How to Use the PSE Board Lot Table

How much do you need to start trading stocks in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)?

How many shares of Globe Telecom (GLO), Ayala REIT Inc. (AREIT), DITO CME Holdings (DITO), or Megaworld (MEG) can you buy or sell at any given time?

You probably don’t know it, but these questions can be answered by simply using the PSE Board Lot Table.

What is the PSE Board Lot Table?

The Board Lot table of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is a guide for investors showing the:

1. Minimum number of shares that can be bought or sold at any given time; and
2. Minimum price increments for each stock traded in the PSE.

Here’s what the PSE Board Lot table looks like.

How to Read the PSE Board Lot Table

The “Stock Price” column shows the range of prices of a given stock and, depending on its current price, its corresponding row will show the fluctuations in price and the minimum number of shares that can be sold or bought.

So for a stock trading at, say, P3.00 per share, the important row to look at is Row E (P0.50 – P4.99).

The “Fluctuations in Price” column, meanwhile, shows the allowed fluctuation or price change of a given stock.

For example, if the fluctuation in price (also called tick size) is P5.00 — same as in the final Row O — the stock price can only move by increments of P5.00.

So a stock currently trading at P5,100.00 can become P5,105.00 or P5,500.00 or even P6,500.00 or P4,500.00 — because all these figures are divisible by P5.00.

But the stock cannot be priced at P5,103.00 or P5,501.25 or P6,557.00 because these numbers are NOT divisible by the required tick size of P5.00.

Finally, the “Board Lot” column represents the minimum number of shares that can be traded depending on the stock’s current price.

If for example, the required board lot is 1,000 — as in Row E — you can buy or sell stocks as long as the number is divisible by 1,000. This means you can buy 2,000 shares or 5,000 shares or even 30,000 shares.

We’ll see a clearer application of the Board Lot table in our practical examples below.

For now, just take note that this table governs only “Normal Lot” trades in the PSE. The “Normal Lot” is still slightly different from the “Odd Lot” market, which we will discuss in a separate article.

Don’t worry because in most cases you’ll just be trading “normally” so you’ll only need to understand the “Normal Lot” version of the PSE Board Lot table.

3 Uses of the PSE Board Lot Table

The PSE Board Lot Table can be used to determine three things:

• (1) the minimum number of shares that can be traded for each stock;
• (2) the minimum price fluctuation or increment applicable to each stock; and
• (3) the minimum amount of money needed to buy any PSE-traded stock.

Let’s look at three examples showing how we can use the PSE Board Lot table to determine these three things.

1. Minimum number of stocks I can buy (or sell) in the PSE

To know the minimum number of shares that can be bought or sold, you need to determine the current stock price and check its corresponding board lot in the Board Lot Table.

For a more detailed guide how to do this, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Get the current price of the stock. Let’s say you want to know the minimum number of shares of Globe Telecom (GLO) that you can buy or sell. Check the PSE website or your broker’s website to get GLO’s current price. Let’s say GLO is currently trading at P2,200.00.

Step 2:  Check the row in the PSE Board Lot table corresponding to this stock price. GLO’s stock price of P2,200.00 corresponds to “Row N”. This is because the price falls within the range P2,000.00 to P4,998.00.

Step 3: In this row, check the corresponding Board Lot (Lot Size) column. The lot size represents the minimum number of shares that can be traded for any stock.

In the case of GLO, the lot size is 5 — meaning, a minimum of five (5) shares of GLO can be bought or sold at any time.

Can you sell 50 shares? Yes!

Remember, the Lot Size shown is just minimum. The number of shares trades can be higher than 5, as long as the number of shares being traded is divisible by 5.

Can you sell just 2 shares of GLO? No!

How about buying 120 shares of GLO? Yes, that’s possible because 120 is divisible by 5.

Easy, right? Let’s move on to the next application of the Board Lot table.

2. Allowed stock price changes in the PSE

Let’s say you bought shares of SM Prime Holdings (SMPH) at P20.00 and now you want to sell those to lock in the profit. The stock currently trades at P36.15 per share. Can you sell it at P36.48? How about at P37.25?

To determine the allowed price increment or price change for any give PSE-traded stock, use the Board Lot Table and check the Tick Size or Minimum Fluctuations column. Follow this step-by-step guide if you need more details.

Step 1: Get the current price of the stock. Just like in Example 1 above, you can check the PSE website or your broker’s website to get the current price of your stock. In the case of SMPH, let’s assume its current stock price is P36.15.

Step 2:  Check the row in the PSE Board Lot table corresponding to this stock price. If SMPH’s stock price is P36.15, which row in the Board Lot table corresponds to this price?

If you answered “Row H”, you are correct. SMPH’s stock price is within the price range of that row (P20.00 to P49.95), so we will use this row in Step 3.

Step 3: Determine the Minimum Price Fluctuations (Tick Size) for that stock. The “Tick Size” column represents the minimum price change or price increment allowed for any given stock.

With SMPH trading at P36.15 per share, the relevant row is “Row H” which tells us that the tick size is PHP 0.05. This means the allowed prices to buy or sell SMPH must be in increments of or divisible by 0.05.

So, going back to the question earlier: can you sell SMPH at a price of P36.48? Since it’s not divisible by 0.05, this is not allowed.

Can you sell it at P37.25? Yes! Since this price is divisible by 0.05.

But take note, whether the sale will be a done trade will, of course, depend on the presence of buyers willing to purchase SMPH shares at your asking price.

As you can see, knowing the Board Lot Table is especially useful if you are making a Limit Order, wherein you’ll manually input your own preferred buying or selling price of a stock.

3. How much money needed to invest in the PSE

So how much money do you need to begin trading stocks?

Actually in the PSE, there is no fixed minimum amount of money needed to begin investing in stocks. The minimum amount will depend on the price of the stock that you want to buy.

Let’s see an example below.

Let’s say we want to know how much we need in order to make our very first trade: buy the minimum number of shares of Megaworld Corp. (MEG).

Step 1: Get the current price of the stock. Again you can simply check the PSE website or your broker’s website to get the current price of your stock. In the case of MEG, let’s say its current price is P3.35.

Step 2:  Determine the lot size in the PSE Board Lot table. To do this, refer back to the step-by-step process explained in Example 1 above. Checking MEG in the Board Lot table, we see that its minimum lot size is 1,000 shares in “Row E”.

Step 3: Multiply the current price by the minimum lot size. The product of the current price and the stock’s minimum lot size equals the minimum amount of money you need to buy that stock.

In the case of MEG, this is P3.35 current price multiplied by 1,000 minimum shares = P3,350. This means you need P3,350 to start buying the allowed minimum number of MEG shares.

See, a very useful application of the PSE Board Lot table is determining the minimum amount of money needed for you to begin trading stocks.

Wait, there’s more!

Take note that stockbrokers such as COL Financial, BPI Trade, PhilStocks, First Metro Securities, etc. charge trading fees and commissions so this amount will surely increase.

Read our article on PSE Stock Trading Fees and Charges to find out what these specific fees and charges are.

Congratulations! Now you know how to use the PSE Board Lot table. Happy smart investing!