|
Placing
an Order
Correct order placement is crucial to being a successful trader. The
best advice we can give as brokers is to say everything as plainly as possible, exactly what you
want. Long, short, limit, or-better… can be difficult or down right confusing to new
traders. If you want to buy, say you want to buy, if you want to sell, say you want to
sell. With time and guidance from your broker, the technical language of commodity trading
will come. Understand there are rules to order placement, and the floor will only accept
certain orders at certain times. Your broker knows these rules and will help you determine
which type of order is acceptable for the floor, and most useful for you.
We get so excited/nervous when we first start placing trades that we sometimes forget
to give all the pertinent information required to successfully complete the transaction.
Some basic tips would be:
- Introduce yourself
.
As hard as your broker tries he/she won’t be able to
identify everybody by the sound of their voice.
- Give your account number
.
(If applicable) This is probably the most vital
information regarding your trading account. Try and memorize it, but if there are too many
numbers in your brain (we understand) to get one more in, at least have it handy, you will
be asked for it often, and your broker probably won’t know it.
- Tell us what the call is regarding
. Placing, changing, or canceling a trade,
checking account status, or you just have a question. The faster you get your broker on
the same page as you, the smoother the conversation will go, and the faster and action can
be executed.
- Tell them if the conversation you’re about to have is for paper-trading
. We can
only speak for our brokerage firm, but we don’t require you to have an open account
to paper-trade, and we recommend that you continue your paper-trading even after you have
started to trade with real money. As paper-traders you have to be patient, there are times
when your assisting broker will have to put you on hold because it is paramount that
orders be executed in a timely manner. Active trading must take priority. We ask you to
extend this courtesy to real money traders because, what goes around, comes around. If you
already have an account open and are continuing to paper-trade, you must indicate that the
call pertains to paper trading, or an actual order might be placed.
When you call your broker to place an order, the phone call should go something like
this:
Hi, this is Donald Trump, my account number is ######, I would like to place a trade.
I would like to Buy 1 March Corn at 220. Place my initial stop loss at 207 ½, and my
initial profit objective at 245 1/4.
If you don’t already know, your broker should go over which order is a Limit and
which is a stop.
|