TIMING: DAY ONLY, GOOD UNTIL CANCELLED, FILL OR KILL, IMMEDIATE OR CANCEL

DAY ONLY

DEFINITION OF 'DAY ORDER'

An order to buy or sell a security that automatically expires if not executed on the day the order was placed. A day order is an order that is good for that day only. If it is not filled it will be canceled, and it will not be filled if the limit or stop order price was not met during the trading session. It is one of several different order duration types that determine how long the order will be in the market before it is canceled. For example, a "good till canceled (GTC)" order will remain active until it is manually canceled, while an "immediate or cancel (IOC)" order fills all or part of an order immediately and cancels the remaining part of the order.

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS 'DAY ORDER'

Many trading platforms have "day orders" (often appearing simply as "day") as the default order duration. Unless the trader specifies a different time frame for the expiration of the order, any order to buy or sell a security would be a day order by default. These orders are only good during the current trading day, and are automatically canceled at the end of the day if they have not yet been filled. Most trading platforms support a wide variety of duration types, including those that are based on an action (such as Fill-Or-Kill) and durations that are based on a specified time period: one, three or five minutes.

GOOD UNTIL CANCELLED

DEFINITION OF 'GOOD 'TIL CANCELED - GTC'

An order to buy or sell a security at a set price that is active until the investor decides to cancel it or the trade is executed. If an order does not have a good-'til-canceled instruction then the order will expire at the end of the trading day the order was placed.

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS 'GOOD 'TIL CANCELED - GTC'

In most cases, GTC orders are canceled by brokerage firms after 30-90 days. This type of order is traditionally placed at price points away from the price of the stock at the time the order is placed. For example if a stock you hold is currently $40 but you believe it will go to $50 at which point you will sell then, you can use a GTC order. Once the GTC order to sell is placed, if the price of the stock reaches $50 at any point over the next few months your shares will be sold.

FILL OR KILL

DEFINITION OF 'FILL OR KILL - FOK'

A type of time-in-force designation used in securities trading that instructs a brokerage to execute a transaction immediately and completely or not at all. This type of order is most likely to be used by active traders and is usually for a large quantity of stock. The order must be filled in its entirety or canceled (killed). The purpose of a fill or kill order is to ensure that a position is entered at a desired price.

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS 'FILL OR KILL - FOK'

Without a fill or kill designation, it might take a prolonged period of time to complete a large order. In reality, however, the fill-or-kill type of trade does not occur very often. Other methods of instructing a brokerage on the time frame in which a trade is to be executed include "immediate or cancel," which means to fill all or part of the order immediately, then cancel any part that cannot be filled, and "good ‘til canceled," which keeps an order open until it is able to be filled at a specified price.

IMMEDIATE OR CANCEL

DEFINITION OF 'IMMEDIATE OR CANCEL ORDER - IOC'

An order to buy or sell a security that if not immediately filled, will be canceled. An IOC order is one of several "duration orders" that investors and traders can use to specify how long the order will remain active in the market and under what conditions the order will be canceled.

An IOC order requires all or part of the order to be executed immediately, otherwise the order (or any unfilled parts of the order) will be canceled. Partial fills are accepted with this type of order duration, unlike a fill-or-kill order, which must be filled immediately in its entirety or be canceled.

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS 'IMMEDIATE OR CANCEL ORDER - IOC'

An IOC duration may be specified when a large order is submitted to the market. Filling a large order may be difficult; to avoid having the order filled at a wide variety of prices, an IOC will automatically cancel any part or the order that does not fill right away. When a trader or investor submits an order to buy or sell a security or other instrument, he or she can specify both the type of order - such as market or limit - and the duration of the order. Order entry interfaces that are part the various available trading platforms allow traders and investors to choose from a number of durations in addition to the immediate-or-cancel orders. Other durations include day (automatically canceled at the end of the regular trading session); good-till-canceled (remains active until the trade is executed or canceled); and good-till-date (remains active until a user-specified date, unless it has been executed or canceled).