Desktop Broker online share trading

Conditional Orders

• What are Conditional Orders?
  
  Conditional Orders allow you to create an order for equities, interest rate securities and warrants in advance with pre-specified 'trigger conditions'. Once those conditions are triggered, the order is automatically entered into the market.

  This service is a useful trading tool giving you freedom to plan for future market conditions, capitalise on potential trading opportunities and manage downside risk by taking action in real time to manage your portfolio, even while you are away from your computer.

  Best of all, our Conditional Order service is free!
• How do I access and place a Conditional Order?
  
  Conditional Orders are available to all clients regardless of whether you are on Silver, gold or ViewPoint information service level.

  To access Conditional Orders, you need to Activate Conditional Orders trading and agree to the Conditional Orders Terms and Conditions. Once activated, you can click on the Conditional Order icon in the left-hand toolbar

  

  which will take you to the Conditional Orders placement pad.
• What conditions can I set?
  
  You can set Conditional Orders based on ASX security or index movement.

  Trigger conditions, called Conditional Order Parameters, you can set include:

  • Mandatory: Specified Limit trigger price (ie Price - Limit type) or a Derived Trigger price that is calculated based on a percentage of the previous day's open/high/low/close price (ie Price – Trailing Percentage type) or an index value or index % change.
  • Option: Volume and Time triggers. Volume trigger allows you to benefit from increases :in volume while Time triggers allows you to prevent your Conditional Orders from triggering during certain periods (eg during market open and close where there is more volatility). As the Time triggers are independent of each other, you can set a Start trigger only, a Finish trigger only, or both Start and Finish triggers

  Volume relates to total volume traded for a security on a given day. Volume cannot be zero or negative. The Conditional Order instruction will not trigger until the specified volume entered is met even if all other parameters set on a conditional order are satisfied. Volume consists of On Market trades, adjusted for trade cancellations (this will not reverse prior triggered orders) and excludes Off Market trades.

  Please note that where the trigger price entered is equal to the current security price, another trade at the same price is required before the Conditional Order will trigger.

  Specified Index Value trigger cannot be zero or negative.

  Please note that where the trigger price entered is equal to the current security price, another trade at the same price is required before the Conditional Order will trigger.

  Your triggered order instruction can be specified at a Limit price.

  You can amend or cancel your active Conditional Order at any time.
• What is cross stock Conditional Orders?
  
  A cross stock Conditional Order enables you to set trigger conditions based on a different stock than the one you wish to buy or sell (eg if Last Traded Price for AAA is greater than or equal to $30.65, buy 500 BBB @ $2.10). This is a useful trading tool when you believe movement in one stock is closely linked to or will lead to the movement in another stock.
• What types of securities are Conditional Orders available on?
  
  Conditional orders are available for placement via the internet or over the phone with our Customer Support team on all CHESS approved equities, interest rate securities and warrants listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. We will continue to expand on the range of securities types these are available on.
• How long is my Conditional Order valid for?
  
  You can specify a trigger expiry date of up to three months. If the condition is not met within the time period you specify, your trigger will expire. You should be aware however that your Conditional Order may also be purged earlier before the expiry for various reasons including a corporate action on the stock, change of stock code by ASX, system failure by us, the ASX or any other third party, and so on. For more information about this, go to Conditional Orders Terms and Conditions.You will receive email and SMS notifications (if you have opted for this) to inform you of any expired and purged Conditional Orders.

  You also have the option to extend your trigger expiry date of open Conditional Orders up to another three months from your extension instruction date.

  Your conditional order triggers only once, i.e. the first time the condition is met.
• What does it cost?
  
  We are offering free Conditional Order - i.e. you will not be charged to place a Conditional Order. You can amend your active Conditional Orders as many times as you like at no cost. Once your triggered Conditional Order is placed, our standard brokerage fee inclusive of GST will apply.
• Is there a limit on the number of Conditional Orders I am allowed to place?
  
  You can set a maximum of three Conditional Orders per security, up to a total of 30 active Conditional Orders per client trading account and a total of 100 active Conditional Orders per login across all associated client trading accounts.

  To view all active and historical Conditional Orders, go to the Orders - Conditional Orders
• How do I view active and historical Conditional Orders?
  
  To view all active and historical Conditional Orders, go to the Orders – Conditional Orders  page. From this page, you can opt to view more details on a specific Conditional Order, amend and cancel individual or all active Conditional Orders.
• Are stocks and funds locked when I place a Conditional Order?
  
  Triggered Conditional Orders are not entered into your trading account until your specified condition is met.

  Stocks and funds are not locked after creating a Conditional Order. This gives you greater flexibility to plan future orders and manage existing positions.

  It is however important to note that when using Conditional Orders, you are responsible for keeping sufficient funds and stocks in your account to support the order when triggered.
• What is Price - Trailing Percentage?
  
