Delay with buy limit on HL

AskAsk

I have noticed that HL buy limit can be delayed as long as 10 minutes, by which time the price has gone up.  I have spoken to HL about the issue and they are aware of it but don't seem to be that bothered about it and advises me to do the buy myself as their buy limit can not be relied upon and I would be faster than their system.

I find this is not an acceptable answer for a big platform like HL.  Is this normal occurence for a platform and I should accept that this is what happens in practice?

Anyone else experienced this with HL?  May be I should look for a platform that will act on buy limit in a timely manner?  Any recommendations?

george4064

What was the stock? What was the buy limit order price? And when did this happen?

Thrugelmir

AskAsk said:

May be I should look for a platform that will act on buy limit in a timely manner? 

Platforms don't offer full stock broking services. You'll need one telephone based with direct access to markets. 

AskAsk

Thrugelmir said:

AskAsk said:

May be I should look for a platform that will act on buy limit in a timely manner? 

Platforms don't offer full stock broking services. You'll need one telephone based with direct access to markets. 

it would appear that way.  i thought that the trading team have to pick up the buy limit and deal themselves, so when there is not enough staff around or they are too busy with lots of deals being placed, there is a delay.

but when i googled how buy limits are placed, it seems to state that they are automated so it would imply that HL system is slow to place the orders when the price is reached.

just wondering if this only applies to HL or whether this is standard on platforms.  i would have thought an automated system would be quite quick, like those ebay sniper tools that you can use for example, which is very fast.

wmb194

I don't use this type of order very often but when I have Barclays always executed the order as expected. I'd suggest you try another broker.

Thrugelmir

AskAsk said:

Thrugelmir said:

AskAsk said:

May be I should look for a platform that will act on buy limit in a timely manner? 

Platforms don't offer full stock broking services. You'll need one telephone based with direct access to markets. 

it would appear that way.  i thought that the trading team have to pick up the buy limit and deal themselves, so when there is not enough staff around or they are too busy with lots of deals being placed, there is a delay.

but when i googled how buy limits are placed, it seems to state that they are automated so it would imply that HL system is slow to place the orders when the price is reached.

just wondering if this only applies to HL or whether this is standard on platforms.  i would have thought an automated system would be quite quick, like those ebay sniper tools that you can use for example, which is very fast.

Platforms will normally trade through Retail Service Providers. If the RSP's are unable to action the trade it will then get routed to HL's order handlers who'll then contact primary RSP's directly or for larger orders negotiate directly with market markers in the particular stock. That's why there's a time delay.  Far from being instanteous. Even a minute can be a long time in the market when trading. 

Little different to a stop loss limit. If no one wants the trade. Then the market price can fall beneath the sell limit without the trade being actioned.  Markets require two parties to agree a trade. The price is only one factor in the equation. Liquidity can soon dry up. 

AskAsk

wmb194 said:

I don't use this type of order very often but when I have Barclays always executed the order as expected. I'd suggest you try another broker.

i used to invest with fidelity and a couple of times the deals i placed manually were not acted upon for a week and i had to contact fidelity to ask why they haven't sold or bought the funds i had placed and they said it was stuck in their system so platform systems can be unreliable.  however, i have no experience of other platforms.  not used the barclays one before.

george4064

george4064 said:

What was the stock? What was the buy limit order price? And when did this happen?

Not sure if you’re going to answer my questions, but I have a pretty strong feeling that if you drill down to the details it will come down to the computerised limit order system being a bit ‘dumb’ which is why your order wasn’t processed or was processed when it did vs when you expected it would be. Really comes down to people have high expectations for the limit order system which are disconnected from how they actually work.

Again, makes a big difference depending on how liquid the stock is, how volatile the stock price was on the day/time in question.

I think you’ll find that most platforms will have ‘slow’ or ‘bad’ limit order systems, but again can’t comment until you confirm the stock name, the limit price and when this occurred.

AskAsk

Thrugelmir said:

AskAsk said:

Thrugelmir said:

AskAsk said:

May be I should look for a platform that will act on buy limit in a timely manner? 

