How to place a limit order on Kite

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A limit order lets you specify the exact price at which you are willing to buy or sell a security. On Zerodha Kite, a limit order is placed by selecting LIMIT as the order type and entering a price in the Price field. The exchange will fill the order only at your specified price or better, never worse. If the market does not reach your price by the end of the session, the order expires unfilled. This guide covers the full procedure for placing a limit order on Kite, along with the considerations relevant to Indian equity markets.

Why choose a limit order

A limit order gives price certainty at the cost of execution certainty. Use a limit order when:

  • You have a specific entry price in mind, for example a support level or a round-number price.
  • The stock is illiquid and a market order would cause significant slippage.
  • You want to buy a dip or sell a rally rather than chasing the current price.
  • You are comfortable waiting for the market to come to your price.

A limit order is less useful when you must exit a position immediately, for example to cut a loss quickly. In that case a market order or SL-M order is more appropriate.

Step-by-step procedure

Log in to Kite

Navigate to kite.zerodha.com or open the Kite mobile app. Enter your Zerodha client ID and password, then authenticate with the six-digit TOTP from your authenticator app.

Open the order ticket

On Kite web, find the scrip in your marketwatch. Hover over the row and click the blue B (Buy) button or the red S (Sell) button. If you want to sell shares from your existing holdings, you can also click the scrip in the Holdings section of Kite and then click Sell, which pre-fills the CNC product code and the quantity held.

On the Kite mobile app, tap the scrip in the marketwatch, then tap Buy or Sell at the bottom of the quote screen.

Select LIMIT as order type

In the order ticket, locate the Order type selector. Click or tap LIMIT. The Price field is now active and shows the last traded price (LTP) as a pre-fill. You will replace this with your intended limit price in the next step.

Set product code and validity

Product code:

  • CNC for equity delivery, shares go into your demat account and are held overnight.
  • MIS for intraday trading, position is auto-squared off before 3:20 PM IST if not closed manually.
  • NRML for overnight F&O positions.

Validity:

  • DAY, the order is valid until the end of the current regular session (3:30 PM IST). Any unfilled portion is cancelled.
  • IOC (Immediate or Cancel), the order attempts to fill immediately; any unfilled portion is cancelled at once. Useful for algorithmic or high-frequency use cases, rarely needed for retail delivery orders.

Enter quantity and limit price

In the Qty field, enter the number of shares. In the Price field, enter your limit price:

  • Buy limit order: Enter the maximum price you are willing to pay. The order fills only if a seller offers shares at or below this price.
  • Sell limit order: Enter the minimum price you are willing to accept. The order fills only if a buyer bids at or above this price.

The Price field on Kite web accepts values in increments of the scrip’s tick size. For most NSE equity shares, the tick size is Rs 0.05. The order will be rejected if you enter a price that is not a valid multiple of the tick size.

Kite displays the estimated order value (Qty x Price) and checks it against your available margin. Ensure the estimated value is below your available cash for a buy order.

Submit the order

Click the blue Buy or red Sell button. Kite routes the order to the exchange and shows a confirmation toast with an order ID. The order is now a resting order in the exchange’s central limit order book and is visible to other market participants through the market depth panel.

Monitor and verify

Navigate to Orders in the left navigation panel. The limit order shows:

  • Open, the order is active in the order book and has not been filled.
  • Complete, the order has been fully executed.
  • Cancelled, the order was cancelled manually or expired at day end.

Click the order row to expand it. If the order has been partially filled, you will see the Filled Qty and Remaining Qty separately. Partially filled orders remain in Open status for the unfilled portion; the filled portion creates a trade entry in the Trade book.

Partial fills

A limit order can result in a partial fill if:

  • At the time the market reaches your price, there is insufficient quantity at that price to fill your entire order.
  • The market touches your price momentarily and moves away before the remaining quantity is matched.

In such cases, the filled portion is executed immediately and the remaining quantity continues to rest in the order book as an open order until it fills or the session ends. You are not charged a brokerage commission twice; the commission is calculated on the total filled quantity at the end of the day.

Modifying a resting limit order

If you want to change the price or quantity of an open limit order, see How to modify a pending order on Kite. Kite allows price and quantity changes on any open order; each modification re-queues the order in the exchange’s order book, which may affect priority.

What can go wrong

  • Order not filling. The market may not reach your limit price during the session. At day end, the order is cancelled. You can place a GTT order to keep a limit order active across multiple sessions.
  • Price outside circuit limits. If your limit price is above the upper circuit limit or below the lower circuit limit, the exchange rejects the order. Check the circuit limits on the NSE or BSE website or the scrip detail screen in Kite.
  • Tick size rejection. If your price is not a valid multiple of the scrip’s tick size (Rs 0.05 for most equity shares), Kite rounds to the nearest valid tick or rejects the entry depending on your browser or app version.
  • Holdings not available. For a sell limit order using CNC, Kite checks that you have the relevant shares in your demat holdings. If the shares have not settled yet (T+1 cycle), you may need to place a BTST sell or wait. See How to do BTST on Zerodha.

References

  1. Zerodha Support, Order types and their usage, support.zerodha.com.
  2. NSE India, Equity trading, order types, nseindia.com.
  3. SEBI, Master Circular for Stock Exchanges, order matching rules, SEBI/HO/MRD, sebi.gov.in.
  4. Zerodha Varsity, Understanding orders, zerodha.com/varsity.

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