Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Various Types of Stock Trades

By Gerdie Maple

What are the trades you want to make on the stock market? The experts advise starting small with less complex trades. Some types of stock trades, such as short selling, options trades and others take a little more expertise to pull off successfully. Depending on the current market conditions, the actual price at the execution for the trade might differ substantially from the price quoted. There are also limit orders, which will result in the trade only being performed at or above a predetermined price. By using limit orders, you can ensure being protected in terms of price, but you also run the risk that the trade will not be performed at all.

If you are investing in initial public offerings, you have to be even more careful. This is particularly true for IPOs that trade at a much higher price than their offering price. Hot stocks are those that have recently traded under fast market conditions where the price changes so quickly that quotes can keep up with the stock price. In these conditions, you risk buying a stock much higher than your original quote. The risk can be reduced by placing a limit order.

Traders need to have a handle on how things can happen in these rapid trades lest they be blindsided by these fast fluctuations in price. A high volume of trades can outpace the ability of quotations to reflect the real price at that moment. These conditions can also cause a trade execution and conformation to lag behind actual prices. Internet based traders are used to getting real-time information; but under some circumstances, these kinds of delays can and do happen.

There are no SEC regulations that require a trade to be executed within a set period of time. However, if firms advertise their speed of execution, they must not exaggerate or fail to inform their investors about the possibility of significant delays.

The only way to be certain that your buy or sell order will be executed in the price range of your choosing is to use a limit order. Market orders do not have any limits set on prices and can be filled no matter the price of the stock. However, a buy limit order or sell limit order will ensure that the order will only be filled if the price is at or above the price you set (or at or below it, respectively).

Lets take as our example a hot stock " an IPO initially offered at $9; this is a fast moving stock, but you want to pay no more than $20. You can then place a limit order which will only allow the trade to be executed if the price is at or below $20. While you wont end up paying $110 for the stock and taking a loss should the price fall (which it almost certainly will, at least in the short term), it can also mean that your order is never filled at all.

If you cant get quick access to your account over the web, then you have to be aware of all of your options for placing trades. If online access is not an option for you, then there are alternatives which most online trading firms will provide. These include placing trades by touch tone phone, fax or simply by calling a broker. Of course, anything which delays an online order will most likely cause a delay here as well.

If you place an order, never assume anything. Some investors have mistakenly assumed their orders were not executed and placed another. Then they either owned twice as much stock as they wanted. Talk with your firm on handling these situations where you are unsure if your original order was executed. - 15432

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