Shares Not Sold At Limit Price

[newbie99]

Hi
I have set up a selling price limit at £12.00 for a particular share today. The share price risen to £12.01. But I was notified by an email the selling limit has not been reached. Therefore the shares was not sold.

Is this normal and has it happen to other people.

Thanks for the advice in advance before I contact the broker.

[twix123]

There is always a difference of a few pence between the offered and the bid price (buying and selling prices). Your limit of £12.00 is what you want to sell at, which hasn't been reached yet, whereas someone buying will have to pay £12.01 - the difference being the brokers margin, even though commission will also be added to both sides of the transaction.

Your broker will probably be able to deal on your behalf when the quoted mid price reaches somewhere in the region of £12.03 to £12.06

[Gizmonster]

When a share price is shown - that's not necessarily the price you pay. There are 2 prices - the bid price and the ask price. - the difference between these is called the bid/ask spread.
If a share is advertised at £12.00, that's prob the price at which you can sell. If you want to buy the share, it'll be slightly more, depending on the bid/ask spread.
The bid price is the price at which you can buy a share for and the ask price is the price which you can sell a share for.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bid-and-asked.asp

[Canary42]

Yes,it has happened to me. And the reason was as explained by the previous posts.

[Gizmonster]

..... just re-read your post - thought you were buying, not selling .... in which case, my post doesn't really apply in your case ..... twix's post is prob a good enough explanation :)

[Orderlimit]

Remember you need to consider adding/subtracting the bid/ask spread when placing a Limit-Order (or any order) to enter/exit a position.

Example of a 10 point spread

12.06 buy price
12.01 Quoted price (mid-price)
11.96 sell price

If say the stock had a 10 point spread, the mid price would need to get to 12.05, for the sell price to get to 12.00. If the highest quoted mid-price was 12.01 then the sell price only reached 11.96.


'Is this normal.....'

Yes, especially at round numbers, £12.00, £13.00 £14.00 etc, because market manipulation is common at these levels and the bid/ask spread usually widens further due to a significant increase in trading activity.