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Online investing trading stock question?

Lets say I bought bunch of ABCD at $10
I want to sell it the price goes $9 or lower (This is called a Sell-Stop-Order)
I also wish to sell it once the price goes $12 or higher (How would I enter this order?)

Can I set both these criteria at the simultaneously?

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3 Responses to “Online investing trading stock question?”

1. admin Says:
   February 23rd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
   Yes you can set both these orders simultaneously. Any major brokerage firm will be able to do this for you. Your trading cost is often lower if you enter the trade online rather than by phone. However, if you are unsure how to enter the trade call the customer support number to get instructions.

   The others who have answered this question have provided good information, however, you should verify procedures with your brokerage firm.

   Something else to consider on your stop loss order is stop loss market or stop loss limit. A stop loss does not guarantee that you will sell at the desired price. Usually a stock falls gradually over time. In this case a stop loss works. However, sometimes dramatic news is released and a stock can instantly drop. In this case a stop loss may not help you.

   If a scandal breaks or there is a dramatic market event like 9/11, a stock can drop from $100 to $50 or lower instantly. If you have a stop loss market at $80, a market order will be entered when the price hits $80 and you will sell at the market price. In this example, you would not sell at $80 because there would be no buyers at that price, you would sell at $50. If you enter a stop loss limit, a limit order will be entered at $80 when the price falls to that level, but in this case, since the price when immediately to $50 you would not sell at all since there would be no buyers at your limit price.

   Stop loss orders can also backfire in volatile stocks or in volatile markets. You can get sold out of your position on a brief dip down. Stocks are inherently volatile and long-term investors will do better owning a broadly diversified portfolio and letting their investments do their thing over long periods of time. Many good long-term investments go through down periods.

   If I owned a stock at $100 and it dropped to $80, I would not want to sell, I would want to buy more. Unless, of course, something happened to change my long term perspective on the stock.

   If you decide to use a stop loss strategy, make sure you really understand what you are doing.

2. admin Says:
   February 23rd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
   Stop Order is used for both say you own Apple INC (APPL) you bought in for $100 per share and want your return to be $20 but don't want to lose your already mad profit and the stock is $115. You can use stop orders to insure that. Set a Sale-Stop-Order for $100 and $120. You can also use this to buy a stock at a set price, called a stop order, say you want to buy US Steel symbol (X) for $40 per share and it's trading above that price. Put in a bid for $40 per share and a stop buy order for the amount of days you are willing to pay the $40 per share. When the stock falls to your price your order will be executed automatically. All online brokers offer these.
3. admin Says:
   February 23rd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
   You need a special type of order to accomplish this. I do not know if all brokers will allow you to enter this type or not. TD Ameritrade does and so does Fidelity. The order type is OCA or OCO–one cancels another or one cancels the other.. If one order is executed the other is canceled. What you do not want to have happen is for the stop loss to get executed and the the price rise and the sell order get execute. You actually enter two orders and they are linked by the OCA so if one executes the other is canceled.

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