Hi ddfridd,
Limit orders are "contrarian" type orders (buy low, sell high), so a buy limit is an order to buy at a lower price and a sell limit is an order to sell at a higher price.
Stop orders are "momentum" type orders (buy higher, sell lower). This is what you're looking for. Stop orders come in two varieties:
1. Regular old "Stop" orders. If you price target is hit, your stop order will turn into a market order. The upside is that you will definitely fill. The downside is you could get a lot of price movement between your trigger and your fill. For example, If I have a buy stop order to buy WXYZ at 3.50, it might get up to 3.50 which triggers my order. But the stock might be moving so fast that I actually might fill at 3.65 or something.
2. "Stop-Limit" orders. These orders don't turn into market orders when they're triggered; they turn into limit orders. So the upside is that you know you'll get a good price, but the downside is that you may never fill at all! For example, I may have a buy stop-limit order for WXYZ at 3.50 , and the price moves up to that level. Now my order is triggered, but the next price is 3.51. Well I can't fill, because now I have a limit order to buy at 3.50. Then the price goes to 3.60, 4.00, 5.60, 7.20, lol! The stock is running away without me. This is especially bad on the sell side. You place a sell stop-limit and the price just blasts right through your price. Then it keeps dropping and you never fill.
The last examples assumed that the trigger price and the limit price are both the same; some brokers can only do it this way, and others will allow the trigger price to be different from the limit price.
What I generally do is place stop-limits to buy into a stock, but I place regular stop orders on the sell side. (Obviously this is if stops are available on the stock; this is MM discretion as far as I know.)
Hope this helps!
Cap
AI