  Conditional Orders can be created with a trigger price based on a specified percentage of the previous trading day's open, high, low or close price. The percentage specified must be numerical, positive and be a whole percentage number. A Derived Trigger Price is calculated and used as a reference point to monitor trade event in the market that fulfils this price.

  The table below provides details on how the Derived Trigger Price is calculated depending on whether an upper or lower trigger has been set:

  Percentage Type	Derived Trigger Price
  Upper Trigger	Derived Trigger Price = [1+%nominated] x [Previous Open/High/Low/Close]
  Lower Trigger	Derived Trigger Price = [1–%nominated] x [Previous Open/High/Low/Close]

  Use a Price – Trailing Percentage type trigger to:

  • Place a buy or sell order when volatility suddenly increases above historical levels for a stock you are watching or own.
  • Avoid constantly amending your trigger price when the stock price moves in an opposite direction to the price trigger parameter set on your Conditional Order. The Derived Trigger Price is recalculated prior to market open daily.

  To calculate the Derived Trigger Price, previous open, high, low and close price information is only updated where trade activity has taken place for a security. So a previous open price is used to calculate the Derived Trigger Price for Trailing Percentage until a new open price is recorded.

  Please note that this differs from what we currently display for historical data where if a stock does not trade and there is a close price, we display the close price figure for open, high and low price.

  The table below provides details on when the Derived Trigger Price calculated previously is retained or recalculated:

  Conditional Order Parameters	Share Price Rises Previous Open / High / Low / Close	Share Price Falls Previous Open / High / Low / Close
  Upper Trigger	Retain Derived Trigger Price	Recalculate Derived Trigger Price
  Lower Trigger	Recalculate Derived Trigger Price	Retain Derived Trigger Price

  Examples of Price – Trailing Percentage trigger

  You would like to buy 1,000 AAA shares but you're undecided at what price to place the order given that the share price has recently fallen by more than 10% and it could fall even further. However, if the price turns around, you want to take the opportunity to buy the security without constantly having to review your entry price daily. AAA last traded at $1.70 (see 'A' in the diagram below) with the previous trading day's High of $2.00 (see 'B' in the diagram below).

  You created the following conditional order:

  Conditional Order Parameters

  AAA Previous Day's High is greater than or equal to (ie. upper trigger) 5%

  Expires: 09 Aug 2008

  Triggered Order Instruction

  Buy 1,000 AAA @ Limit $2.15

  Good Till Cancelled

  Given an upper trigger has been selected, the Conditional Ordering system calculates the Derived Trigger Price today as $2.10 (being 1.05 x $2.00 – see 'C' in the diagram below) which is a 5% increase on the previous day's high. Your Conditional Order will only trigger if AAA trades at or above $2.10 today, which will cause a triggered order to buy 1,000 AAA @ Limit $2.15 (see 'D' in the diagram below) being created and sent to the market (subject to successful review by Desktop Broker's Operations team). The 1,000 AAA shares can be bought between $2.10 to $2.15 inclusive (see 'E' in the diagram below). Derived Trigger Price is only recalculated for a Conditional Order with an upper trigger parameter when the share price falls. The Derived Trigger Price remains at $2.10 until AAA records a new high below $2.00.

  
• How do I know if my Conditional Order has triggered?
  
  If your Conditional Order has been triggered you will receive an email and an SMS (if you have opted to receive SMSs – remember, they're charged to your mobile at $0.55 per message).

  You can also check the status of your Conditional Order by viewing active Conditional Orders – go to Orders – Conditional Orders page.
• Is there a guarantee for execution of my Conditional Order?
  
  It is important to note that there is no guarantee that a Conditional Order instruction will be executed following the trigger of all your Conditional Order parameters set. The execution is subject to the successful validation and review by Desktop Broker's Operations team and may be rejected where the triggered instruction fails to satisfy our requirements or if you have insufficient stock or funds to fulfil the order. Read more in the Conditional Orders Terms and Conditions for more details.
• When do I receive notifications for my Conditional Orders?
  
  You will receive email and SMS notifications (if you have opted for this) to inform you of the following events:

  • Placement of new, amendment or cancellation of Conditional Orders
  • Triggered Conditional Orders
  • Rejected triggered Conditional Orders
  • Purged Conditional Orders.

  To manage your SMS notifications (charged to your mobile at $0.55 per message), go to Alerts and select your preferences in the SMS Order, Trade and Conditional Order Notifications section.
• Can I reset a Conditional Order?
  
  Yes. You can save time by resetting a conditional order that you have previously set up and re-use the settings from the old conditional order. Just go to the 'Orders' tab and choose 'Conditional orders' from the menu and you'll see your 'Conditional orders history'. Find the old conditional order you want to reset then under the status column click 'Reset'. The conditional order pad will display with pre-filled fields. Review all the trigger conditions and order instructions, then click 'Confirm' to create a new conditional order with a new ID.