Shares. Buying

Mach Two · 27-12-2021 8:23pm #1

When buying shares what is meant by "At best market price" and "Limit".

Supercell · 28-12-2021 9:34am

There are two ways to buy stocks, one is you pay the asking or the "market" price, like buying stuff in Tesco, the other way is to use a limit order or kind of haggling like you might at a market.

To use an example , heres Tesla currently below, its out of normal market hours which is why the sales numbers (ticks) are so low.

If you placed a market order it would likely be filled at $1,106.48 (the current asking price). I say likely as there are other considerations such as order size and the fact that many sales are automated so that if you offered say $1,106.10 for example a bot may sell to you to make a quick deal. This is quite common especially where there is a big gap between bid and asking prices. If you wanted more than the 65 shares currently on offer you may not get your whole order filled at the current ask, so you would need to pay a bit more. The benefit of a market order is that your order should always be filled right away as long as you have enough funds to pay for it.

The limit price is the the limit of what you are willing to pay for a stick (your bid), in the example below thats $1,105.96. As prices are constantly rising and falling you are hoping the "ask" will eventually dip to the amount you are willing to pay before rising again.

When prices are falling you are guessing where its going to fall to and would put your bid at that. You know exactly how much your order is going to cost, however if the price is rising or doesnt fall to your bid price your order may never get filled and you could loose out.

So pro's and cons with both, hope all that makes sense :)

Mach Two · 28-12-2021 10:50am

Thanks for that. What is meant by "At best market price" . Is that the lowest price for the day if your buying and the highest if you are selling?

Are you guaranteed to trade that day at best market price?

When are Goodbodys online trading during the holidays?

Supercell · 28-12-2021 3:14pm

"At best market price" = market price at the time of placing the order, most often thats the current "ask" price or close to it.

Might be an idea to youtube this to help understand, sorry if my explanation above isnt clear enough. By definition when placing a market order, you will make the trade, as you are basically saying to the seller take as much as you want for these shares, just give them to me at any price.

Market buys are for when you FOMO into buying something whose price is going statospheric (not recommended) or maybe when the difference between the bid and ask is small and you just want to get the shares quickly. Market sells are when you want to sell fast because some really bad news has come out about your stock.

Mach Two · 30-12-2021 6:44pm

Thanks for that. If you are buying at "limit" does that mean that you could purchase at a lower price than the at limit price.

Andrea B. · 30-12-2021 7:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118392453#Comment_118392453

Broker will purchase at available price, but will not pay above the limit you set, so yes. Limit is just an upper safety.

Mach Two · 02-01-2022 1:33pm

Which is better. Using a broker or online share purchasing/selling.

Geuze · 02-01-2022 8:22pm

Very strange question, as most if not all brokers operate online now.

The days of using paper certs is over.

massdebater · 02-01-2022 9:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118407547#Comment_118407547

I had a bunch of shares with goodbodys and had to call them to get them to sell them for me! Took about two business days 🤦🏻 Online is definitely better