Posted on July 31, 2009 - by Alvin

When stop loss order fails

The pain for traders is the loss beyond control or expectation. Successful traders have a habit of limiting the size of losses, such that even many losses are incurred, they will not affect their capital for future investment. A typical method to limit a loss is to set a stop loss order, where any price movement below a particular price, the order will be executed. To illustrate, if a trader set a (sell) stop loss order at $1.00, the order will be filled if the price goes below $1.00. In other words, he could be filled in between $0.95 and $0.00. Usually, he will be filled in at $0.95 as the stock price comes down.

On 16 Jul 09, I witnessed 2 counters that even a stop loss order would not be able to execute at the expected price, which means a trader would have to swallow a loss larger than he should take. The 2 counters are Xtep and Orient Overseas, both listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

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