GTC MKT orders sometimes not filled

After the market is closed, I sometimes enter simple GTC Market orders for ETFs for my C2 system SN-SOS, expecting these orders to be filled in the "hypothetical account" when the market opens.



Over the past week, I entered after-hours GTC MKT orders for XRT and VBK and others and a complete MKT sell-to-close for EVX. No problem with XRT and VBK.

However after several days, I noticed that EVX–entered at the same time and in exactly the same way–was still being held.

I entered a new GTC MKT STC for EVX.

Then I noticed the old GTC MKT STC was still "working"!

So I canceled one of them, not wanting to short-sell.

The next day, I checked again–GTC MKT STC for EVX still "working"!



Finally, I logged-in during market hours, canceled the "working" orders and entered a new GTC MKT STC for EVX. As I suspected, the order was immediately "filled" because it was entered during market hours.



Note: all of the orders were entered by clicking the "close" link on the EVX listing in the C2 "new trade" page. No difference between method of order entry except whether or not done during trading hours. No possibility of transcription errors.



EVX does not have a wide spread, thus enabling MKT orders, but it does have relatively low volume. Presumably that is one reason the order did not "take."



Incidentally, to lower the trading costs, I have simplified the SN-SOS strategy from 6 to 3 frequently-traded ETFs. Therefore I will no longer be trading EVX, but only the most high-volume ETFs. Therefore I suspect this problem will not happen again.



However, evidently we have to check for trades being filled, or they can inexplicably remain un-filled forever.

P.S. I also suspect that Stop-sell orders for EVX were not being filled.



Hence I suspect that it is only safe to use the most high-volume positions in a C2 system, otherwise Stop-sell protection is very unreliable.

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Hi, Krystof:

I can’t seem to find the signals you are talking about. For symbol EVX, the only recent SELL TO CLOSE @ MARKET that I see in the database for your system (id 86317396) is signal id #87102267 (STC 150 EVX at MKT), which was posted at 2014-04-16 23:49:47 ET, but canceled before the market opened the next day (canceled at 2014-04-17 00:01:32 ET).

I’m not doubting you, but perhaps you can let me know a specific signal ID# that I can look up in the database. You can find signal IDs in the email that C2 sends you when you post a new signal. Once I have a signal id #, I can look up the specifics of what occurred.

- Matthew

PS Let’s take this off-line - please email me the specifics at help@collective2.com.

I am pleased that you take this seriously. I suggest to anyone reading this discussion:



If an order does not go through, record and report the signal ID#.



However, I also have this suggestion:



Matthew, I suggest that you use another account to place, around midnight over several nights:



Night 1: BTO-MKT for EVX.

Night 2: STC-STOP for EVX (very close so it is sure to trigger).

If STC-STOP is not triggered, then you have seen the problem in action. If not triggered, do another BTO-MKT to open.

Night 3: STC-MKT for EVX.



Please note that I seemed to have trouble doing stop orders on EVX as well as STC-MKT orders.



My signal emails are kind of labyrinthine for me who is not accustomed to following them–and very possibly there was no signal email generated.



The Home page of my system does list the following during-hours trade which finally worked. I can only say that I certainly "canceled" the previous "non-functioning" order at the same time. However I assume there is probably no record of that cancel–becasue there seems to be no record of the non-functioning order.

3/6/14 13:21 BUY 153 EVX MARKET VECTORS ENVIRONMENTAL



Therefore, I think the best chance to find the problem is to re-create the problem as I have suggested.