Burgers! Fries! Imagine you’re the captain of a vessel...a pirate, maybe...and you call out to your crew, “Aye aye men, off to the Fountain of Money via the Indian Ocean!” That’s kind of what a directed order is, except you’re ordering the route of a securities trade to your broker or dealer (and you’re not a pirate anymore...sorry).
A directed order is “directed” since the investor is directing their order routing to a certain place, like to a certain stock exchange where the prices on that stock are a tad bit better (for now), for instance. It's for long-term and average Joe investors, where an order executed isn’t that big of a deal, so you’ll only find active traders directing the flow of their orders.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What are Limit Order, Sell Limi...4 Views
Finance a la shmoop what is a limit order? you want to sell a thousand shares
of Colonel electric it was demoted after they cut their dividend the shares have [Scissors cuts dividend in half]
been trading wildly between $15 and $25 a share you don't want to feel like a
moron for having sold them at fifteen bucks when six weeks later they kissed
25 with tongue so what do you do well you put in a limit order that is you put
a limit of a minimum price of 25 bucks a share for Colonel Electric such that [Pile of stocks appear]
those shares will simply sit in your account unsold maybe forever until
somebody out in the wild blue yonder of Stockland is willing to pay twenty five [Woman standing at a colonel electric stand]
dollars or more for the shares where you have a minimum price limit of 25 bucks a
share in your order so here's to hoping they sell and don't get further demoted [Man carries stock into car]
Sargent Electric is just a place you don't want to go
Up Next
What is an All or None Limit Order? An all or none limit order says the investor wants their order filled entirely or not at all. An investor may r...
What are At-the-Close Orders and At-the-Opening Orders? At-the-Close orders are given to brokers and the brokers can only fill them at the close of...
What are Buy Stop and Sell Stop Orders? An investor makes a buy stop order; the buy stop tells the broker to purchase an asset when its price becom...