I bought a stock at a price of $8.00 a share. How do I place a sell order so if the stock drops below $7.50 it will automatically sell?
I bought a stock at a price of $8.00 a share. How do I place a sell order so if the stock drops below $7.50 it will automatically sell?
26 Jul
5:31 pm on July 26th, 2010
That’s called a trailing stop order or stop loss order. Ask your broker.
5:36 pm on July 26th, 2010
Enter a sell stop order at 7.49. As soon as the stock trades at 7.49 or lower, your order becomes a market sell order. If the stock remains at 7.50 or higher, then nothing happens.
In an orderly market, you should get pretty close to 7.49. However, the market can gap well below 7.50, for example closing 1 day at 7.60, then opening the next day at 6.00 – if this happens, you’ll sell at about 6.00, not 7.49.