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How to Place an Order to Buy Shares of a Company with CIBC Investor’s Edge

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Once you have opened and funded a self-directed investing account with CIBC Investor’s Edge you can buy shares of the stock of publicly traded companies from those listed on exchanges like the TSX and the NYSE. Before you buy, you need to have enough cash in your account to pay for the shares plus to pay the trading commission. You can limit the amount you pay per share or reduce the number of shares you buy, if necessary, to ensure you have enough cash handy to cover both costs. You can place a limit your purchase order with Investor’s Edge and this article will include a description of how to do it.

First, you may want to review the suggestions in How to Get Ready to Buy Shares of Stock in a Company.

Before you submit an order, you should know:

  • How many shares you want to buy
  • Whether you will buy all the shares in one batch, or buy several batches over time
  • What is the most you will pay per share
  • Whether you can accept the risk that the price will go up above what you expected to pay
  • Whether you can accept the risk of paying “too much” if the price drops after you set a fixed price at which to buy
  • What it will cost you to complete a trade
  • That you will have the cash ready to settle the trade in your account when it’s needed
  • Whether you will be paid the next dividend, if applicable
  • What the price history looks like for the stock

How to Enter an Equity Buy Order with CIBC Investor’s Edge

  1. Go to CIBC Investor’s Edge at: https://www.investorsedge.cibc.com/ie/
  2. To sign in to your CIBC Investor’s Edge account/s:
    1. In the User ID field, type your User ID.
    2. In the Password field, type your password.
    3. Click on the Sign On button.
  3. If applicable, from your list of accounts, click on the link for the account you wish to make the purchase in and review your holdings.
    For example, I selected my RRSP account.
  4. On the left side of the screen, click on the Trading link.
  5. The Stock Order Entry screen will open, which is what we want.

Check the Current (Real Time) Price for an Equity Using CIBC Investor’s Edge

  1. In the Symbol field, type the trading symbol for the company you are interested in.
    For example, I typed: CGX
  2. Select the market by clicking on the radio button beside Cdn or US
  3. Click on the Get Real Time Quote button.
  4. On the right side of the screen, a small chart will display the current price and how much it is up or down since the open price.
    It will list

    • the time of the last trade as the hour:minute:second
    • the Bid and Ask prices
    • the Bid and Ask Lots
    • the High and Low for the day, and
    • the Volume

    You can also see the cash balance in your account above the pricing information.

  5. You can update the price by clicking on the Get Real Time Quote button again.
    You have to keep clicking it if you want to see the most recent price.For a very active stock like TD, the price jump significantly several times a minute.
    You cannot get automatically updated real-time quotes with a basic Investor’s Edge account. Since you are not a day trader that shouldn’t matter much to you anyway.
  6. If you still want to buy, here are the next steps:

How to Submit a Buy Order for Shares at CIBC Investor’s Edge

  1. Check once more that the account number is for the correct account (e.g. your RRSP, TFSA etc.)
  2. Click to select the radio button beside Buy.
  3. In the Symbol field, type the trading symbol for the company.
    For example, I typed CGX.
  4. Select the market by clicking on the radio button beside Cdn or US
  5. Click on the Get Real Time Quote button.
  6. In the Quantity field, type the number of shares you wish to buy.
  7. NOTE: The Market Price is changing every second. Your total cost may go up or down!
    Make sure you will have enough cash to pay for the shares PLUS the trading commission.Consider whether you want to buy at the Market Price.
    Personally I never do. I always enter a price limit. Yes, sometimes this means I pay too much for a stock, if the price drops after I set my order. However I have never had to pay more than I expected for a stock.From the Order Price list click to select the radio button to choose
    Limit

    • To state exactly what price you are willing to pay.

    CAUTION:

    • If the stock begins to fall in price, your trade will get filled on the way down and you may pay more than other people for the stock.
    • If you set the price limit too low, no one will sell you their shares and your order will not fill. (You will not be charged a commission if your order does not fill.) For example, I could put in a buy order for CGX at $5, but unless there is a major computer system error, it would not fill.

    Market

    • You take a chance and pay what the stock is trading for at the second your trade is executed; or

    Stop

    • Stop orders aren’t particularly applicable to purchases. I’ll try to discuss these is another article later.
  8. If you select Limit, type in the amount you are willing to pay per share in the $ field.
  9. From the Order Expiry list, click to select the radio button to choose
    • Order Good for Day
    • Good Through

    If you choose to have the order good for several days, and you select Good Through, choose the month and day from the drop-down list or calendar. You can select a date up to 30 calendar days away. Your order will remain in place until the end of the business day on the date you choose, or until the order fills if it fills before that date.

  10. Click on the Next button.
  11. Check the information on the Verify screen.
    • To the right side, check the estimated cost of the transaction, including the commission, and your account cash balance.
    • Check the Company name is what you expect. (Some companies have very similar trading symbols and prices!)
  12. If everything looks good, type your password in the Trading Password field.
  13. Click on the Submit Order button.
    If you were too slow filling in the password and clicking Submit Order you may have to try again. I believe this is to ensure if you are placing a Market order that the price won’t have changed too much while you were stalling, but I’m not sure.
  14. A confirmation screen for your order will be displayed.
    You may wish to copy and paste this Order Confirmation into a document and save it for reference.
  15. You’re done!

To Set a Trade Fill Alert

  1. At the top of the Confirmation screen, you may see a message that says you have Trade Fill Alerts set to off.
  2. If you want to turn them on, click on the Trade Fill Alerts link in that sentence.
  3. Type your email address in the Email Address text field.
  4. Check the box beside the account for which you wish to receive Fill alerts.
    For example, I check the box beside our RRSP account.
  5. Click on the Save Changes button.

To Review Your Order

(For more detailed information, please also see Reviewing Your Orders for a CIBC Investor’s Edge Account.)

  1. From the left hand list of links, select Order Status.
  2. A list of your orders is displayed. You can see quickly if the order is open, filled or expired.

Unlike the BMO InvestorLine order status, you can see at a glance the details of the order, such as the price limit, without any more clicking. (Score one for Investor’s Edge!)

Securely End Your Session

  1. If you have finished using CIBC Investor’s Edge, click on the Sign Off link.
  2. For increased security, close your browser session.

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Do you have any tips for investors placing orders to buy shares using CIBC Investor’s Edge? Please share your experiences with a comment.