In this article we study the space of left- and bi-invariant orderings on a torsion-free nilpotent group G. We will show that generally the set of such orderings is equipped with a faithful action of the automorphism group of G. We prove a result which allows us to establish the same conclusion when G is assumed to be merely residually torsion-free nilpotent. In particular, we obtain faithful actions of mapping class groups of surfaces. We will draw connections between the structure of orderings on residually torsion-free nilpotent, hyperbolic groups and their Gromov boundaries, and we show that in those cases a faithful Aut(G)-action on the boundary is equivalent to a faithful Aut(G) action on the space of left-invariant orderings.

The author was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for part of the time that this research was carried out.