A guide to limit orders

A limit order is an order to buy or sell a share at a specified price or better.  Let's say you wanted to buy some shares, but their current price is too high. A limit order tells our systems to try and buy the shares automatically as soon as their price falls to a level you’re happy with.

When you place a limit order, you need to specify this limit price, as well as the overall amount you'd like to invest, or the number of shares you’d like to buy. Our system will monitor the live share price and automatically attempt to place your order when the offer or buy price falls low enough.

You can also place a limit order to sell shares. If you’d like to sell some shares but think their current price is too low, you could place a limit order so our system will try to sell them automatically once their price rises to a specified level or higher.  

How do you set one up?

You can set up a limit order by logging in to your AJ Bell Youinvest account on our website or mobile app. First, specify whether you want to place a ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ limit order. Then enter your limit price. This is the share price that, if reached, will trigger your order to buy or sell the shares. Finally, enter the overall value of the order, or the overall number of shares to buy or sell.  

A limit order can be in place for up to 90 days – after which, it will expire. While a limit order is in place, you can cancel or amend it at any time by visiting the ‘Active orders’ area on our website or mobile app. You can set up a limit order for any UK-listed share which trades in GBP.

How a limit order is executed

A limit order triggers when your share’s price –matches or betters your specified limit price. At that point our systems will automatically attempt to place your deal.  

Things to watch out for

Whether you choose to place a limit order, and what your limit price should be, will depend on your investment strategy and attitude towards risk.

We also can’t give any absolute guarantees that your limit order will go through. For example, market volatility or other circumstances beyond our control may delay or prevent your order from executing. If this happens, AJ Bell Youinvest can’t accept any liability for any loss or potential loss on your portfolio.

Similarly, if the investment you’re dealing in lacks liquidity, we may only be able to execute part of your order on a given day. If this happens, and your order takes several days to complete, you'll get a contract note each day telling you how much of your order has executed. For every day that your order takes to execute, our standard online dealing charge will apply.

You can learn more about limit orders by reading the FAQs on our website.