IB MOC order reliability

F

futurecurrents

On Friday I had an MOC order (placed early in the day) to cover 600 shares of PHTN. It was trading 50k shares in last five minutes. Three hundred shares sold on island, then at close I got a message that order was rejected as it was entered after hours. (MOC orders are of course day only.) I had to buy after hours at a higher price to close out. The rep said it was unusual and "raises some eyebrows" . I believe what happened was that when the order was originally sent there was enough shares to cover on island but there were not enough when the order got there so it sat until closing.

Now I love MOC orders as they allow me to go about my other business and forget about them. But now I've lost that confidence. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

edit.... I've sent an E-mail to IB for an explanation which I will post when I recieve it.
*******************************************8

"Dear Lord, I've been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for
the Christmas turkey before us... a turkey which was no doubt a
lively, intelligent bird... a social being... capable of actual
affection... nuzzling its young with almost human- like
compassion. Anyway, it's dead and we're gonna eat it. Please
give our respects to its family..."
Berke Breathed, Bloom Country Babylon
 
MOC orders were originally created for NY as there is one open and one close. Not as specific on NASDAQ as per the open close.
You were looking for a closing print on Island

but how do you know Island is going to be around?

On NY they must be in 20 minutes before the closing print.
 
From IB user manual:

Market-on-close (MOC)

...Currently only NYSE and AMEX support native MOC orders. For equities traded on NYSE or AMEX, you can route the order direct to the exchange, or through IB's Smart Order routing. For all other destinations, IB will simulate this order type by submitting the order as close as possible to the market's closing time, but you must route simulated orders through Smart Order routing.
 
IB's moc orders go out at 15 seconds before the close. They go out via smart, I did not specify Island. It took longer than 15 seconds to fill. I made no error. Nasdaq stock, electronic market. Scary.:eek:
 
This is the answer I got back from IB:

Dear Trader,

Your order was submitted and partially filled. The remaining portion was
submitted to NASDAQ to late.
Our programmers are aware of this and we may change the submission time for MOC
order to allow more time.


Def, thanks for offering to look into this.
 
Figures when I sent you the PM the markets were dead. Things picked up and I didn't get a chance to look till now. There was enough depth to get a fill on the various ECN's and NASDAQ but not much traded and if your order was the 300 filled with 3 seconds to go then you were the last print before 4 PM. It looks like the help desk and programming are aware of what's going on so I'll leave it to them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top