# Half completed at limit buy order?



## jurn (28 February 2006)

Hello!

What happens if submit a buy of 10000 shares in XYZ at $10.00, but then the only person who was willing to sell at $10.00 only wanted to sell 5000, and then the price went up again after that.

does a partial order happen or does it wait until mine can be fully completed.
and if it is a partial order happens do I have to pay my brokerage.

thanks,
Jurn


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## bullmarket (28 February 2006)

hi jurn



			
				jurn said:
			
		

> Hello!
> 
> What happens if submit a buy of 10000 shares in XYZ at $10.00, but then the only person who was willing to sell at $10.00 only wanted to sell 5000, and then the price went up again after that.
> 
> ...




yes, in the above case your order would only be partially filled by the seller of 5000 shares at $10.  Your remaining 5000 would remain in the market depth as per normal until another seller at $10 came along or until the expiry date for your order.

In the mean time while your remaining 5000 buy order is at the top of the market depth at $10, there is nothing stopping someone else coming in with a higher bid (buy price) especially if the sellers have dropped back...ie...the lowest sell in the market depth could be $10.05 after your order was partially filled.  In this case if someone placed a buy order at $10.03 or whatever then you would have to wait until sellers came back down to $10 like normal, or you would have to raise the buy price of your remaining 5000 shares to get the rest of your order filled

You also have the option to cancel the buy order for the unfilled portion of your order and you would then be charged brokerage on only whatever the consideration was for the filled portion of your order.

You will most likely be charged brokerage on the partially filled order which will be calculated based on the consideration of the filled portion.  If your order is filled eventually then you should be charged just one brokerage based on whatever the eventual final consideration is for your completed order.....ie...if the brokerage on the partially filled portion would normally incur $20 brokerage on its own then you will be charged $20 when the partial order is executed and if the sale of your 10000 shares in one go would have also incurred $20 brokerage then the brokerage on the remaining 5000 shares when if they are sold would be $0 and so your total brokerage would still be $20 even though your 10000 order was filled in multiple transactions.  


Hope this helps 

bullmarket


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## jurn (2 March 2006)

okay. that sounds fair enough 

hope it never happens to me though.

has it happened to anyone here?


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## Smurf1976 (3 March 2006)

Happened to me quite a few times but I don't see it as a major problem with reasonably liquid stocks. You'll be very lucky to pick an exact bottom and if it falls to an absolute low of $9.70 your order will be filled in full even if it takes a few days. Trading based on picking exact bottoms is asking for trouble IMO since I don't believe that anyone is going to get this consistently right.

If I thought the absolute bottom was going to be $10 then I wouldn't be placing the order at $10 in the first place. Much safer to place it a little higher and aim to catch 75% of the move rather than the whole lot.


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## GreatPig (3 March 2006)

Happened to me quite a bit too.

If I put a buy order in the bid queue, it's quite common to have someone buy say $500 of my $10,000 order and then have the price start moving up. Then you're faced with the dilemma of whether to pay more to fill the order, or risk getting stuck with such a small order.

A couple of times it's worked out in my favour though, as the price subsequently slumped and so my losses were minimal.

Still, it can be a little frustrating.

GP


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## ctp6360 (3 March 2006)

Happened to me on Wednesday with AGS, I got only 7000 of my 50,000 shares at 39.5. I should have bid 40 because I got the other 43,000 at 42 and now its up to 44.


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## mit (3 March 2006)

Happens to me a lot now, just a part of your capital growing. I actually use it to advantage. If I get a buy signal and notice that the current offer is smaller than quantity I will take the offer and then rebid lower. At the end of the day if I am not filled I'll buy at market. 

This just makes sure I don't buy at the top of the market which is nice psychologically all at one brokerage fee.

MIT


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## ctp6360 (3 March 2006)

wow mit I love your method, thankyou for sharing that!!!


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## Julia (3 March 2006)

ctp6360 said:
			
		

> wow mit I love your method, thankyou for sharing that!!!




Mit:

Ditto ctp360's comments.  Thanks.

Julia


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## jurn (5 March 2006)

oh cool.. I didn't know you could modify your order after it was partially filled.

In this case, do you have to complete your order on the same day, or can it drag on over multiple days?


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## Julia (5 March 2006)

jurn said:
			
		

> oh cool.. I didn't know you could modify your order after it was partially filled.
> 
> In this case, do you have to complete your order on the same day, or can it drag on over multiple days?




jurn:

No, it doesn't have to fill on the same day.  I've sometimes had orders sitting in the market partially filled for a couple of weeks.  Check with your broker re the time limit - I think mostly it's one month but someone will correct me if this isn't right.

Julia


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## GreatPig (5 March 2006)

HSBC says two weeks, but I've had an order stay open with them for a bit longer than that.

NAB just says until completed, but I don't know if there is an actual limit as I've never had an order incomplete for very long.

GP


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