How to utilize stock-trade limits to your advantage
The majority of stock orders are done at “market”: A person buying a stock can purchase it at the lowest price that others are willing to sell it for at that moment — this is referred to as the “ask price.” A person wanting to sell at market would receive the highest price that another person is willing to pay at that moment — this is referred to as the “bid price.”
During volatile times, it is increasingly important that people set limit orders rather than market orders. From the buy side, limit orders enable you to choose how much you would be willing to pay for a stock.
If a stock price hits the limit price, your order to purchase the stock would be filled if there are enough sellers at that price.
From the sell side, limit orders enable you to choose how much you want to receive for your shares. If the share price does not reach that level, you are content holding onto your investment.
Ten points to consider before your next buy or sell order: 1. Discipline: Limit orders provide the discipline to set prices in advance for orders relating to your investment account. 2. Quarterly meetings: Most limit orders are set for no more than three months and are monitored on an ongoing basis. At every in-person or phone meeting, the limit orders should be discussed, as these are considered “open orders.” Open orders are those orders previously entered but not filled. At any time, it may make sense to cancel or change an existing order or add another. 3. Flexibility: There is no cost to set, modify or cancel limit orders. If the market is moving in certain directions, orders can be modified at any time, provided they have not been filled. 4. Open orders: One item to watch is the total of all open buy orders. If the market declines significantly, and all open buy orders are filled, you should ensure the account has enough cash to cover. If not, you should consider cancelling some of the open orders. 5. Lump sum: Often, when people receive transfers from a pension, inheritance or selling real estate, they may invest the entire amount immediately. We encourage people that are new to investing to take it slowly. Limit orders allow the process to be slowed. 6. Limit orders within one sector: One strategy that has worked well for investors looking at three stocks in one sector is to prioritize the three by preference. Stock A is your first pick, Stock B is your second pick and Stock C is your third pick. Consider purchasing Stock A at market, enter a limit order to purchase Stock B at two per cent below its current market price, and enter a limit order for Stock C at four per cent below the current market price. If the market goes up, you own Stock A only. If the market declines further, you could possibly pick up both Stock B and Stock C at lower prices. 7. Sell discipline: After a buy order is filled, consider a subsequent sell order at your desired profit level. 8. Intra-day swings: The majority of people see the end-of-day values for indices and possibly look up the closing prices for the individual investments they own. Stock price volatility has been extreme at times. Even within a one-day trading session, we are seeing large swings in the indices and specific stocks. Limit orders may assist with taking advantage of this volatility. 9. Low volumes: Some stocks have very little trading on the exchange. The finance term for low activity is thinly traded. It is always riskier entering market orders on thinly traded stocks. The spread between the bid (what buyers are wanting to pay) and ask (what sellers are wanting to sell for) is normally much wider on thinly traded stocks. Often, a better strategy for these types of securities is to set limits on what you would be willing to pay or sell the stock for. 10. Changing position size: Another great use of limit orders is to use them for increasing or decreasing your position size.
Let’s say you have 500 shares of ABC Co. you purchased for $20 per share. The initial position size is $10,000. If the share price increases to $25, the market value of your investment would be $12,500. One strategy may be to set a limit order to sell 100 shares at $25. If the order is filled, your investment would drop down to the $10,000 level (400 shares x $25). This same investor could have used a more conservative initial approach by purchasing 250 shares at $20 for a half position size of $5,000.
At the same time, a limit buy order could have been entered to purchase another 250 if the share price drops to $18 (a 10 per cent decline). If the price goes up, the investor is making an immediate profit. If the price goes down, the investor is able to dollar-cost average by buying the same number of shares for a lower price.