Howard,
The difference between a stop order and an limit sell order is that with a stop, a security is being bought with the "investor" placing a limit on the amount of his or her loss. With a limit order, the investor is placing an order to sell (sell short, even) at or above a specified price. When you place a sell order, you in effect are making an offer to sell at a specified price, which may fall between the best bid / best ask spread. Sometimes those offers are taken, sometimes they're not. But as I said, your broker is required to make a good faith effort to execute your instructions.
As to what's normally considered too tight a stop, I have no idea. I've never placed a stop order. By the time I'm buying a stock, I'm in for the long haul, if need be. I have the word "investor" in quotes above because some people want the gain without taking the risk. That doesn't work in financial markets. By setting stop losses at levels that are close to current prices in volatile stocks (like techs), these so-called investors virtually guarantee the volatility they're trying to protect themselves against. |
