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by Analemma_ 3662 days ago
I'm not terribly well-versed in stocks and trading, so forgive me if this is an obvious question, but:

My broker (Fidelity) charges me something like $7/day/stock to keep a stop order open. Presumably I could accomplish the same thing for free with Trigger. Is there some major difference between a "sell if below X" Trigger and a stop order, or is Fidelity just bilking me?
3 comments
koolba 3662 days ago
Per day? That's a new one. Every brokerage I've ever used has fixed commissions for a trade, regardless of how long it takes to execute. The only edge case is a partial fill on a good till cancel limit order that causes the execution to spam multiple days. I think that might lead to multiple commissions but it's fairly u likely.

In no instance have I seen a fee for maintaining an open order. If anything they should pay you! You're essentially giving them a free option!

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rachelita 3662 days ago
Yes, all conditions orders, like limit and stop loss etc at the end of day are triggers. Right now you can set a level for a trigger an issue a market order (which is a SL) or a limit order (stop limit order) with your existing brokerage for just the commission they would charge you. In the future, you can construct your own sophisticated stop loss orders, like IF GOOG trades below $500 AND it's outside of 1 hour of the close, THEN sell.
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hellcow 3662 days ago
For what it's worth, Robinhood allows free stop orders without any time limit.
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Analemma_ 3662 days ago
Interesting, I guess I just need a new broker. Amusingly, after I finished my comment I figured I'd log into my Fidelity account (which I hadn't done in a while), and I couldn't because it turns out they don't allow certain characters in their passwords and so the last time I changed my password it silently failed without telling me.

Still, Trigger sounds pretty neat even if you do have a non-crappy broker. As soon as HN picks it apart to make sure there are no obvious pitfalls, I'll definitely take a look.

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tedmiston 3661 days ago
There's a huge obvious pitfall with Trigger: information arrives several orders of magnitude too late vs. HFT. Investing in a style that mimics them but at hundreds (maybe thousands) of times slower is inherently flawed.

And if it helps inform your broker research, Robinhood is the exception to the rule when it comes to commission-free trades.

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