orders greater than 10% from last trade, page-11

Hi MobyT,

i use etrade for my smsf and have had issues in the short time i have been trading with them.

I've tried to buy and sell at the bid or ask price and it has been rejected because of the spread even though it was the last price traded.

In one instance, the bid was something like 18.5c and the ask was 21c. When the buy order at 21c was rejected, i was told to increase my order in 0.5c increments at intervals of a few minutes. When i said that the stock had been trading at 21c previously i was informed of filters that i was breaching.

Comsec was similar to Etrade, but NAB's filters were ridiculous. It was normal practice to wait minutes for an amended order to go through. A partially filled amendment was often around 5 minutes. When i finally left NAB in mid 09, it was for that reason. When i spoke to the head of their online trading at the time, she said that it was reasonable.

I started with Amscot soon after, and when i mentioned the time it was taking for an amendment to their trading manager, he laughed.

I think the brokers set their own rules to prevent market manipulation under ASX rule 13.4. If they trust you enough, you should be able to get some leeway if you have a decent relationship and don't try to manipulate the market.