What happens after you press buy

The button is pressed, a line with the security appears in the app. It looks as though the trade is done. In fact only its first half is.

The order goes to the book

Your instruction reaches the broker, who places an order on the exchange. There it joins the order book — the queue of buy and sell orders sorted by price.

{{figure:order-book|caption=A market order fills at the price of the opposite side, and the spread between them is what it really costs}}

If you sent a market order, it fills at the best available price on the other side. A limit order waits until the price reaches it. The difference between the two is covered in Market and limit orders: what speed costs you.

The trade is struck — settlement is not

Striking a trade and transferring ownership are separate events, separated in time. Between them runs the settlement cycle, during which the exchange infrastructure reconciles both sides' obligations.

{{figure:settlement-timeline|caption=Between the trade and the entry in the register runs the settlement cycle — and it is what shifts the date ownership transfers}}

Why this is not a formality

The settlement cycle is exactly why the last day to buy for a dividend falls before the record date. Buy on the record date and you land on the register after it, and receive nothing. In detail: How to receive a dividend, step by step.

What the app shows

The position usually appears right after the trade is struck — which is convenient and correct: the right already exists, and the paperwork proceeds on its own. But when an operation hangs on a specific date — a record date, a put date, an expiry — count from the settlement date, not from the date of the click.