With all the broker issues at the NSE, I now do all my orders on a limit price basis. However, I've noticed something uniquely Kenyan in the way the NSE brokers process such orders. For a limit price order, the limit price seems to become the buying or selling price. In almost every other stock market I’ve tried, the broker has always used the limit price as a guide for him to find me the best price.
My strong suspicion is that the NSE brokers take profit from limit price orders. If say I send in a limit selling price of Ksh26 for my 10,000 Equity shares and Equity goes to Ksh26.50, I suspect that the broker sells the shares at Ksh26.50, gives me my receipt at Ksh26 and pockets the difference less commission.

I have also wondered about this.

The below is an extract from wikipedia on the definition of front running...........

Front running is the illegal practice of a stock broker executing orders on a security for its own account while taking advantage of advance knowledge of pending orders from its customers. When orders previously submitted by its customers will predictably affect the price of the security, purchasing first for its own account gives the broker an unfair advantage, since it can expect to close out its position at a profit based on the new price level. Front running may involve either buying (where the broker buys for their account, before filling customer buy orders that drive up the price) or selling (where the broker sells for its own account, before filling customer sell orders that drive down the price).

Allegations of front running occasionally arise in stock and commodity exchanges, in scandals concerning floor brokers and exchange specialists.

@Wa_ithaka & Merchant; which brokers do you use? I think it is time you moved!

I use NIC. Been with them since the days they were known as Solid Investments.

I have never seen that trend. If I quote sell at a minimum of, say, 26, I do sometimes get a price of even 27.5

If I say buy at max 26, I will get even 25.

And as noted by cnn; subscribe to the CDSC service. You will get an SMS each time a transaction goes through your account...free of charge! The messages come promptly at 4.03pm

I use Faida Investment Bank ....and the case is the same.....they make me smile at times coz they sell at a higher price ama buy at a lower price!

.

This one is funny. Just move to the broker you do NOT trust.

But I am sure that this was a typo,no?

PKoli, Chaka is right. If you don't have credit, you get a message from your service provider saying you don't have enough money to use the service. Hata uweke pesa ngapi afterwards, you will never get the message. The service costs 10 bob per alert by the way. If you buy 100 kq shares and another 100 centum shares, that is 2 alerts, therefore 20 bob

On liquid counters I always market orders and nothing ever goes wrong...

Like for example yesterday and today i placed orders for Kenol at market price and picked them up at 9.95 on both days even though there were asks at 10-10.1...

Same thing when i sold KPLC... its closed at 234 on both days when i sold with lows of 231 but my broker got my shares sold at 238 with a market order....

if the broker is experienced then one doesnt need to place limit orders on liquid shares...

Is this the same broker - Dyer & Blair that you were bashing the other day? Or have you now found yourself a "good" broker?

My 2 cents.. I think you and Wa_ithaka are describing two different scenarios (both unethical). Wa_ithaka is talking about brokers stealing from their clients by executing client orders at higher prices and only submitting the lower figure. With the CDSC sms alert, this is unlikely.. unless you've seen a variance between your broker statement and the alert.

Front running on the other hand is very likely to be happening and is very difficult to prosecute or prove.. After all if a broker starts buying on his own behalf because he's noticed that a lot of his clients are interested in a stock, there's no way to prove that he's interest in the stock did not arise from the same reasons as his clients or from different one's for that matter. Same thing applies if he dumps stocks because he's seen that his clients are dumping them.