Good-Til-Canceled Order.
In plain English
A good-til-canceled order (often shortened to GTC) is an instruction to buy or sell a stock at your chosen price that keeps working across many trading days. It contrasts with a day order, which cancels itself automatically when the market closes if it has not filled. You usually pair a GTC with a limit price, so it sits and waits until the stock reaches the number you set. Most brokers cap how long a GTC can stay open and then cancel it on their own, so it is not truly forever. Your broker sets that maximum length.
01Why it matters
If you want to buy a stock only at a specific price and do not want to re-enter the order every single morning, a GTC does the waiting for you. The risk is forgetting it: a stale order can fill weeks later at a price that no longer makes sense for you.
02The math, step by step
You think a $50 stock is worth buying at $44, so you place a GTC limit order to buy 10 shares at $44. The order does nothing for two weeks. On day 15 the price dips to $44, your order fills, and you have spent $440. Had you used a day order instead, it would have expired unfilled on day one and you would have had to re-enter it 14 more times. Your broker sets the maximum length a GTC can stay open, so check yours.
03What this is NOT
A day order dies at the closing bell if it does not fill. A GTC survives the close and keeps trying on later days until it fills, you cancel it, or your broker's time limit ends it.
04Receipts
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