Spread difference?

LHW99

Also platforms like HL, II tend to update prices every 15 mins or so during the time the markets are open, so if one does it around the hour and one 5 or 10 minutes later there could be a difference. They should in due course all show the same closing price for shares on a given market. If you look at a US listed share on a UK site though, the closing price will also depend on the market close in local time - so you will get UK closing prices somewhere between 4.30 - 5pm usually, but the US will still be open, so the price will continue to chane for those shares.

On the whole I prefer to trade when the market is open (for shares IT's etc) as I know the price I will buy / sell at. Closing price on day 1 may well not be the opening price on day 2!

Thrugelmir

LHW99 said:

Also platforms like HL, II tend to update prices every 15 mins or so during the time the markets are open, 

A live data feed is expensive.  Free data has a 15 minute delay. 

sevenhills

I tried to buy £500 in Spire Healthcare Group plc today, I got the message below.

The deal did go through on the 5th attempt.

Unable to retrieve a live quote

Unfortunately a live price is not available for your Spire Healthcare Group plc Ordinary 1p order. This may be due to a number of factors including, but not limited to, the size of your order or current market volatility.

You have three options:

1. Press 're-quote' to try again.
2. Leave a limit order, valid for up to 90 days, to deal if the share price reaches a level set by you.
3. Leave a 'fill or kill' order for our dealers to place manually.

Alternatively, to abandon the deal, select 'Cancel'.

Linton

sevenhills said:

I tried to buy £500 in Spire Healthcare Group plc today, I got the message below.

The deal did go through on the 5th attempt.

Unable to retrieve a live quote

Unfortunately a live price is not available for your Spire Healthcare Group plc Ordinary 1p order. This may be due to a number of factors including, but not limited to, the size of your order or current market volatility.

You have three options:

1. Press 're-quote' to try again.
2. Leave a limit order, valid for up to 90 days, to deal if the share price reaches a level set by you.
3. Leave a 'fill or kill' order for our dealers to place manually.

Alternatively, to abandon the deal, select 'Cancel'.

What time?  Particular shares may be in short supply early in the trading day.

sevenhills

Linton said:

What time?  Particular shares may be in short supply early in the trading day.

It was around 10am, sounds like a bigger spread was required.

IanManc

sevenhills said:

Linton said:

What time?  Particular shares may be in short supply early in the trading day.

It was around 10am, sounds like a bigger spread was required.

It is nothing to do with spread. Some shares are relatively illiquid, and this can be exacerbated at times of market volatility. Market makers can't quote when there are no shares around in the market.

wmb194

Linton said:

sevenhills said:

I tried to buy £500 in Spire Healthcare Group plc today, I got the message below.

The deal did go through on the 5th attempt.

Unable to retrieve a live quote

Unfortunately a live price is not available for your Spire Healthcare Group plc Ordinary 1p order. This may be due to a number of factors including, but not limited to, the size of your order or current market volatility.

You have three options:

1. Press 're-quote' to try again.
2. Leave a limit order, valid for up to 90 days, to deal if the share price reaches a level set by you.
3. Leave a 'fill or kill' order for our dealers to place manually.

Alternatively, to abandon the deal, select 'Cancel'.

What time?  Particular shares may be in short supply early in the trading day.

There was M&A activity, or the lack thereof, around Spire yesterday and this can often cause problems with liquidity, particularly with relatively small companies like Spire and/or if e.g., they have small free-floats (don't know the specifics re Spire on this). Stockbrokers' websites/systems sometimes have their own technical issues separate from the stockmarket.

Thrugelmir

sevenhills said:

I tried to buy £500 in Spire Healthcare Group plc today, I got the message below.

The deal did go through on the 5th attempt.

Unable to retrieve a live quote

Unfortunately a live price is not available for your Spire Healthcare Group plc Ordinary 1p order. This may be due to a number of factors including, but not limited to, the size of your order or current market volatility.

You have three options:

1. Press 're-quote' to try again.
2. Leave a limit order, valid for up to 90 days, to deal if the share price reaches a level set by you.
3. Leave a 'fill or kill' order for our dealers to place manually.

Alternatively, to abandon the deal, select 'Cancel'.

Nothing unusual.  Execution houses are under no obligation to quote. 

sevenhills

I just noticed this when I sold one of my shares on HL. The sold price was a little hight than shown on HL and Google.

HL Price Improvement service

The Hargreaves Lansdown Price Improvement service is an intelligent pricing system designed to save you money.

How does it work?
When you place a share deal, our price improvement system instantaneously requests quotes from up to 30 market makers and returns the best price for your deal.

Using so many market makers means that in many cases we can get you a better price than quoted on the market. Any price improvement is passed directly to you, the larger the improvement the more you save.

Although the price improvement system will attempt to get a 'better price' than the price quoted on the market, factors such as the size of order, daily market movement and volumes will determine the availability of any price improvement.

How will you know how much you have saved? When you deal at an improved price we will display this as a total saving. We will also show you the market price and the improved price you have received by using Hargreaves Lansdown.

Thrugelmir

sevenhills said:

I just noticed this when I sold one of my shares on HL. The sold price was a little hight than shown on HL and Google.

There is normally a 15 minute time lag on share prices shown for free in the public domain.