Why is my order stuck in pending status?

A pending status means the exchange hasn’t found a full match for your order yet, and the most common cause is that your limit price hasn’t been reached by the market. It can also be pending because of partial fills still waiting for the remaining quantity, low liquidity in that particular stock or option contract, or, less commonly, a delay on the exchange or broker’s system during high-volume periods like market open. You check the current market price against your order price first, since a limit set too far from where the stock is currently trading is the single most common reason an order just sits there. If the price has already reached your level and it’s still pending after several minutes in a liquid stock, that’s when you’d check for a system or connectivity issue instead.