The indirect way is the conventional route where you can place buy orders on the chosen mutual funds. (adigitalblogger.com)
The result should be different, though, if you gave a single buy order for 200 and your broker happened to execute it by buying two lots of 100 shares each. (fairmark.com)
Sometimes it is worthwhile to place a limit buy order at the bid price, but only if there are not many shares quoted at the bid. (aaii.com)