Having trouble selling

[freja]

Hi,

People might remember me as the person buying 500 dollar lot shares on a low income, well yesterday and today I've been trying to sell a few shares so I can hurry up and buy into another company which in two weeks has gone from 1 dollar a share to 1.70 and I'm just not having any luck.
I am trading online and it seems buying takes all of five minutes but selling my first time is taking days and the company I want to buy into is quickly becoming beyond my reach.
Any advice about successful selling would be most welcome.

Thanks!

 

[wayneL]

Hi,

People might remember me as the person buying 500 dollar lot shares on a low income, well yesterday and today I've been trying to sell a few shares so I can hurry up and buy into another company which in two weeks has gone from 1 dollar a share to 1.70 and I'm just not having any luck.
I am trading online and it seems buying takes all of five minutes but selling my first time is taking days and the company I want to buy into is quickly becoming beyond my reach.
Any advice about successful selling would be most welcome.

Thanks!

freja,

If you sell at the bid price, the trade should occur instantly.

If you really want a trade now you have to meet the market, simple as that.

 

[freja]

Well I just set it at the lowest price for selling bids- is that right?
The current bid price is 4.730 and offers 4.420 my asking price was 4.500
earlier on in the day

 

[wayneL]

Well I just set it at the lowest price for selling bids- is that right?

No, you take the highest bid.

If you look at the screenshot below. There are traders offereing to sell you shares of OXR for $2.12

If you enter your ask price at $2.12 you will get matched bid and ask prices, therefore an instant sale.

 

[freja]

I'm trying to sell BOL shares and on the andrew west site for latest update it has last listed as 0 (??)

Okay I just got this message:
The order has been successfully placed and is in the market. However, the stock is in a trading halt. A stock usually goes into a halt if they have price sensitive information that has not yet been released to the market. Once the announcement is made and suitable time has passed, the stock will usually come back onto the market (depending on what the news is).

hmmm oh well.

 

[wayneL]

They are in a trading halt pending an announcement

You can't buy or sell til they re-open.

Looks like tommorrow at this stage

<edit> ahh looks like you've found your answer

 

[bullmarket]

Hi freja

Well I just set it at the lowest price for selling bids- is that right?
The current bid price is 4.730 and offers 4.420 my asking price was 4.500
earlier on in the day

What wayne has been saying is correct but there is something strange here

Are you sure you have the bid (buy) and offer (sell) prices round the right way.? With the bid being higher than the offer it looks to me like the stock is either in a trading halt or preopen. What stock are you referring to ?

If the stock is in preopen (check the status) then if you want to sell put your offer price 1 or ticks below whatever the IAP is atm and if you offer price is still below the IAP when the stock resumes trading then your sell order will go through on re-open. You'll need something like Protrader to see the IAP.

Hope this helps..

bullmarket

 

[freja]

Thanks

So I guess I should cancel my order and reset the price tommorrow according to the last bid?

I am such a newbie hahaha

 

[bullmarket]

not necessarily freja

not sure if you saw my earlier post since it was only 1 minute behind yours but hopefully between wayne's and my post you'll be able to work it out.

cheers

bullmarket

 

[freja]

Thanks again...I'm sure I will work it out by the end of the year :

 

[wayneL]

That's what I would do freja

Prices may be substantially different though, expect some volatility, hope it goes your way.

Good luck

 

[bullmarket]

hi again freja

I just saw your earlier post saying it's BOL you're looking at.

On my screen the IAP = $4.50 atm but that could change before it reopnes for trading. If you can see the IAP then just make sure your sell price is below the IAP (and it doesn't matter by how much) when it reopens and your sell order will definitely go through on the reopen at whatever the IAP will be at the time even if your sell price is lower.

When a stock opens for trading all orders with bids above the IAP and all orders will offers below the IAP are executed at the IAP at opening time.

Good luck

bullmarket

 

[freja]

bullmarket,

So this live quote thing is not the IAP right? :
Enter Code

Code Last Bid$ Offer$ +/- Open$ High Low Close Volume

BOL 0.000 4.730 4.420 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 4.520 0

I don't have any special software for viewing it.
I think I'll cancel the order and when it reopens go a little below the last offer (?) Sorry, when you gurus try to explain things I feel like I'm trying to comprehend a foreign language.

