IIROC launches equity trading guide

IIROC is helping investors better understand equity trading.

The regulator’s new Guide to Trading on Equity Markets is an interactive education tool designed to teach investors about the mechanics and rules of trading, choosing different order types and how orders are executed. With both newbie and experienced investors in mind, the guide provides six lessons and has an interactive quiz for investors to test themselves.

Using the guide, investors will learn more about:

• trading on different marketplaces, including stock exchanges and Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs); • the benefits and risks of using different order types such as market, limit and stop orders; • how orders are executed and filled, along with the associated risks; • when trades may be cancelled or varied, or when a regulator will halt a stock; • IIROC’s role and the rules that protect investors; and • an investor’s obligations to avoid manipulative or deceptive trading, when conducting short sales, or when the investor is an insider.

“One of IIROC’s strategic priorities is to enhance investor confidence in Canadian financial markets. It is important for us to create tools like this general primer to help investors better understand how the markets work,” says Susan Wolburgh Jenah, IIROC’s president and CEO. “This web-based tool was designed to help investors make more informed decisions and it contributes to improving the financial literacy among Canadian investors.”

IIROC’s Guide to Trading on Equity Markets is available on the Investors section of the IIROC website.