Halted stocks - how the desk shows a halt
Small caps halt. When one does, the desk changes how it shows that stock. The row turns yellow, and a HALTED alert is added to the board. Halts are always shown, whatever your filters say, because a halt on a stock you hold matters, even if it no longer passes your filters.
In this video
The 30-second version
The same topic in thirty seconds, made for a phone screen.
Both videos use AutoScanTrade Lite in paper mode with made-up symbols and prices.
Read the transcript
When a stock halts
Small caps halt. When one does, the desk changes how it shows that stock. The row turns yellow, and a HALTED alert is added to the board. Halts are always shown, whatever your filters say, because a halt on a stock you hold matters, even if it no longer passes your filters.
The halt view
The Live cell, and the strip on the trading panel, switch to the halt view. HALTED on its own means no quote has arrived yet. Once a bid and ask arrive, it shows the middle of the two, with the bid and ask beside it, so you can see roughly where the stock is being quoted while it is stopped.
Entries are refused
While a stock is halted, the desk refuses new entries on it. Open positions can still be closed. Your exit may simply have to wait for the stock to trade again.
When it resumes
When trading resumes, a RESUMED alert is added, and the normal price comes back. With Halt rules ticked on a side, a position can exit straight away if the halt resumes against it, and is held if it resumes in its favour.
Before the halt: the band
In market hours, the strip also shows the limit-up and limit-down band, and says so when the price is near it. The halts and limit bands video explains what the desk can do about it.
Seen in the order log
Every halt and resume is also written in the order log, with the time, so you can check later exactly when a stock stopped and started. And if you hold the stock, the halt is the first thing the desk tells you about it.
Your move during a halt
While a stock is halted, the strip keeps showing its latest bid and ask, so you can plan what to do when it reopens. Your stop and target stay where they are, on the ladder and the chart, and the exits act again on the first prices after the halt. Test how your settings behave around halts in paper first.