Good-Til-Canceled (GTC) Order: What It Is, How It Works, Example

By Kristi Waterworth – Updated Sep 6, 2025 at 3:54 AM

Key Points

Beginner traders often use dollar-cost averaging, building portfolios gradually.
Good-til-canceled orders automate trades, ensuring set price execution without monitoring.
Unlike immediate-or-cancel, good-til-canceled orders last until fully executed or conditions change.

Beginning traders often buy their stocks one order at a time, relying on dollar-cost averaging and a long-term time horizon to build their portfolio. These traders aren't wrong to do it this way. But bigger traders often automate their trades, using tools like good-til-canceled orders. This allows them more certainty about the value of trades without having to babysit portfolios all day long.

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About the Author

Kristi Waterworth has been a contributing real estate and financial expert at The Motley Fool, covering real estate, investing, and personal finance topics, since 2020. Kristi has been interviewed by various TV media outlets and podcasts for her real estate investing expertise – from residential real estate to digital real estate and everything in between. Kristi’s journalist career spans over 25 years, and she has written about real estate investing, homeownership, and home construction specifically for the last decade. She was also previously a licensed Realtor and general building contractor before the Great Recession and housing market collapse. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American history from Columbia College in Missouri.

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