Are market orders safe?
"A market sell order will be filled at the highest current ""bid"" price. For a reasonably liquid stock, there will be several buy orders in line, and the highest bid must be filled first, so there should a very short time between when you place the order and when it is filled.   What could happen is what's called front running. That's when the broker places their own order in front of yours to fulfill the current bid, selling their own stock at the slightly higher price, causing your sale to be filled at a lower price.  This is not only unethical but illegal as well. It is not something you should be concerned about with a large broker.   You should only place a market order when you don't care about minute differences between the current ask and your execution price, but want to guarantee order execution. If you absolutely have to sell at a minimum price, then a limit order is more appropriate, but you run the risk that your limit will not be reached and your order will not be filled. So the risk is a tradeoff between a guaranteed price and a guaranteed execution." Market orders can be reasonably safe when dealing with stocks that are rather liquid and have quite low volatility. But it's important to note that you're trading a large degree of control over your buy / sell price for a small benefit in speed or complexity of entering an order. I always use limit orders as they help me guard against unexpected moves of the stock. Patience and attention to details are good qualities to have as an investor.
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If other participants enter opposing market orders at this price, then their market order will be paired with your limit order. In your example, trader B wishes to close his long position. To do this he may enter a market sell order, which will immediately close his position at the lowest possible buy limit price, or he may enter a limit sell order, specifying the price at or above which he is willing to sell. In the case of the limit order, he will only sell and successfully close his position if his order becomes the lowest sell order on the book. All this may be a lot easier to understand by looking at a visual image of an order book such as the one given in the explanation that I have published here: Stop Orders for Futures Finally, not that as far as the exchange is concerned, there is no difference between an order to open and an order to close a position. They're all just 'buy' or 'sell' orders. Whether they cause you to reduce/exit a position or increase/establish a position is relative to the position you currently hold; if you're flat a buy order establishes a new position, if you're short it closes your position and leaves you flat. Never trust a single source to give you a fair price, especially if they are not in competition, moreso if they know that's the case.  I would want to get a quote from at least one other broker in terms of what they feel they can sell the bonds for.  (and let them know they are not the only one you are getting a quote from)  To start with you need information, such as when is the last time a bond like the ones you have traded and what did it sell for. Also sources for where you can sell the bonds and more info on the entire subject. SIFMA (The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) has a pretty helpful website called InvestingInBonds.com.  I find it has a wealth of information, and is relatively free of bias. On the Municipal Markets at a Glance page you can get history for various bonds if you have the CUSIP (pronounced 'que-sip') numbers for the bonds. If these bonds are as good as the advisor is telling you they are, then they should be selling for a premium, and the recent sales history would reflect that.  I'd find one or two other potential sellers, and get prices from each of them, compare that against recent history and go with whichever one seems to be offering you the best deal. In terms of choosing someone, and how to go about selling bonds, the same website has some excellent information and guidance on buying and selling bonds and How to Choose an Investment Professional which includes how to check up on them to see if they have ever faced disciplinary action, etc..  I would also consider any gains you might have to declare if you sell these for more than face value, and if that would be taxable etc. I would also question your 'too safe' judgement.  Just because something is 'safe' I would not necessarily throw it out.  You need to look at the return relative to the risk, and if you are not investing in a tax sheltered account, the affect of taxes on your net return.  If these are earning a really good return, for fairly low risk, they might be worth keeping, especially if in today's market you need to take substantially more risk to get a comparable return.  Taking more risk to get nearly the same return isn't very wise, since an aspect of the risk is perhaps not getting any return, or losing money.   In a volatile market there can be a substantial benefit to having a lower risk 'foundation' that you build upon with more risky investments, in order to provide some risk diversity in your portfolio. You might want to consider for example how these bonds have done over the last 13 years, compared to a similar investment in the type of 'less safe' vehicles you are considering.  Perhaps you'd be better off just holding these to maturity instead of gambling on something with a lot more risk that could go south on you. You can make a purchase at the after market price by sending an order that gets executed in after market. Often times these are called Extended orders, or EXT. With an EXT limit order it will place the bid on the after market hours order book. If you get filled, then you have the shares.  This is the answer. Depends on what you are going for. Sometimes first to market is the correct decision, while other times being more conservative is correct. All depends on risk/reward.   Edit: given that this was merely supposed to be a proof of concept/advertisement for the business's speed capabilities, and the low cost involved, there didn't appear to be very much risk. Many exchanges trade the same securities.  An order may be posted to a secondary exchange, but if the National Best Bid and Offer data provider malfunctions, only those with data feeds from that exchange will see it. Only the data provider for the primary exchange where a stock is listed provides the NBBO. Missing orders are very common with the NBBO data providers.  NASDAQ's order consolidator has had many failures over the past few years, and the data provider's top executive has recently resigned. Brokers have no control over this system.  A broker may be alerted to a malfunction by an accountholder, but a broker may only inform the relevant exchange and the relevant data provider. "If you read the first sentence of the article, you'll notice that the orders were placed, then canceled.  The only reason this is done is to front run real incoming orders and get in.    ""Translation: the ultimate goal of many of these programs is to gum up the system so it slows down the quote feed to others and allows the computer traders (with their co-located servers at the exchanges) to gain a money-making arbitrage opportunity.""  If you are an investor without access to floor space within 3 meters of the exchange computer to place a computer of your own, you are being  defrauded of the true market price by this machine." It's safe in the sense that there is no counter party risk involved when holding bitcoins but it is still too early to call it a safe haven. However it could become very useful if strict capital controls are enforced around Europe.