What the F--- ? Could This Really Be?

[ttibsen]

Assume that I bought 100 shares of Moose Pasture Mines @ 5 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Further assume that MPM is not a heavily traded stock. I want to limit my losses on MPM to a dollar so I set the following order

Sell Stop MPM @ 4

I have just learned to my utter disbelief and amazement that if MPM trades down to and lower than 4, my order will only go through at 4 so that if there isn't a buyer for my 100 shares @ 4 exactly, my Stop order will remain unfilled even though the trading has gone below the 4 dollar level. Could this possibly be true? If so, what kind of protection do you have for stocks that don't have heavy trading?

John

[trent]

Originally Posted by ttibsen

Assume that I bought 100 shares of Moose Pasture Mines @ 5 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Further assume that MPM is not a heavily traded stock. I want to limit my losses on MPM to a dollar so I set the following order

Sell Stop MPM @ 4

I have just learned to my utter disbelief and amazement that if MPM trades down to and lower than 4, my order will only go through at 4 so that if there isn't a buyer for my 100 shares @ 4 exactly, my Stop order will remain unfilled even though the trading has gone below the 4 dollar level. Could this possibly be true? If so, what kind of protection do you have for stocks that don't have heavy trading?

John

Which discount brokerage are you using?

[ttibsen]

I use QuesTrade and while we are on the subject of online brokers do you know whether any of them offer the ability to place 2 simultaneous orders -

one - a protective stop sell order to limit your losses

the other - a limit sell order to lock in profits

This way, you could enter a trade and go on vacation, knowing that you will either be stopped out at a loss or you will have exited your trade with a profit. As far as I know, QuesTrade only accepts one order at a time which certainly makes things a lot more difficult than they have to be.

John

[trent]

I'll check if you can do that with RBC Direct Investing and I'll let you know.