At this time, today’s range on the DJIA has been 7882.51 – 8687.11 according to Yahoo Finance. If you panicked last night and put in a market sell order, that order executed at or near the bottom. On the other hand, if your order didn’t go in until after 10 AM Eastern, that order executed much closer to the top of today’s range.
If you are going to pick stocks, I have an ironclad rule for you. Never ever place a market order for a stock that is not currently open for trading. Why? Because you have no idea what that stock will be trading for when it opens, and you have no control over what price you will pay/receive. If your schedule dictates that you must place your orders outside of trading hours, learn to use stop and limit orders, and use them every time you trade. You may pay a slightly higher transaction fee, but you might save your transaction!
Seriously.
In closing: some thoughts to get you through a tough day; the TSA proposes killing business travel altogether screening private plane passengers too (how do they think they are going to pull that off at the kind of airports such flights generally use?); and fix the credit problem, let the pesky symptoms take care of themselves.
Hi Bridget – Thanks for the link from Agent Genius. You’ve got a new subscriber. Great style and info.
Vicki
Thanks, Vicki! Since you come to us from Agent Genius, be sure to check out my real estate site too!