What do I need to know about "stop loss selling"?

Warren Baldwin, vice-president of T.E. Financial Consultants, has the answer.

Warren Baldwin 22 January, 2003 | 2:00PM
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Dear Expert:

I have about 25 different equity investments in my portfolio. My discount broker now has the facility to apply "stop loss selling" for online trading. I hope to incorporate this strategy to help me protect my gains and reduce my losses. Please advise me on the fundamentals and the effective tactics of this investment strategy.

Expert Opinion:

This technique is useful if you are worried about a market decline dragging down the value of your portfolio when you are otherwise unable to monitor the movement of your stock prices. You should be aware that sometimes you can place a stop loss on a position and discover that your shares may be sold out suddenly if the stock slips below the value level you have set, only to recover later in the day.

Say you own shares trading at $25 and you set a stop at the $22 level. If the stock price drifts to $22, a market sell order may be issued and you may not get all your shares sold at the $22 price. Instead, shares can get sold at different prices around the level you have set. In fact where a stock is quite thinly traded, you may also want to establish a "range" for the stop loss, such as saying: "Sell at $22, but at no less than $20." This way, if the stock hits $22 and your selling starts and then drops to $21 and you sell a few more shares, you will not sell any further shares if the price goes below $20.

Stop loss can be an effective tool, but you need to be cautious in the use and implementation of the process.


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Warren Baldwin

Warren Baldwin  

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