When I But Stock At “market” Price On An Online Brokerage Account, Why Don’t I Get The Real Time Price?

June 21st, 2009 | by Frenday |

For example, I have an Ameritrade account and I set it up to trade at market price. Right before and right after it shows real time price of a stock at say $52.8/share but when I say I want to buy, it executes the purchase and I buy at 53.08/share. Why don’t I get the 52.8 price when the real time quotes immediately before and after are cheaper?

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  1. 4 Responses to “When I But Stock At “market” Price On An Online Brokerage Account, Why Don’t I Get The Real Time Price?”

  2. By Brenda on Jun 21, 2009 | Reply

    Hello Chicagog:
    The short answer is simply that your “order”(s) are not placed into market in real time. If you read through the agreement you have with the trading account being used . . . it will be in there somewhere.
    It is a major stumping block with the on line trading world.

  3. By bud68 on Jun 21, 2009 | Reply

    Don’t use market orders; use limit orders.

  4. By Free Wordpress Plugins on Jun 21, 2009 | Reply

    At anyone time there are three prices: “bid” is the highest price someone is willing to pay; “asked” or “offered” is what someone is willing to sell for; “last” is the last price at which shares changed hands (of historical interest and the most often quoted real time price.) When you buy at the market, you expect to get the “offered” or “asked”. If you are sure that you are looking at the NBO (national best offer) and are not getting it, your broker may be making extra money on the side by being “paid for order flow” and routing your order to a market maker who isn’t offering the best price. This is a risk when you go with a deep deep discount broker: they are going to make their money somewhere. What you save in commission you lose (and more) in bad fills.

  5. By Swaminathan P on Jun 21, 2009 | Reply

    prices are changing in micro second – the system has both positive and negative also.
    In bull market when you buy – you will be losing something
    during bearish trend – you will be gaining.
    it is all in the game
    percentage wise the loss will be nominal.
    [p.s]
    VERY IMPORTANT;
    best way is not to trade at market price – at time the loss will be unaffordable. BE CAUTIOUS.
    AT TIME NOT TRADING WILL BENEFIT YOU THAN TRADING.

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