 

[bullmarket]

freja

On my screen BOL's staus is preopen which means you can place whatever buy/sell orders you like but they won't be executed until the stock actually resumes trading. The market depth you see now for BOL is live. If the stock was in a trading halt you then might not be able to place orders until it goes into preopen before resuming normal trading.

If you can't see an IAP then it is probably safer cancel any orders you have in the market depth atm and wait until the stock reopens and then place a sell order at whatever the highest bid (buy) price is at the time if you still want to sell then.

When the stock is open for normal trading you could also place what's called an 'at market' sell order (should be an option on your sell order screen) which automatically sells your shares at the highest buy price at the time. But be aware this is risky if the stock price is falling quickly for some reason and so you could end up selling at a much lower price than you actually want. If the share price is slow moving then it's safer to place your sell order at the highest buy price when it reopens.

btw: BOL's IAP is noe $4.51 for what it's worth.

cheers

bullmarket

 

[freja]

Ok great, I understood all of that and I've taken your advice so thanks to both of you - I am now off to school pickup.
Enjoy the rest of your day

 

[bullmarket]

no problem freja

I forgot to mention what the IAP actually is before

The IAP (Indicative Auction Price) is what the opening price would be for BOL if it opened for normal trading at that point in time.

An IAP is generated by the ASX as soon as there is an overlap between the bids and offers during preopen which essentially means you have an auction in place for the stock.

Good to see all this is making some sense and enjoy the rest of your day as well

bullmarket

 

[Prospector]

When I want an instant buy/sell I dont enter the price but select market price. You do need to know what that is approximately so you know what you will most likely be paying, but most of my transactions are like this.

 

[Julia]

When I want an instant buy/sell I dont enter the price but select market price. You do need to know what that is approximately so you know what you will most likely be paying, but most of my transactions are like this.

Ditto, Prospector. Having checked market depth, this saves a lot of stuffing about.

To everyone offering advice to really new people, could I suggest avoiding using any acronyms or abbreviations. I know it is second nature to you when you are using these expressions all the time, but to someone who has never heard of a lot of these terms it might only add to the confusion. Reading through Freja's posts it actually sounded as though his/her original order hadn't actually been placed in the market as it was only later that the usual acknowledgement of receipt of order came through. I may have misunderstood the sequence of events here, but, Freja, when you place an order you will receive immediate acknowledgement that it has been received.

Good luck and don't hesitate with questions.

Julia

 

[GreatPig]

In my opinion, market price is okay for longer term investments and for liquid stocks, but may be very costly with illiquid stocks held short-term.

For example, I've experienced situations where say I've wanted to sell 40000 shares at 25 cents while the bid column has had 42000 @ 25 cents then 5000 @ 24 cents, then 20000 @ 23 cents, and 80000 @ 22 cents. I've then quickly rushed in an at-market order to get the 25 cents only to find someone's beaten me to it, and I've gotten lumped with cleaning out down to 22 cents at a significant comparative loss. Often I think it's better in that situation to place the limit order at 25 cents and hope it gradually gets taken anyway if you get beaten to it. Of course it depends on the market, and whether you think the price is about to dive.

I almost never use at-market orders now.

Cheers,
GP

 

[ghotib]

Hi Freja,

Just wondering how you're going this morning with BOL. I see that the trading halt is over, and that it was because they bought another company and issued a swag of shares. I also see that the share price is below the $4.52 you wanted to sell at.

Did you know about all this activity when you decided to sell, or are you working purely on share price? I ask because of Wayne's comment about expecting volatility. I had a quick look at the company after reading your post and I've put it on the watchlist to consider as a long-term hold (thank you). I wondered if holding it might fit your plan as well as selling it to buy the other stock.

FYI I'm also working with tiny amounts of money and it can take me weeks to build up even $500. I'm therefore very sensitive to brokerage and I look for stocks I expect to hold for years, preferably offering discounted dividend reinvestment plans. I'm happy with how things have gone so far, though of course, like most people here, I've only been in a rising market. I just hope it lasts long enough for me to have a go at technical trading.

All the best,

Ghoti