Introduction
Limit orders give your stakeholders more control over the price at which they sell public-company shares. Instead of selling immediately at the best available market price, they can set the minimum price they are willing to accept and leave the order open.
As an account admin, you can monitor market and limit orders from one place, including their status, limit price, expiry date and cancellation reason.
This article explains:
The difference between market and limit orders
What stakeholders do when creating and cancelling limit orders
What happens when a restriction period begins
How you can monitor orders as an account admin
Who can use limit orders?
Limit orders are available to public companies using Ledgy’s automated trading flow. They are not available for offline trading.
To place an order, a stakeholder must:
Have shares available to sell
Have completed the required personal, tax and bank information
Not be subject to an active restriction period
To view company orders, you need account access that includes permission to view trading.
Market orders and limit orders
A stakeholder can create either:
Market order — The shares are submitted for sale at the best available market price. The final price may differ from the estimate shown when the order is created
Limit order — The stakeholder sets a minimum price per share. The order executes only at that price or higher
A limit order is fill-or-kill: it is filled in full or not at all. It is never partially filled.
Important: A limit price controls the minimum acceptable price, but it does not guarantee that the order will execute. The market may never reach that price before the order expires or is cancelled.
What stakeholders do when placing a limit order
Log in to the Ledgy stakeholder dashboard and go to Sell shares.
Enter the number of shares to sell.
Enter a value in Limit price per share (optional). This is the minimum price the stakeholder will accept for each share. Leaving this field blank creates a market order instead.
Optionally choose an Order expiry date. If no expiry date is selected, the order remains open until it is filled or cancelled, for a maximum of 90 days. If an expiry date is selected, it must fall within the next 90 days and on an available trading day.
Review the Sale summary, including estimated gross proceeds, fees and net proceeds.
Read the order disclaimer and click Submit order.
The estimated proceeds and fees use the limit price while the order is open. They remain indicative, exclude taxes and are updated after the sale executes.
For the full stakeholder selling journey, see How to sell your shares on Ledgy.
How stakeholders monitor and cancel an open order
After submitting an order, the stakeholder can view its status and details from their dashboard.
If the order is still eligible for cancellation, they can select Cancel order and confirm the request.
Important: Cancellation is not guaranteed. The broker may already be executing the order, or the order may execute before cancellation is confirmed. The stakeholder should check the order status to confirm the outcome.
What happens when a restriction period begins?
If a restriction period starts while an order is open, Ledgy automatically requests cancellation for eligible open market and limit orders belonging to the affected stakeholders.
Stakeholders cannot submit new sell orders during an active restriction period. Selling becomes available again automatically when the restriction period ends.
As an account admin, you can see that the order was Automatically cancelled due to restriction period in the order’s cancellation reason.
For more information, see What is a restriction period?
How account admins monitor limit orders
Open the relevant company in Ledgy.
In the left navigation, go to Market Orders > Orders.
Review the orders grid.
The default grid includes useful details such as:
Stakeholder
Market order status
Order type
Quantity
Date created
Limit price
Order expiry
Average price
Fees
Settlement details
To understand why an order was cancelled, add the Cancellation reason column to the grid. Ledgy can show:
Cancelled by stakeholder
Automatically cancelled due to restriction period
Cancelled by broker
FAQs
What is the difference between a market order and a limit order?
A market order is submitted at the best available market price. A limit order executes only at the stakeholder’s chosen minimum price or higher.
Does setting a limit price guarantee a sale?
No. The order may remain open or expire without executing if the market does not reach the limit price.
How long can a limit order remain open?
A stakeholder can leave it open until cancelled or choose an expiry date. In both cases, the order can remain open for no more than 90 days.
Can a limit order be partially filled?
No. Limit orders are fill-or-kill, so the full quantity is sold or the order is not filled.
Can an account admin cancel a stakeholder’s order?
Stakeholders can request cancellation themselves while an order is still eligible. Account admins monitor the order and its cancellation reason from the orders grid.
What happens to an open order when a restriction period starts?
Ledgy automatically requests cancellation for eligible open orders belonging to affected stakeholders. The admin orders grid records the restriction period as the cancellation reason once cancellation is confirmed.
Why can’t a stakeholder see the limit price field?
Limit orders are available only to public companies using Ledgy’s automated trading flow. They are not shown for offline trading.