stock broker

csgohan4

OP look at Tesla and how volatile markets as an example, you could up x% but equally you could be seriously in the red. Investments usually are for the long term in less riskier areas, individual stocks are not for beginners and if you want to sleep well at night. 

lr1277

An example of not being able to trade automatically with my broker's systerms happened in the last 30 mins. I wanted to sell a share, the mid-price was indicated at 590p. So I put in a sell order to sell my shares. The broker indicated the markets were busy and they couldn't complete my trade. This happens a lot and I find quite annoying. So either try again later or place a limit order. So I placed a limit order.

The bid price (or the price at which you could buy the share) was 591 and the ask price (the price at which you could sell the share back) was 589. So I placed a limit order at 588.

Within a few minutes my shares were sold at 589.

Sorcerer2018

Why is everybody thinking they could make a fast buck these days, i blame You Tube, Reddit and Instagram which is plastered with get rick quick schemes on how people could get 10% per day growth etc. Crazy.

Eco_Miser

Sorcerer2018 said:

Why is everybody thinking they could make a fast buck these days, i blame You Tube, Reddit and Instagram which is plastered with get rick quick schemes on how people could get 10% per day growth etc. Crazy.

Possibly because a lot of people  recently did make a fast buck in a blaze of publicity, simply by buying at the right moment and selling at the right moment. Admittedly many more failed to sell, and others bought way to late, but that's the way bubbles work.

jimjames

lr1277 said:

An example of not being able to trade automatically with my broker's systerms happened in the last 30 mins. I wanted to sell a share, the mid-price was indicated at 590p. So I put in a sell order to sell my shares. The broker indicated the markets were busy and they couldn't complete my trade. 

It would probably help the OP and the rest of us if you named the broker. Without knowing which one it won't really help anyone decide.

underground99

jimjames said:

lr1277 said:

An example of not being able to trade automatically with my broker's systerms happened in the last 30 mins. I wanted to sell a share, the mid-price was indicated at 590p. So I put in a sell order to sell my shares. The broker indicated the markets were busy and they couldn't complete my trade. 

It would probably help the OP and the rest of us if you named the broker. Without knowing which one it won't really help anyone decide.

Most brokers are the same, in that there will be times when there isn't an instant online quote available for certain stocks or even a range of markets if the broker has an unusual technical fault. In that case you will just need to ask them to work an order for you at market best, and leave it with them; or place a limit order, and leave it with them.

If you use only a cheap app-based broker you may not have the option of being able to phone up and leave an order with them to execute it as soon as they can, and so if you really really wanted to trade and didn't mind the price you might obtain, you would have to just submit a limit order with a generous amount of potential market movement so they would queue it and put it through as soon as practicable. 

Lack of an instant quote from time to time isn't unique to one or two brokers, it happens to all of them. But I don't suppose these anecdotes will help the (now banned) OP who feared that the broker would just take his money and not return it if markets got too jittery, and pondered getting them to sign a piece of paper which promised to not run off with his money, so that they wouldn't be able to screw him over without breaking that special promise. We look forward to some similarly serious threads from him again under a different username.

lr1277

jimjames said:

lr1277 said:

An example of not being able to trade automatically with my broker's systerms happened in the last 30 mins. I wanted to sell a share, the mid-price was indicated at 590p. So I put in a sell order to sell my shares. The broker indicated the markets were busy and they couldn't complete my trade. 

It would probably help the OP and the rest of us if you named the broker. Without knowing which one it won't really help anyone decide.

My broker is Charles Stanley Direct.

I have only once found a problem when trying to buy irrespective of my order size as compared to what I think is called the normal market size.

However over the last 6 months I have had to place sell limit orders when instant online quote were not available for every sell order. I suspect in most cases my sell order size was bigger than the normal market size.

lozzy1965

underground99 said:

But I don't suppose these anecdotes will help the (now banned) OP who feared that the broker would just take his money and not return it if markets got too jittery, and pondered getting them to sign a piece of paper which promised to not run off with his money, so that they wouldn't be able to screw him over without breaking that special promise. We look forward to some similarly serious threads from him again under a different username.

   Any idea what caused the ban?

lr1277

underground99 said:

...But I don't suppose these anecdotes will help the (now banned) OP who feared that the broker would just take his money and not return it if markets got too jittery, and pondered getting them to sign a piece of paper which promised to not run off with his money, so that they wouldn't be able to screw him over without breaking that special promise. ...

Had no idea the OP was banned. Was disappointed they had not added to this thread after starting it. Now I know why.

Thrugelmir

lr1277 said:

jimjames said:

lr1277 said:

An example of not being able to trade automatically with my broker's systerms happened in the last 30 mins. I wanted to sell a share, the mid-price was indicated at 590p. So I put in a sell order to sell my shares. The broker indicated the markets were busy and they couldn't complete my trade. 

It would probably help the OP and the rest of us if you named the broker. Without knowing which one it won't really help anyone decide.

My broker is Charles Stanley Direct.

I have only once found a problem when trying to buy irrespective of my order size as compared to what I think is called the normal market size.

However over the last 6 months I have had to place sell limit orders when instant online quote were not available for every sell order. I suspect in most cases my sell order size was bigger than the normal market size.

Charles Stanley will link your order through to execution venues. They won't be dealing directly on the LSE for the majority of stocks nor for the size of order you are placing.  Desk trading is better if you won't to place £50k of stock in one transaction. At times execution venues (market makers) won't instanteously quote a price. They may well already have temporary indigestion offloading lines of stock on their books. 
Also a stocks price can be temporarily suspended if there's a lot of activity and the market becomes disorderly. In effect a time out to provide breathing space. 

What stocks were you trading? Illiquid stocks can be hard to shift on occasions.