Seller depth

[OldRider]

Jay: I understand there to be no minimum even for you or me. I am in the process of simplifying our investment
structure and recently wound up a company in which speculative mining shares had been held.

Holdings included the remnants of several companies of little value, rather less than a marketable parcel,
on checking with broker I was advised to enter for sale as normal, I did so, and a sale was made quickly without a problem,
for just a hundred or two dollars.

[whirly]

Well they're all gone this morning. One seller @22 and one @26. I appreciate that you must not rely on the buy/sell depth as it only tells part of the story and I have seen bots at work buying or selling very small parcels. Maybe it is as OldRider suggests and its a broker making up marketable parcels. I have been watching PDI for a while and these parcels have never shown up before.

Trackers - that's interesting about Interactive Brokers and I might have a nosey at that, cheers.

[Jay]

Jay: I understand there to be no minimum even for you or me. I am in the process of simplifying our investment
structure and recently wound up a company in which speculative mining shares had been held.

Holdings included the remnants of several companies of little value, rather less than a marketable parcel,
on checking with broker I was advised to enter for sale as normal, I did so, and a sale was made quickly without a problem,
for just a hundred or two dollars.

Thanks for that, is this the same for both NZX and ASX?

[Voltaire]

A broker I use, Interactive Brokers, allows you to place various algorithmic orders which accumulate or distribute shares over a period of time. Never used it myself, but its a good way in theory to drip feed sell or buy without moving the market.

Interesting - I take it you only pay the one standard brokerage or do they charge you a lesser amount on each small parcel? Thanks

[OldRider]

Jay:
My sales were ASX listed stocks don't know abour NZX

[Jay]

Maybe it is minimum holdings not trades,
For example on the ASX you have buy at least $500 worth I think, if you do not have this many already or a minimum number to buy at different price levels ON the NZX again unless you already hold or it will take you over the minimums.

[Blendy]

i have another question about seller & buyer depth.

Often at the beginning and the end of the day, the prices for scheduled buys and sells is unbalanced, eg the buying price might be $1.30 but the selling price might be $1.25.

How is the price determined? Is it based on who lodged the trade first, or the lowest price or something?

I've had the odd sale where I've received a higher price than I had set (which of course is very nice!) and I'm wondering how that happens.

I can see the advantage for making the buy price higher before the market opens, as it seems that if you offer to buy at a ridiculous price, you get the first trade at the top seller's price which is usually much less. But is there a risk that someone else might see that you've decided to offer $1.50 for a share going for $1.25, and then sell theirs at the market rate and clinch the awesome price? Or is there too much split second timing involved? Are market price trades done with more priority to listed price trades, or the other way around?

I'm just curious about the order of sales.

[JBmurc]

i have another question about seller & buyer depth.

Often at the beginning and the end of the day, the prices for scheduled buys and sells is unbalanced, eg the buying price might be $1.30 but the selling price might be $1.25.

How is the price determined? Is it based on who lodged the trade first, or the lowest price or something?

I've had the odd sale where I've received a higher price than I had set (which of course is very nice!) and I'm wondering how that happens.

I can see the advantage for making the buy price higher before the market opens, as it seems that if you offer to buy at a ridiculous price, you get the first trade at the top seller's price which is usually much less. But is there a risk that someone else might see that you've decided to offer $1.50 for a share going for $1.25, and then sell theirs at the market rate and clinch the awesome price? Or is there too much split second timing involved? Are market price trades done with more priority to listed price trades, or the other way around?

I'm just curious about the order of sales.

My understanding is an average is weighted to give the open price i.e last trade was 50c but like many companies just before open will have bids 52c an offers 49c depending on the volume of the bids to offers will give the open price many times some good or bad news will come outside trading hours so you could see seller or bidders trying to jump in front of each other bids 54c 57c 58c etc the highest will be the first too trade to the lowest offers at the weighted average ..which could well be lower than last trade if the offers sell price an volume out weighs the bid volume

[Lizard]

That doesn't read correctly, A-A. The orders at open (and at close) are driven by price and volume. Need to look at less liquid stocks on open to see it, as the more liquid ones will get all sorts of orders placed in the micro-seconds prior to open which are unreadable to us mere mortals. However, the general principle is that the orders on the open will be matched based on the price at which buyers run out of sellers or vice-versa. Putting in a small buy-order at the top of the queue can be quite handy if you just want to get the opening price - same rules apply after a price-sensitive announcement or trading halt.

If you're in any doubt, try reading this:
http://www.asx.com.au/products/calcu...ose-prices.htm

Okay, if you haven't got a degree in cryptology, maybe just try watching a few less liquid shares on open and it will click....

Also, worth knowing that the open is staged on the ASX based on alphabetical order. Those who really want to gazump the queue use an IRESS connection, so (as far as I know) it's not worth even attempting it through an NZ on-line broker. Though I have called in favours with the dinosaur phone broker method when I reealllllyyy wanted to get out on the open!

[Lizard]

Highest bid doesn't get lowest seller - it gets the price at which the lowest of the bids matches the highest of the offers on a volume basis... except that is going to be hard to really explain without a depth series example...

Sorry AA - don't mean to be picky and argumentative - you and I both understand what we are talking about and it is just as likely my explanation that is poor!