Selling shares on a "stop loss" basis

Mr_qwerty_asdfgh

I purchased a fair few shares in XEL earlier this year (via Natwest stockbrokers online), and in case they drop drastically due to poor flow results, I was considering setting up a stop loss sale.
I'm out of the UK for a couple of weeks and doubt if I will be able to telephone Natwest to ask for advice, so I thought I'd try here.

If I was to set this sale up online (I was thinking at setting it at about 90p), does anyone know if it will stay pending indefinately until the price drops to 90p, or does this sort of arrangment expire after a while and then need setting up again.

malik999

It should hold but you never know your particular account might have a expiry time frame.
It will certainly be good for a couple weeks so you can do it now then phone natwest on your return to UK.

KingL

set it a fair bit lower than you want to, coz what you don't see in the charts is that there is a pretty big second by second bouncing around of the price. The first time I used a stop loss, I ended up inadvertently dumping a load of shares because of simple background noise, rather than the plummet I thought I was protecting against!

Biggles

Some brokers will allow stops set GTC (good till cancelled) but with Barclays, for example, they are only good for 30 days and you need to regularly check and amend it.