When working with various financial instruments, it is extremely important to be careful and not make rash trading decisions. This advice is especially relevant for traders who, as a rule, make a large number of transactions during the day and may lose their vigilance by the end of trading. Moreover, carelessness in making transactions can lead to a fatal mistake: the loss of part of the capital. Especially if you have access to margin trading (trading with borrowed funds provided by a broker) or leveraged trading.
Why is it important to take into account the lot of securities?
The key factor in a trader's deal is the number of securities he intends to buy or sell in the course of the trade. And it is at this point that it is worth dwelling in detail. Let's say you want to buy 100 Gazprom shares, go to your broker's mobile application or web terminal and boldly enter the number 100 in the line where you need to enter the number of shares to buy or sell. And buy 1000 Gazprom shares. But why exactly 1000, because you were planning to buy only 100 shares? The point is that at the moment, when buying Gazprom shares on the Moscow Exchange, one lot will contain 10 shares. Thus, in the line where you enter the desired number of shares to buy, you enter exactly the number of lots. Be careful.
Can the lot of securities change over time?
In principle, the lot is a constant value and changes extremely rarely. But if this happens, then the last change in the lot is, as a rule, already final. Why may the lot of some securities change? This usually happens due to the fact that the price of one or another asset is greatly increasing, and if earlier a lot of securities (10 pieces) could be bought for 1,000 rubles, now, due to the increase in the price of 1,000 rubles, one share has become worth it. Accordingly, the lot has already cost 10 tr. This is a significant amount for some investors, so the exchange, together with the issuing company, may decide to reduce the number of securities in a lot from 10 to 1 piece. Such a maneuver will significantly facilitate access to this instrument for any investor and increase its liquidity.
How to find out when the lot of a certain instrument will change?
As a rule, the exchange on which the trades are conducted does not focus on informing the traders about the change in the lot size of a particular security, but this information can always be found in the investor communities. It is open and available to everyone.