Risk Warnings

The information on the Site does not take into account your particular needs or circumstances and does not constitute a personal investment recommendation or tax advice. Nothing on the Site should be regarded as an offer to buy, sell or trade in any particular stock. If in doubt about the merits or risks involved with this Service or any transaction, you should consult a suitably qualified professional adviser.

Past performance of shares is not an indication to their future performance. The value of shares or income from them may go down as well as up. As shares are valued from second to second, their bid and offer value fluctuates sometimes widely. The value of shares may rise or fall due to the volatility of world markets, interest rates and capital values or, for shares held in overseas markets, due to changes in the exchange rate in the currency in which the investments are denominated. You may not get back the amount you invested.

With the exception of limit or stop loss orders that have not yet exercised, instructions given to Capita Share Dealing Services by you or on your behalf constitute an irrevocable contract and they cannot be amended or cancelled.

Taxes may affect the net value of your investments and income received from them. Levels and bases of, and relief from, taxation are subject to change as tax legislation may change from time to time.

There is an extra risk of losing money when shares are bought in some smaller companies as there may be a big difference between the buying and selling price of these shares. If these shares have to be sold immediately, you may get back much less than you paid for them. The price may also change quickly and it may go down as well as up.

Limit Orders and Stop Loss Orders

There are special risks and considerations that apply to limit and stop loss orders. If you place a limit or stop loss order to sell Eligible Shares, we will use our reasonable endeavours to execute the order in accordance with its terms but do not guarantee to do so. The order is entirely at your risk, it will be your responsibility to monitor the order and we give no assurance that limit or stop loss orders will be executed, even if the limit price is met, in full or at all. Unless you instruct us otherwise we will execute a limit or stop loss order to the extent we are reasonably able. You may amend or cancel any limit or stop loss order placed with us up to the time of execution. Sometimes we get an improved price from the market so the trade may execute at a better price than the trigger value you have set.

Your limit or stop loss order could fail as a result of:

market conditions at the time (such as a "fast market" where the market is so volatile that prices quoted by market makers are only indicative rather than guaranteed);
other clients having placed similar limit orders, and having an earlier time priority than your order (and so being executed in priority to your order);
other factors outside of our control. For example, the maximum size that can be traded online has changed since you placed the order.

If your order fails, we may not notify you of this and you need to remember to check open orders frequently.

You should also be aware of the following conditions which may affect your limit or stop loss order:

where a corporate action affects the price of the shares in question we will endeavour to delete your limit or stop loss order as soon as we receive notification of this;
certain factors might cause the bid-offer spread, that is the difference between the buy and sell price of a security, to increase to an unusually wide level even for a very short time, which may trigger your stop loss order. These abnormal prices may nevertheless be the "best price" for that security at the time;
the share price falls below the level you have set in which case a stop loss order will fail to trigger a sale. If you set a particularly narrow band, there is an increased chance of this happening. Please note that where a stop loss order fails to trigger a sale for this reason it will still remain valid until it executes or expires.