How does selling stock work? Say I sell 50 shares in the stock market and place an order. Do 50 shares of that stock actually have to be bought for me to sell it? What if the stock price is going down? Does that mean I will wait longer to find a buyer?
Everything is controlled by computers today. Say you have a stock that you want to sell. You have the choice to place an order to sell at Market Value, Sell it for a Limit Price (Your stock won't sell for less than the stated price) or sell it as a Stop Order (Don't sell my stock unless it drops to the stated price).
If you put Sell Market Order, the system will look for other persons who have placed bids and find you the highest bidder in that moment and execute the order. The bidder gets the stock for his bid and the seller gets the highest bid on the market.
If you put a Sell LImit Order, the system will look for other persons who have placed bids and find the highest bidder in that moment. If the bid price is higher than your ASK price, the system will pay you the highest BID, not the ASK price. If the BID price is lower than the ASK price, the system will put your order on hold until it finds a bidder for your stock or the market price reaches the level of your ASK price.
To answer your question, yes. You have to wait until the market level reaches your ASK price or have to sell it at the current price. If you don't want to be waiting for when the market is going to reach yuor price to place an order, yuo can put an order to sell that never expires. This way, you can go on vacation and the order will not execute until the market reaches your level.