with or without


With or Without

Describing an order to buy or sell an odd-lot of a security immediately at the best available price. An odd-lot is any quantity of shares other than 100. Odd-lot orders are more difficult to execute because there are fewer of them; many sellers charge more for odd-lot orders and many buyers will not pay as much. As a result, many odd-lot orders look for a counter-order without this premium attached. A with or without order does not wait for this and is simply executed immediately.

with or without (WOW)

Used to designate an odd-lot order in which the customer asks for an immediate execution. An odd-lot purchase order marked WOW will be executed at the current offering price plus any odd-lot differential, and an odd-lot sell order will receive the current bid price minus any odd-lot differential. An odd-lot order marked with or without is likely to result in a lower sale price or in a higher purchase price than an ordinary odd-lot order.