Share dealing using ‘Fill or Kill’ orders

Saturday, 18th July 2009 21:37 - by Boredmum

boredmum just did her first ‘Fill or Kill’. Now, I know all you seasoned traders are thinking ‘What took you so long?' My broker (Abbey share dealing) has always been basic. You can buy, you can sell, you can phone them to set a stop loss, but it cancels out at 4.30 p.m. when the market closes…that is about all they do really. It was just sheer laziness on my part that I hadn’t found a new broker. Laziness and that all my capital was tied up in my Abbey account. Well, I have since opened an account with TDW (TD Waterhouse). I opened the account initially so I could trade on international markets. Today I did a little buy. Only my second on my TDW account, but was about to proceed at market price when I noticed other options like ‘Limit buy’ and ‘Fill or Kill’. It sounds very dramatic, does ‘Fill or Kill’! Basically, if they cannot fill your order at your price, then it cancels out. I figured it was worth a little go. The share price was 67p; the ‘Bid’ price was 66p and ‘Ask’ price 68p. I thought “I really don’t have room to manoeuvre here”, but asked for 67p. I was so excited, and it got filled at 67p. Okay, so it only saved me £15.54 on my 1554 shares, but if you know how many share dealing transactions I go through, then this can fairly mount up. I know lots of you will be using this type of facility on a more regular basis, so how cheeky can you get? Have any of you been more than pleasantly surprised when your order is filled?