Most of the time a submitted buy or sell order in the stock market can be canceled. It could be rejected or canceled by a brokerage firm if, for example, you placed a buy stop order that is below the current market price, or a sell stop order price has already been reached. Or perhaps you placed an order with a broker that does not handle the stock you are interested in buying.
However, any market order for let's say 200 shares of Never Cancel Inc. is executed immediately, so it would be next to impossible to cancel. But a limit order such as "buy 100 shares of Never Cancel Inc. when it hits $20 a share," should give you time to cancel either online or through a broker.
There is also such a thing as "Fill or Kill" orders. Let's say you wanted to buy 500 shares of a stock but only 400 shares are available at the price you wanted. Since the entire order can't be completed, it will be canceled. To add to the list, there are one-cancels-the-other orders (OCO). Johnny Trader thinks Take a Chance On Me Inc. might break out and go up above the current price range of $25 to $50, but also wants to protect himself on the off chance he is wrong. So he places an OCO with a buy limit of $52 and a sell limit for $23. If the stock hits $52 the buy order goes through and the sell order is canceled. And alternatively, if it goes down to $23 the sell order is executed and the buy order canceled.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What are Limit Order, Sell Limi...7 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...
A market order is a type of buy or sell order, but wouldn't it be more appetizing if it was fresh fruit, or smoked salmon, or any other delicious t...