At times, however, you may want to place an order at a single price. This can be an efficient way to place your order while ensuring a minimum amount of bookkeeping; always a consideration if you are managing a larger portfolio with several hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars in equities. The solution is to place an all-or-none trade. All-or-none trades essentially tell your broker that you do not want your trade executed unless he can do so in a single transaction. The minimum qualification for an all-or-none trade is three round lots or more (300 shares).
Besides the usual caveats, there are some additional considerations before placing an all-or-none order:
- Your all-or-none order will not be executed if there are not enough shares available in a single transaction to cover it.
- All-or-none orders are not placed until all of the orders ahead of it with no special conditions are executed.
- All-or-none orders can only be applied in conjunction with a limit order; market orders are not eligible. (You can get the same result by simply placing a limit order 10 cents above or below the current market price.)
