Originally Posted by SmokingTarpan

Alright, so I've bought 100 shares each of Intel and nVidia. Intel seems to be having a good time with processors over AMD, and apparently there's a bad forecast coming out for AMD tomorrow that might help push Intel stock up. I bought nVidia because they're tied to Intel now, and let's face it, they're pretty much crushing ATI.

Two questions. One, how do you do the stop-loss order? Is it something you do when you initially buy the stock, or do you have to do it in a separate action? Second question- what does it mean when you try to buy a stock and it gives you the message "Invalid Quote"? I looked up the stock symbol using their tool and everything.

Yeah I don't know what's up with the invalid quote junk. A bug maybe? Anyway, the answer to your first question may obviate the answer to this second question.

Everything that follows assumes that you're using the CBOE tool that is standard for this exercise. I chose the CBOE tool because, unlike google or yahoo or any other tool I've found it 1) is free AND 2) allows short selling, options trading, and futures trading.

To enter a stop-loss at the time you enter the buy order (and I recommend that you start using the Limit order so that you set a price you're willing to pay. Set it below where the market is at the price you think is a good deal for the stock. If you think the stock is perfect right now, then just use a market order) do the following:

Choose what sort of stop-loss you want.

trailing stop% - triggers if the stock drops below the % threshold from its high since you've owned it. In other words, as the stock's price goes up, your stop order price goes up too. You can also have a stop market or a stop limit.

stop market - triggers a market sell order if the stock's last trade = your stop loss amount. In other words, if you enter a stop market order for $10, then when the stock's trades at $10, a sell order will execute for whatever the market is paying for your stock at that instant. This may be slightly more or less or exactly the same as $10.

Stop limit - triggers a limit sell order when the stock's last trade = your stop loss amount. In this sort of order, you enter the trigger price, $10 from the above example, and the limit order, say $9.85. This of course gives you a little more control over when the stock trades and at what price, but it also comes with some risk. If, for example, the price plunges straight through $10 to $9.50, which can happen if the stock isn't very liquid (isn't traded at high daily volumes), then your limit order may get entered by not executed, since the stock's price, $9.50, is below your limit- the amount you're willing to accept for the stock.

Once you decide which of these stops you want to use, and after you've completed the buy information, select the "Advanced Orders" drop down and select either "Trailing Stop" or "One Triggers Another (Stock)"

From there I trust you can figure it out based on the above explanations of how the different stops work.

Notice that you can also enter a one cancels another trade. Use your imagination with some of these and create your own tricks and strategies.

Hope this helps. Good luck!