stops

[spoon102]

Can we have automatic stops on trades?

I work 9-5 and I can only enter orders at open to manage my trades. This does'nt seem fair, stop loss levels would be far better.

 

[Sharky]

Hi spoon,

As promised the stops and limit order are being worked on and should be in place before the weekend. You'll be able to set them when you make the trade or any time afterwards, and that should really benefit those people that can only trade in the evenings.

Sharky.

 

[Sharky]

Just a quick update, the stop/limit orders will be available sometime this afternoon. Even if it's after the market closes you'll still be able to set your stops/limits at some point today.

Sharky.

 

[Sharky]

Well it was after the market closed, but I've finally got the stops and limits working. You can either set stops or/and limits for existing order, and cancel them/update them at any time, and also when you make an order you can set a stop/limit.

If there's a demand for trailing stops, perhaps calculated at the end of each day, or day stops, ie good until close let me know.

Cheers,
Sharky.

 

[PurplePerson]

Sharky,
A minor point. Not sure it matters anyway. But when a stock has been disposed of - ie is no longer in portfolio - the stop/limit instructions relating to it appear to remain unless manually cancelled, rather than automatically disappearing when the stock does.

I guess that - if subsequently triggered - the system will merely react with a 'cannot do' response, in which case no problem..

 

[PurplePerson]

Talking of stops - are they working Sharky? Mine hasn't.

Because I was away, I had a 488p stop in place on my SHP short which didn't kick in when the offer price reached that level on numerous occasions Tuesday afternoon, nor when the offer price peaked above that level around 2pm, nor this morning with the price well above that level. My portfolio still shows me owning an SHP short which shouldn't be there. Should have closed at 488p.

(Edit: Just skimmed back thru trades.. offer price was above 488p at 13:58, 15:33, 16:11)

 

[Sharky]

Hi PP,

Sorry I have replied sooner, been out all day today. Firstly good point about removing the stop when you close a position. I'll add that this evening, should have thought of that myself. Also taken a look at the stops and there does seem to be a problem, should also be fixed in time for tomorrow's open, in the meantime I'll close your position at 488p.

Cheers,
Sharky.

 

[Sharky]

All done!.. so hopefully stops working fully now.

Keep an eye out tomorrow though, you fix one thing, and something else breaks. But at the moment everything seems to be working really well.. touch wood!

Sharky.

 

[Weezydj]

Hi Sharky

Dunno if I did something silly but I put a stop at 812 on my HSBA holding earlier this morning. I thought it didn't trigger and sold manually, BUT when I looked again the stop had sort of triggered, but not sold the stocks :-(

Weezy

 

[Sharky]

Hi Weezy,

Had a look and I now see whats going on. Everything is working, its triggering a sell/cover order properly, but it was generating the correct quantity, in fact it was specifying zero! Anyway now fixed, and since that is the last step before a correct stop/limit it means we finally got it working!! I think!

Sharky

ps. ill update your portfolio with the earlier stop quote.

 

[Sharky]

PP,

Notice you had the same problem this morning, do you want me to update your portfolio too?

 

[Weezydj]

Thanks Sharky

 

[PurplePerson]

Hi Sharky,
Like Weezy, I found some oddities among stops this morning.

I left stops in place overnight on all 4 holdings, but only one of them is still listed this morning. Meanwhile my order history shows 3 trades I don't recognize, at zero quantity, at times when I was still in bed late. Presumably these are the system's interpretation of my 3 missing stops - and yet they are not at the prices I set, so shouldn't have kicked in anyway. All very confusing.

Shall I just instigate fresh stops?


Edit: Was just about to post this when your message above appeared.

 

[Sharky]

Hi PP,

Yeah those 3 stops kicked in this morning. Can you remember what price you set them at, and whether it was very different to the price it went through at? The stops should obviously only kick in when the price target has been met, and they get processed within a minute, so even a fast moving stock you should expect to hit your stop, or *very* close to it.

 

[PurplePerson]

Hi Sharky,

Stops were:
BVM 17p (so that one should have activated)
ARE 39.5p
CPL 9.5p
ITO 101p

As you see, those morning actions appear to have mostly ignored my stop values and pounced on the actual current share price instead.

Edit:
PS - When I set each of those stops (last night) I got the 'accepted' response, then went to my portfolio, hit refresh, and saw each stop correctly listed. All four were correctly listed before I logged off.

 

[Sharky]

Im a bit puzzled by CPL and ITO, is it possible the spread was sufficient this morning to trigger the stops, unlikely I'd have thought. I'll look into it!

>> Update:
Eureka! Any triggered stop/limit was firing off all subsequent one! Eeeek. Now fixed!

 

[PurplePerson]

Now that I'm around I think I'll stick with manual actions (mainly closing out my not-so-good trades!) and avoid stops/limits for a day or two while I watch how they work out for other players

 

[Sharky]

Yeah, I don't blame you PP. It's no fun being the guinea pig. Though I'm pretty confident my rentokil days are over, as far as stop/limits are concerned!

Cheers,
Sharky.

 

[PurplePerson]

Having said which.. I did try including stops when I placed my last 2 orders (reckless ones that knocked me off the podium and way down the field) and although the orders got processed the stops disappeared.

Doesn't matter. I'll set some new ones over the weekend. But thought you might need to know there's still something not quite right.

 

[Sharky]

Sigh.. he says, knocking at the rentokill door cap in hand. Now fixed. And that would explain why not many people have had stops and limits in place!