Market order means to buy at the current seller's price (lowest in the sell queue) or sell at the current buyer's price (highest in the buy queue), very simple. Note there is no queuing in market order.

Limit order to sell means queue to sell at the current seller's price or higher than the current seller's price. Please note that this current seller's price is the lowest in the sell queue. If you try to sell lower than the current seller's price (that is, at the current buyer's price or lower), the order will be done at the current buyer's price. It will become a market order.

Limit order to buy means queue to buy at the current buyer's price or lower than the current buyer's price. Please note that this current buyer's price is the highest in the buy queue. If you try to buy higher than the current buyer's price (that is, at the current seller's price or higher), the order will be done at the current seller's price, thus becoming a market order.

Just remember, for limit order, you cannot queue to buy higher than the seller's price. Likewise, you cannot queue to sell lower than buyer's price in limit order.

The market has been very volatile of late. It could be jumping up one day and plunging the other day. But generally the trend line is moving downwards. What should we do as traders?

Stay out, if in doubt.

The most important part of trading is to PRESERVE OUR FUND. The market is always there. Once our fund is fully depleted, it is the end of the story.

In trading, VOLUME is everything. Low volume means liquidation at good price will be difficult, especially in a plunging market. On a positive side, if the market is bullish, low volume stocks will have their price rising fast.

Whether bullish or bearish, I will avoid illiquid stocks because selling is far more important than buying.

To make a quick contra profit, traders can take advantage of the last 30 minutes of trading hours

During this last half an hour, if certain stock suddenly becomes active with a surge in price, chances are it will gap up when the market opens the next day. It will be more so if it closes at day high. Hence, go long before the market closes today.

On the other hand, if high volume is coupled with a plunge in price, it will likely gap down when the market opens the next day. It will be more so if it closed at day low. Hence, go short before the market closes today.

Blogging should be as easy as ABC, but the technical part of it can be quite frustrating. You see, I submitted my MAIDEN blog entry just a short while ago and when I tried to go back to the same entry to continue from there, I seemed to have big problems finding the right door.

Anyway, the easy way out is to submit a new entry!

Okay, back to Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI)...

STI seems to be in a sideway pattern with the upper and lower limit at 3168 and 2860 respectively, meaning it is undecided where it intends to go. A breakout above 3168 will signal near-term bull whereas a breakdown below 2860 will signal near-term bear. Before the breakout or breakdown happens, the market will be "directionless". Some traders choose to stay out of "directionless" market because there is really not much to make.

I believe the likelihood of 3168 breakout is slightly higher because STI is geared towards the upper end of the range.

Before commiting a postion, always make a point to look at the market condition whether it is sideways, uptrend or downtrend. For Singapore market, STI is the main barometer on the direction of the trend.