Platforms don't offer full stock broking services. You'll need one telephone based with direct access to markets. 

it would appear that way.  i thought that the trading team have to pick up the buy limit and deal themselves, so when there is not enough staff around or they are too busy with lots of deals being placed, there is a delay.

but when i googled how buy limits are placed, it seems to state that they are automated so it would imply that HL system is slow to place the orders when the price is reached.

just wondering if this only applies to HL or whether this is standard on platforms.  i would have thought an automated system would be quite quick, like those ebay sniper tools that you can use for example, which is very fast.

Platforms will normally trade through Retail Service Providers. If the RSP's are unable to action the trade it will then get routed to HL's order handlers who'll then contact primary RSP's directly or for larger orders negotiate directly with market markers in the particular stock. That's why there's a time delay.  Far from being instanteous. 30 seconds can be a long time in the market when trading. 

Little different to a stop loss limit. If no one wants the trade. Then the market price can fall beneath the sell limit without the trade being actioned.  Markets require two parties to agree a trade. The price is only one factor in the equation. 

yeah.  i got 3 buy limit came back and the email i got from HL was that by the time they acted on it, the price had gone up.  when i looked at the price graph for the day, the price had been reached and went below for 10 minutes so the delay is at least 10 minutes on this occasion.

on a previous occasion, after 7 minutes and the deals were not placed, i had to cancel the buy limit and made the order myself.  if you do it yourself then it is instant but it sounds like the system goes trhough a different route if you ask it to action a buy or sell limit.

Thrugelmir

AskAsk said:

Thrugelmir said:

AskAsk said:

Thrugelmir said:

AskAsk said:

May be I should look for a platform that will act on buy limit in a timely manner? 

Platforms don't offer full stock broking services. You'll need one telephone based with direct access to markets. 

it would appear that way.  i thought that the trading team have to pick up the buy limit and deal themselves, so when there is not enough staff around or they are too busy with lots of deals being placed, there is a delay.

but when i googled how buy limits are placed, it seems to state that they are automated so it would imply that HL system is slow to place the orders when the price is reached.

just wondering if this only applies to HL or whether this is standard on platforms.  i would have thought an automated system would be quite quick, like those ebay sniper tools that you can use for example, which is very fast.

Platforms will normally trade through Retail Service Providers. If the RSP's are unable to action the trade it will then get routed to HL's order handlers who'll then contact primary RSP's directly or for larger orders negotiate directly with market markers in the particular stock. That's why there's a time delay.  Far from being instanteous. 30 seconds can be a long time in the market when trading. 

Little different to a stop loss limit. If no one wants the trade. Then the market price can fall beneath the sell limit without the trade being actioned.  Markets require two parties to agree a trade. The price is only one factor in the equation. 

  if you do it yourself then it is instant but it sounds like the system goes trhough a different route if you ask it to action a buy or sell limit.

Why didn't you simply buy at spot price?  How long did you set the limit price for? 

AskAsk

george4064 said:

george4064 said:

What was the stock? What was the buy limit order price? And when did this happen?

Not sure if you’re going to answer my questions, but I have a pretty strong feeling that if you drill down to the details it will come down to the computerised limit order system being a bit ‘dumb’ which is why your order wasn’t processed or was processed when it did vs when you expected it would be. Really comes down to people have high expectations for the limit order system which are disconnected from how they actually work.

Again, makes a big difference depending on how liquid the stock is, how volatile the stock price was on the day/time in question.

I think you’ll find that most platforms will have ‘slow’ or ‘bad’ limit order systems, but again can’t comment until you confirm the stock name, the limit price and when this occurred.

it's not just one stock.  it has happened with different stocks and as i had said, if i do it myself there is no problem but through the system there is an issue.

when i do it myself, it can come back to say there is not enough stock for sale or enough buyer to buy, and i have to do it again.  maybe this is where the problem is, that when the stock is moving quickly, the system encounters this and it takes much longer for the order to go through again than me doing it.