Are there online Brokerages with Conditional Order Types?

[ICEBreaker]

Hi guys,

Is the state of Hong Kong’s online trading platforms rather immature compared with the US? Various order types do not seem to exist in HK. I’ve looked at several brokerages such as SHK and Tai Fook, and they seem to only offer the most basic order types.

My requirements are actually quite simple. All I am looking for are conditional orders, so that I can buy long when the price has risen above a preset price. Conversely, sell short when the price has fallen below a preset price. Limit orders are the opposite, that is, buy when the price has fallen, not risen.

I am not even asking for the really advanced stuff like trailing stop loss orders. Another annoying thing I have experienced with Hang Seng is that stop loss orders need to be a fair bit below the current price. So if a stock is going for $8.1 and I want to stop loss at $8.0, it cannot be done. The platform insists one chooses a much lower price such as $7.6.

So I wonder if anyone knows of brokerages that offer conditional orders, such as stop gain orders.

Thanks a lot for your help.

[PDLM]

Some of this is far more complicated than I want to get involved in, but is this something like what you want?

http://www.hsbc.com.hk/hk/personal/i...etBuySellOrder

[ICEBreaker]

Thanks PDLM for your kind reply. But, no, the HSBC orders are just limit orders chained together for convenience sake. What I am looking for is the opposite of limit orders. Limit orders gives the buyer the best possible price. For instance, a stock is asking for $8, but a buyer places a limit order for $8.5. It will buy the stock immediately at $8. What I want to do is to place an order for $8.5. This order is not sent to the exchange, but is kept at the brokerage. As soon as the market price hits $8.5, the brokerage will issue a limit order for $8.5. As you can see, this is far more complicated than the HSBC solution, but is very common in US.

[tanbs]

Thanks PDLM for your kind reply. But, no, the HSBC orders are just limit orders chained together for convenience sake. What I am looking for is the opposite of limit orders. Limit orders gives the buyer the best possible price. For instance, a stock is asking for $8, but a buyer places a limit order for $8.5. It will buy the stock immediately at $8. What I want to do is to place an order for $8.5. This order is not sent to the exchange, but is kept at the brokerage. As soon as the market price hits $8.5, the brokerage will issue a limit order for $8.5. As you can see, this is far more complicated than the HSBC solution, but is very common in US.

https://www.dhsec.com/faqmain/common...gmain.asp#at18

Not sure if this is what u are looking for. I am no expert in this kind of stuff, they really confuse me big time

[ICEBreaker]

Thank you Tanbs for your reply. Unfortunately it is not what I am looking for. What I want is not an order type that is provided by the HKEx's AMS3 platform. The problem with Banks (and brokerages in HK) is that they only act as intermediaries, and send orders straight to the exchange. What I want is a brokerage which has a mechanical trading system, which issues trading instructions after certain criteria are met. I am referring to simple criteria, such as "when price = x, buy".

Alternatively, if someone knows of any client side mechanical trading systems (i.e. install on PC), similar to Tradestation in US, that would be great as well.

[Asian1]

Check Schwab. Dont they have a sub in HK?

[HK_Newbie100]

As far as I know, brokers offer conditional orders only on certain US stock exchanges like NYSE, Nasdaq, Amex. The same broker will not offer conditonal orders on other exchanges and products, like European exchanges. I don't even see them in the UK. So it's not the broker - you just don't see that type of order in HK, I think.

[ICEBreaker]

Asian1: Thanks for your reply. Charles Schwab indeed has what I am looking for, but as HK_Newbie explained above, that is for the US exchange only.

HK_Newbie100: So why is the HK exchange so outdated? Although HK is meant to be the financial hub in this area (ex-Japan), the exchange seems woefully inadequate. The Americans have been showing the way on this issue for decades. Anyway, regardless of the whether HKEx supports a certain order type or not, can't the broker just use their own platform to emulate condition orders? Or are there some SFC regulations against this? Anyway, thanks for replying.

[freeier]

there might be other issues, like liquidity.
i ever had a stop loss order executed on an index future that was like 5 ticks higher than what i placed the order at.. the system just take the market, competing with whoever else buying and the slowest system lose.

another reason is the reluctant of the brokers to change and lose their lucrative lifehood.