check if there's a matching sell at $100.01 and indeed there is and a trade occurs.  This all happens in an instant before the matching engine ever sees the market buy.  Then it moves on to the market buy and processes it accordingly. On the other hand, let's say that by chance the market buy arrives first.  The engine will match it with the best available sell (at $100.01) and a trade occurs.  This all happens in an instant before the matching engine ever sees the limit buy.  Then it moves on to the limit buy and processes it accordingly. So there's never a comparison between the two orders or their ""priorities"" because they never exist in the system at the same time.  The first one to arrive is processed first; the second one to arrive is processed second." If you want to make sure you pay at or below a specific price per share, use a limit order. If you want to buy the stock close to the current price, but aren't price sensitive, use a market order. Market orders are typically not a great idea because if you're buying thousands or tens of thousands of shares this can mean a large swing in cost if the market suddenly changes direction. In the world of stock exchanges, the result depends on the market state of the traded stock. There are two possibilities, (a) a trade occurs or (b) no trade occurs. During the so-called auction phase, bid and ask prices may overlap, actually they usually do. During an open market, when bid and ask match, trades occur.