Stock Markets Exposed - Stock market help, simple question about trading stocks...?

Stock market help, simple question about trading stocks...?

Okay, I'm sort of new to trading stocks, but now quite. I currently trade through Sharebuilder, even though I'm beginning to not like them so much. A lot of "fine print", if you know what I mean. Anyways, here's my problem: I bought a stock, 5,000 shares at .09 cents. I meant to buy at .05 cents, and that's what my confirmation said before I placed the order, but I didn't realize that the quote of the stocks are 20 mins delayed. Sharebuilder doesn't offer actual real-time quotes, imagine that. Anyways, my account ended up a couple of hundred dollars short, mainly because it still processed as 5,000 shares at $0.09. Anyways, I put a limit order in to sell all of the shares when they hit $.010, low and behold, it hit 0.10 today, but my shares haven't been sold. Called SB, and they said for large orders, it could take a couple of days over a few different trades, and that I would be charged $11.95 for each trade. Is there a better place or way to do these types of trades? Thanks!

Public Comments

umm settlement does take 2-3 days unless your a trader on the floor of an exchange. Trades usually cost around that amount for most online brokers. Obviously they all vary and have limitations and many offer you free trades when you sign up. I use TD Ameritrade and it works good for me. When you bought the shares at .09 cents you prob placed a market order which will buy you shares at whatever the market pirce is. Obviously u cant set your own price.
In every market transaction there's a buyer and a seller. Just because at some point today there was a buyer at that price doesn't mean that there's currently someone that wants to buy (your) shares at that price. Also, when or if someone does decide that they want to buy your shares at .10, they won't necessarily want 5,000 shares. You could set your shares to sell all or nothing, meaning that unless someone wants 5,000 shares the trade will not execute. The advantage of course is that you don't get hacked to death with commissions. The disadvantage is if someone wants 4,999 shares your trade won't execute. With all of that said, penny stocks are a very dangerous game which I would STRONGLY advise against. If you want to gamble with cheap securities, learn a little bit about options and start trading out of the money calls and puts on companies you like and don't like respectively. Hope that helped. One other thing, I use scottrade and am very happy with them.
Etrade.com also just because it is cheap doesnt make it good. Your better off investing in lower risk high reward companies. Look into VMWARE (VMW) you cant lose with them. Google(GOOG) is also doing amazing. There is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme just play it safe with strong comanies that are growing and you will get good returns.
Quite often, penny stocks do not trade big volumes and it can be gard to unload them OTC stocks, OB stocks, and Pink sheet stocks are notorious for their manipulation and low trading volumes. Maybe you should change your investment criteria.
Sharebuilder is best suited for long-term investors and least suited for short-term investors. Any cut-rate online brokerage like ETrade or Scottrade or TDAmeritrade would be better. I have no idea who'd be the best for penny stocks, though, since I don't think anyone but scammers and spammers routinely makes money on them.
what the hell are you doing messing with pink sheet garbage anyway? The problem isn't sharebuilder its YOU! Penny garbage is widely unrelagted and real investors do NOT mess with them. Plus a lot of other brokers will tack on extra fees for suckers that want to get involved with this crapola (scottrade is one that does). Then you are making the mistake of TRADING! Sharebuilder is NOT for trading PERIOD! Their fees are too high for that. This is your screwup don't blame them. Buy REAL stocks next time.
Ugh! I have to agree with some other comments. You say you are new to stock investing. Well penny stocks are not ideal for any investor let alone a beginner. A majority of penny stocks, some say as high as 95%, are complete garbage and worthless. So the odds of you picking a winning penny stock are simply way to low. You would have better odds with most casino games. I also would agree that Sharebuilder is not a site for active trading. You need a broker such as TradeKing, Zecco, Scottrade, or TDAmeritrade.
That's why I trade with Thinkorswim.