No, you are wrong in that the issuing company doesn’t buy back their stock from you. It is sold to someone else who wants to own it. To get the rate posted, someone somewhere must be willing to buy the shares at that particular price. The price posted that you refer to is actually the most recent price that shares were bought and/or sold for. For heavily traded stocks, there are almost always buyers and sellers willing to trade at the most recent price. For thinly traded stocks, sometimes there can be minutes, occasionally hours, or even days between transactions and the fluctuations from one trade to the next tend to be larger. For any stock, a buyer or seller can set limits as to how high or low they are willing to made a trade. From the conversation you describe, it sounds like you were holding a thinly traded stock so the broker needed to see if there were outstanding orders to buy the stock and at what price. Perhaps they were lower than what the last transaction was performed at.

Also, there is always a “spread” between the buy and sell price. The more volume a stock has, the less the spread, but is always at least a penny or two. This is how the traders make money. For example, it stock XYZ was last traded (bought) at $8.50, you might be able to buy it at $8.53 but if you want to sell it, you might only be able to get $8.47. This is another reason you would see differences between the most recent price and the price you actually sell (or buy) the stock for.

One final thought: Occasionally, companies do announce buy backs of there stock where they will repurchase shares if they think the company is undervalued. Usually they will only buy back a small fraction of all the outstanding shares. When this is done, however, it is transparent to any individual shareholder. You don’t actually know whether you are selling your shares back to the company or to someone else.

when i say sell on my shares am i right in thing the company jus buys em back for the going rate
No, the company doesn’t buy your shares another trader/investor buys your shares.

or me to get the rate posted.
I’m not sure what you mean, but if you want a specific price for your shares enter a limit order, not a market order.

Dump the broker and get an online account and trade the positions yourself and you’re only a button push away. I’m was a stockbroker and make tons more trading for myself.

No, you are wrong in that the issuing company doesn’t buy back their stock from you. It is sold to someone else who wants to own it. To get the rate posted, someone somewhere must be willing to buy the shares at that particular price. The price posted that you refer to is actually the most recent price that shares were bought and/or sold for. For heavily traded stocks, there are almost always buyers and sellers willing to trade at the most recent price. For thinly traded stocks, sometimes there can be minutes, occasionally hours, or even days between transactions and the fluctuations from one trade to the next tend to be larger. For any stock, a buyer or seller can set limits as to how high or low they are willing to made a trade. From the conversation you describe, it sounds like you were holding a thinly traded stock so the broker needed to see if there were outstanding orders to buy the stock and at what price. Perhaps they were lower than what the last transaction was performed at.

Also, there is always a “spread” between the buy and sell price. The more volume a stock has, the less the spread, but is always at least a penny or two. This is how the traders make money. For example, it stock XYZ was last traded (bought) at $8.50, you might be able to buy it at $8.53 but if you want to sell it, you might only be able to get $8.47. This is another reason you would see differences between the most recent price and the price you actually sell (or buy) the stock for.

One final thought: Occasionally, companies do announce buy backs of there stock where they will repurchase shares if they think the company is undervalued. Usually they will only buy back a small fraction of all the outstanding shares. When this is done, however, it is transparent to any individual shareholder. You don’t actually know whether you are selling your shares back to the company or to someone else.

when i say sell on my shares am i right in thing the company jus buys em back for the going rate
No, the company doesn’t buy your shares another trader/investor buys your shares.

or me to get the rate posted.
I’m not sure what you mean, but if you want a specific price for your shares enter a limit order, not a market order.

Dump the broker and get an online account and trade the positions yourself and you’re only a button push away. I’m was a stockbroker and make tons more trading for myself.