Trade Stocks

Place stock trades from the Stocks tab in the Trade tab.

Enter a symbol, select the variables for the order such as quantity, price, dividend reinvesting, and more.
Then click Verify or Place Order to send the order, or click Save Order to save the order for later use.

There are two areas in the software where you can place equity trades:

theQuick Tradepanel, which offers fewer order customization features, but may also mean getting the order sent off more quickly, and

the Trade Stocks tab, explained below, which offers the full variety of special conditions and other order routing choices you would find in StreetSmart Pro® or Schwab.com.

Get a quick overview of all the Trade Tab features in this self-paced Trading training course.

Following are descriptions of each of the features in the Trade Stocks tab:

Stock and/or option symbols and price and volume data shown here are for illustrative purposes only. Charles Schwab & Co., its parent or affiliates, and/or its employees and/or directors may have positions in securities referenced herein, and may, as principal or agent, buy from or sell to clients.

Symbol

Type the symbol for the security you wish to trade in this field and click Get Quote

Get Quote

Once you've typed a symbol in the Symbol field, click Get quote load the symbol into the Level I quote fields (F).

Symbol Lookup

Opens the Symbol Lookup window.

Margin Requirements

Displays the margin requirements for the current stock.

Level I Quote

Displays Level I price and volume data for the current stock when you click Get Quote.

STOCK TRADE

Action

Choose from Buy, Sell, Sell All, or Short.

HTB: "Hard to Borrow" indicator. Stocks with this indicator may be difficult to borrow for shorting purposes. If the stock you wish to short has this indicator, consider that it may be difficult to fill your order. For questions on shortable share availability, please contact Securities Lending at 1-800-355-2448.

RCB: If RCB (Regulatory Circuit Breaker) displays next to the Action field, the Reg SHO regulatory circuit breaker is in effect for the stock. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted amendments to Regulation SHO (Reg SHO). Under Rule 201, the SEC has established a short sale-related circuit breaker that, if triggered, will impose a restriction on when and/or at what price a security may be sold short.

The short sale-related circuit breaker will be triggered for a security when its price declines by 10% or more from the prior day’s closing value within normal market hours. The regulatory circuit breaker will then remain in effect for the remainder of the day, and at a minimum, throughout the next day’s trading session. The circuit breaker will be triggered during the regular session only. Once triggered, the price test will apply at all times when the national best bid is disseminated through the end of the next trading day.

When the regulatory circuit breaker rule is in force, short sale orders will continue to be accepted. However, marketable limit orders and market orders to sell short may be delayed and executed at a significantly lower price than the bid at the time the order was placed.

Fractional Shares: Using the Sell All action in combination with the SmartEx or Schwab Pre Market/After Hours venue is the only way to send orders to sell fractional amounts. Direct Access venues do not offer fractional share trading.

Enter the number of shares you wish to trade.

Fractional Shares: As the quantity field does not allow the input of fractional shares, using the Sell All action in combination with the SmartEx or Schwab Pre Market/After Hours venue is the only way to send orders to sell fractional amounts. Direct Access venues do not offer fractional share trading.

Venue

Select a order routing venue. For information on each venue, refer to Order Routing Venues for more information, or Direct Access Order Routing if you have direct access enabled on your account.

Order Type

Choose an order type. Refer to SmartEx Order Types for details.

Limit Price

If a Limit Order Type was selected, enter a Limit Price.

Stop Price

If a Stop or Stop/Limit Order Type was selected, enter a Stop Price.

TIF

Time in Force; choose how long the order should last:

Day (default)
Good Until Cancelled (GTC)
Immediate or Cancel (IOC)
Fill or Kill (FOK)

Special Conditions

Choose from:

none
All or None - Available with SmartEx Limit orders of 200 shares or more.
Minimum Quantity - Available with SmartEx Limit/Stop/Stop Limit orders of 300 shares or more.

NOTE: If you choose none, StreetSmart.com® will automatically make your order type a Day Limit order.

Dividend Reinvestment

Check this box to reinvest dividends.

Do not reduce

Instructs the broker not to reduce the limit price by the amount of the cash dividend when a stock goes ex-dividend and the market price is reduced by the amount of the dividend. You can specify DNR on limit orders to buy, stop orders to sell, or on stop-limit orders to sell.

BRACKET

Remove/Add Bracket

Allows you to add Bracket order criteria. For details, refer to the Bracket Overview section.

PREVIEW TRADE

Preview

Displays the details of the order in an easy-to-read format.

The letter in parentheses after the security name is the Financial Status Indicator (FSI).

FSI Codes

Verify/Place Order

Click to open the Verify Order window.

Check Show Order Status after placing order if you wish to have the Order Status sub-tab display immediately after the order is placed.
Confirm the order conditions and click OK, or if you wish to make changes, click Cancel.

Clear Order

Clears the settings in the Trade Stocks tab.

Save Order

Saves the order for quick loading and submission at a later time. Saved orders can be found by going to My Account > Order Status & Messages and clicking the Saved Orders selection instead of Order Status.