Conditional Trading

Conditional orders are active for up to 12 months. Open conditional orders (orders where the market conditions on the ASX have not been met) may be cancelled or amended within 12 months, which means you can adjust them should you choose to. When all of your trigger conditions are met your order can be placed. If your order does not trade immediately, it will have a default expiry of 21 calendar days.

Types of Conditional Orders

For Falling Buy/Sell and Rising Buy/Sell orders you set the Trigger price, at or beyond which the stock must trade before your order is fired.

For Trailing Buy/Sell orders your Trigger parameters include a Trailing Start Price and a Trail Stop Value.

For any Conditional Order Type you may also set a trading volume that must be reached before your order is triggered and you can select a time constraint also. Setting a volume condition may help to ensure that the order is not triggered without sufficient momentum in the traded volume of the stock. The units traded limit considers all units traded on the day the Trigger parameters are met and includes units traded at both above and below the Trigger parameters. If you enter a volume limit and/or time constraint, your Conditional Order can only be placed once the Trigger has been met and your trading volume target has been reached and the time is within your after and before limits, on the same day.

1. Falling Sell Order (Stop Loss) A falling sell order helps you limit any losses or protect any gains. For example you may have an unrealised profit on a share that you don't want to lose should the price fall. You can set a conditional order to sell the stock if its price drops and your profit starts to erode.
2. Falling Buy Order A falling buy order allows you to trigger a Limit order to buy a stock if the price drops to a particular level.
3. Rising Buy Order A rising buy order allows you to trigger a Limit order to buy a stock if the price rises to a particular level. For example, you believe that if a stock trades through a certain price (resistance level), it will continue to rise (break-out), so you could place a rising buy order slightly higher than the resistance level.
4. Rising Sell Order (Profit Trigger) Rising sell orders are designed to allow you to sell stock should its price rise to a particular level.
5. Trailing Sell A Trailing Sell allows you to trigger a Market order to sell the stock, should the price rise to or above your nominated 'Trail Start Price', and then experience a drop equal to or greater than your nominated 'Trail Stop Value'.
6. Trailing Buy A Trailing Buy allows you to trigger a Market order to buy the stock, should the price fall to or below your nominated 'Trail Start Price', and then experience a rise equal to or greater than your nominated 'Trail Stop Value'.

Please read the Share Trading Terms & Conditions for important information regarding conditional orders

How long are conditional orders active?

Conditional orders are active for 12 months. Open conditional orders (eg orders where the market conditions have not been met) may be cancelled or amended within this 12 month period which means you can adjust them as the market moves. When the conditions are met and your order is processed your equity order will have a default expiry of 30 days and your warrant order will have a default expiry of one day.

How do I access Conditional Trading?

Firstly, you need to subscribe to Conditional Trading via the 'Subscriptions' tab on the Alerts & Subscriptions page (My Account > My Profile > Alerts and Subscriptions).

You will then be required to read the Share Trading Terms and Conditions.

You may also register for Alerts at the same time. This ensures that you will be able to be notified about the status of your conditional order immediately should you wish to do so.

Pricing of Conditional Orders?

The cost of a conditional order is just the standard brokerage rate. There are no additional fees or charges for this service.

When can I cancel a Conditional Order?

You can amend or cancel a conditional order any time before the market conditions you have specified are met. It is not possible to cancel a conditional order once it has triggered.

How can I cancel a Conditional Order?

Provided the conditional order has not triggered, you can cancel the conditional order online. Select Trading > Conditional Orders > Manage Orders in the navigation menu. Ascertain the conditional order and click on the cancel option. Alternatively you may contact the Trading Room and speak to a Trading Representative. They will cancel the Conditional Order for you.

When will a Conditional Order be purged?

A Conditional Order will be purged before the market conditions have been met when:

• Any type of corporate action occurs that changes a company's status or the basis of quotation. These include when on the day that a company starts trading; ex-dividend, ex-bonus, ex-capital return, ex-entitlement (rights), ex-interest payment, ex-rights, ex-priority, reconstructed, name change or warrant rollover. An open Conditional Order is also purged when the stock code of either the Condition stock or Order stock changes.
• A company goes into a long-term Trading Halt.
• A company goes into receivership or has a receiver appointed.
• A takeover for a company is announced.

When might my Conditional Order be triggered?

Your Conditional Order will be triggered when the security price available on the ASX meets your instructions. Triggers for conditional orders are limited to prices on the ASX. The placement of a triggered order into the market is subject to the Westpac Online Investing Terms and Conditions.

What does processed mean?

Whenever your conditions are met your order will be subject to our Straight Through Processing (STP) process. Our order processing system uses a series of automated filters. Orders that pass all of these filters are sent straight to market without further human intervention. Some orders that do not pass all filters may be rejected.