  We study three natural bi-invariant partial orders on a certain covering
group of the automorphism group of a bounded symmetric domain of tube type;
these orderings are defined using the geometry of the Shilov boundary, Lie
semigroup theory and quasimorphisms respectively. Our main result shows that
these orders are related by two inclusion relations. In the case of $SL_2(\R)$
we can show that they coincide.
