Newbie Question on an Order - Stop/Limit

L

Lapdance Jockey

Hello All -

I appologize in advanced for this question and hope it doesn't make anyones head hurt -

I tried to put in a stop order at 7.30 when the bid was 7.35 --- just to lock in my gain... however it told me that i had to place it at 10 cents lower than the current bid... so i didnt want to do that

so i put in a limit sell order at 7.30 and it was immediatly exectued at 7.32... now i realize that was a better price than i was asking - but i didnt want that to happen - b/c i was just trying to lock in a profit and i didnt know if the morning run was over or not (its at 7.43 right now)... PTIE if you're wondering -

so my question is - whats the point of a stop if you can't snuggle it up to where you want it.

and i think i figured out stop/limits... basically i would have had to put in two prices - essentially guessing at where i thought the top was. like 7.25 and then like 7.50 - and hoped it hit 7.50, or if i tanked id be out at 7.25? correct/incorrect??

many thanks

Jockey
 
if you placed a straight sell limit below the bid, it will be executed at the best bid upto your limit price.

You basically placed a marketable limit order to sell at bid or below upto the price you entered it at.

a sell stop or sell stoplimit is a different type of order which goes below the bid and isnt executed till price touches it.
 
Inferior brokerage firms, e.g., Scottrade, Lowtrades, etc. will put restrictions such as stop-sell price needs to be at least 0.1 (or 0.15) less than the current market price. Who is your broker?
 
Stop (i.e., the order becomes a market order at the stop activation price) , stop-limit (i.e., the order becomes a limit order at the user defined at the stop activation price) and bracketed orders are 3 different type of orders. Contact your broker to find out how they are triggered.
 
And DON'T USE ETRADE!!!!! Consider IB, MBTrading, fidelity before Etrade or scottrade....

and avoid TD Waterhouse like that fill you got was at 6.30.....because that's where it would have been with TD (and I do understand that's below you limit price ):D
 
By the way, in the nominal margin account, Etrade doesn't even offer bracketed orders (i.e., one for the profit target and another one to stop-loss with "one cancels other").
 
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