This morning I put in an ARCA limit order to short at 41.83 and I was immediately filled at 41.91. The price wasn't near my limit and it never got below 41.84 yet my order was filled. When I placed my order, the price was trading in the low 41.90's so it wasn't to close at the time my limit was put in. I'm positive that I hit the limit button and not market but my trade log doesn't log anything about wether it's limit or market but it does have the price I put in. How can this happen? Is this a faulty program problem? It's irritating me because as soon as my order was filled, the stock reversed and I was in a trade that I wasn't supposed to be. This is what my trade log has, it reads from bottom to top: Execute Shrt AMZN 100 41.91 ARCA Execute Shrt AMZN 200 41.91 ARCA Execute Shrt AMZN 100 41.91 ARCA Accept Shrt AMZN 400 41.83 ARCA Sending Shrt AMZN 400 41.83 ARCA
oh boy, are you a newbie? were you hoping to put a stop order in at that price? it still wouldnt work in most software programs. think about why you got filled you entered an order to ss at .83 when the mkt was above that level, so the next uptick fills you or any uptick above that level would.
Yes I am new. I understand now, i basically put in a sell below the bid and it was sold at the current market bid. So how do you enter an order to only short something if it falls below a certain price or buy if it goes above a certain price? I wanted to short this if it droped below 41.83 so do I have to wait till the price is trading around there and then put in my limit order?
For example if a stock is trading at $99 and I want to put a buy in if it breaks resistance at $100, the only way I can do that is to manually wait for it to break $100 and then put in my limit order?
no, put a stop order (either mkt or limit (should be mkt in my opinion)) and when the stock trades there your stop order will be activated to a mkt order.
You have 2 choices: 1. a sell-stop order at 41.82 that will convert to a market order when 41.82 prints. No guarantee of where you will get filled, but you will get filled. 2. a sell-stop-limit order with the stop portion set to 41.82 and the limit portion set to whatever "range" you are still willing to get short. For instance 41.82/41.80 means your order will trigger at 41.82 and turn into a sell-limit order of 41.80. In a fast market if price is already below 41.80 you won't get filled, your limit order of 41.80 will just sit there waiting. In a normal market you will get filled at 41.80 or above depending on where price trades right after your 41.82 stop is triggered. You can always extend the limit portion of the order (say, to 41.77) to a wider range to make a fill more likely. Or, as I said, you can simply use a sell-stop order to guarantee a fill at whatever happens to be "market" at the time.