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EducationCoursesEntries & ExitsMarket on Close Orders
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Entries & Exits
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20
of
21
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Game of Numbers
9:30
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7 Step Entry Checklist
6:26
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
Strong Liquidity Examples
4:34


Picking the Next Direction
14:38
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Scanning for Trades
6:53
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Option Pricing Table Basics
5:57
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Setting Up Your Trade Tab
6:30
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
Pinning Your Probability of Profit
6:15
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Using Delta for Probabilities
4:03
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Buy to Open vs Sell to Open
1:47
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Buy to Close vs Sell to Close
1:39
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Market, Limit, Stop Loss Orders
8:24
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5 Types of Contingent Orders
9:36
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
Limit Orders
5:44


Market Orders
4:41


Limit on Close Orders
2:51


Market on Close Orders
4:11


Advanced Contingent Orders
14:36
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
Taking Profits Before Expiration
10:32
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
Mechanics of Rolling
6:56


Consider Future Events
3:17

Market on Close Orders

Market on close orders enable you to exit trades at the fair market price when the market is closing. There are pros and cons to using market on close orders.
Kirk Du Plessis
May 20, 2022
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4 min video
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Market on close orders will fill your trade as close to the end of the trading day as possible at the market price. We do not prefer any type of market orders because we are completely subject to whatever the next price is (higher or lower than may be quoted at the time). There are instances where you may want to use market on close orders if you absolutely want to exit a trade before expiration or some other event the next day. These are also useful if you cannot watch the market towards the end of the day.

Transcript

In this video tutorial for market on close orders or MOC orders. What we’re going to do is actually just quickly review some market order basics because that's basically all that these market on close orders are, is just a market order executed at the end of the day.

Let’s go over market orders. They’re orders that are used to guarantee an execution time, but not guarantee a price or time of execution. With a market order, you’re going to be executed at a nearest market price.

As soon as you enter that order, it’s going to work instantly to execute anywhere possible and immediate. And we guarantee that we’re going to get into the market, but we don’t guarantee the price.

As always, the benefits is that you're sure that you’re going to get into the market, but the position will be a little bit riskier because you have no control over the actual price.

With an MOC or a market on close order, that order buys or sells at the market price at the close of the trading day and what happens is that the close of the trading day, all of the options are hit the market on close.

All of the orders went into the market as close to the end of the day as possible and executed at the end of the day. Let's say that you wanted to get out of the position by the end of the day, but you had some other obligation, or you are at work, or you had something with the kids, or you had to step away from the computer.

You could enter a market on close and still possibly keep some upside gains if the market is rallying. Let’s say you have some calls and the market is rallying away from you and you want to keep that upside, but you do want to get out at the end of the day.

Well, this would be the order that you would enter. Now, typically most brokers like Thinkorswim require that you have these orders in by 2:40 central standard time or 3:40 eastern standard time and the same risk apply.

Let’s actually go at my Thinkorswim platform here and take a look at an actual market on close order. You can see I have Google up right now. Google is trading at 588. And let’s say that we actually already own a long 600 strike call on Google.

We want to get out of this trade, but not right now. It’s up today and we want it to continue to go higher, so we want to keep some of that upside potential. And right now, this option is trading at 24.10, so we’d enter at the bid to sell this option.

It’s trading right here at 24.10, the 600 strike. And instead of putting a limit price, we’re actually going to change this to an MOC or a market on close. And you can see that the price now goes away and it’s replaced by this MOC which means that it’s going to be filled at the end of the day.

As long as we enter this order in enough time for the broker to get the order into the system and queued up for the end of the day, then we will be out of this trade right at the end of the day.

Now, this could be a higher price than 24.10 where it’s trading at right now, it could be a lower price than 24.10. It’s whatever the end of the day price is.

That's really the risk that you have with the market on close. I'm not too keen on using market on close orders. I have to be honest with you guys. I rather have a limit on close if you’re going to do that and make sure that you get out of a price you know you’re going to be safe with.

The market can turn around instantly and you might even not want to get out of this position. It might be a long-term hold and you actually get stuck getting out of it at a very, very bad price at the end of the day.

I think it’s usually good to have this in your back pocket just in case you need it, but it’s usually not the best order that you want to enter when you’re trading options.

Hey! Thanks for watching this video from Option Alpha. As always, we invite you guys to come back and check us out at optionalpha.com.

And if you liked this video, please share the video with any of your friends, family or colleagues on your favorite social network.

The transcript is not available yet. Please check back soon.

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