Order types and Trading phases

Updated on December 13th, 2024

Directa Online Trading platfroms supports the following order types:

Orders with daily validity
Multi-day Orders
conditional stop order:
1. Stop loss
2. Limit orders
3. Debording
4. stop all
5. Orders with the INV - Invisible or the hidden option
6. bracket OCO orders
7. Trailing stop orders

For more details on how to enter, change or cancel the orders, please read the platforms section of this site.

The information we are adding here are that, an order can be cancelled, by the investor himself, that's within the terms, besdies that, it can also be cancelled by the market, for the following possible causes:

A very high spread between the order price and the market control price
Special operations on the security (e.g. Capital increases, mergers, consolidations ...)
The transition to a new trading systems in the Stock Exchange.

Orders with daily validity

The characteristics of these orders depends on the choice the investor makes, rigarding the negotiation price in the different phases of the market, with some slight differences between the various markets.

A) relative to the price , they can be distinguished as :

1) A Limit Order, that is an order bearing the indication of a price limit beyond which the investor is not willing to execute operations

2) A Market order or at the best price, that's an order without any indication of the price

Here are some special features that one should be aware of, for the following Stock markets:

The Italian Equities Market (MTA)

While orders with the price limit are valid in all trading phases, at market orders are accepted only in the auction phase: (closing auction, or in the next auction).

Exception being the orders on the open Mutual Funds of the Borsa -the Italian Stock Exchange, which can only be placed as "at the market orders".

On the (IDEM) the Italian derivatives Market

The orders with price limit can be placed at any time, but the at the best price orders are valid and can be entered only in the continuous trading phase.

On the EUREX

At the best orders are expected for the futures with the nearest maturity, and for the conditional orders, while for all the tradable futures with longer expiration, the limit orders are accepted only starting from the last trading week of the futures nearest maturity .

On the US stock markets (NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX)

At the market orders can be placed only with the market access through the Market Makers, and not for those accessing via ECN .

For further details, see the the section dedicated to the US markets.

B) In relation to the market phases you can choose between different parameters, depending on the market in which you operate. The choice can be made from the order entry form, the basic web trading platform, the web based dLite trading platform, ''Darwin's multi-function book tile.
if the order is entered throuhg other channels (other Darwin tiles, such as :graphicBook, or Flashbook) it's always going to be submitted with the parameter ASAP - as soon as possible , which is also the default mode on order entry form .

On the MTA the Italian Equities market

1) ASAP - as soon as possible

The order is forwarded to the market "as soon as possible" and thus , enters into negotiation in the Italian equities Market (MTA) daytime trading session, or in the After Hours (AH) evening market, depending on the time of the order receipt on Directa server.
Actually, the order will enter into negotiation in the AH market only if it was received during AH market session, or in the short interval between the closing of the daytime session and the opening of the After Hours market.

2) Daily Trading Session

The order is considered to be valid for the daytime session of the MTA anyway by choosing this mode upon order entry, you can submit your orders to Directa, even during the AH market, the orders will be held pending at directa's server, to be sent to the (MTA) Italian Equities market pre-opening session in the next trading day.

3) Closed auction

The order is sent to the first "Closing Auction" available,hence, the auction that is not yet complete, at the moment of the order receipt on Directa's servers or the following one.
This type of order can be placed at any time of the day, and is immediately forwarded by Directa to the market: In fact, the Stock Exchange accepts these orders - and their eventual cancellation - even during the previous market phases, and, based on the price, assign execution "priorities" in the order of arrival.

Only for the MTA the evening closing follows the phase of (CPX) Closing Price crossing session "(17:36 to 17:42) ''', during which you can enter orders at the best or at the closing price and obtain transactions: just send the order without needing to indicate neither market phase relative parameter, nor the price; the order will still be accepted anyway, if you enter a valid price, that's equal to the closing price, or higher if it's a purchase order, or lower in sale, which will be corrected in each case at the closing price.

Orders at the closing price, or at the best price orders not executed in the regular closing auction phase will take part in this trading session as default.

4) After Hours

The order is sent to the Italian evening After Hours market.

5)Next auction

The order is sent to the first session of the following auction at the time of order receipt: It could be the opening auction, closing auction, or the first re-admission auction after a suspension of the security. If the order is not executed in the auction, instead of being sent to the next trading phase it will be deleted automatically.

N.B.
An order sent to Directa's servers "in the last few seconds" before the end of the continuous trading of the MTA, or the AH, may fail to match and even could be "unfilled" without even entering into negotiation.
In these cases, the investor will have to follow up and check the order status, and eventually re-enter the order in following trading session, or the next day.

On XETRA

On Xetra, there are two parameters than can be indicated for trading:

' As soon as possible ' or the "closing auction"

with the same meaning as just described for the corresponding orders "as soon as possible" and "closing auction" of the Italian Equities Market (MTA).

On the MOT

Also here, the order parameters for trading are two:

"as soon as possible" or "next auction"

equivalent to those of the MTA with same name.

For all the other markets market phases specification or particular flags are not expected ( often times, there is only one single phase of continuous trading).

In order for you to easily keep an eye on all the trading hours and the market phases, in one single table, you can check the big picture.

Multi-day orders

These are orders with validity longer than that of the single trading day and are provided only on some markets.

In particular they are valid for:

364 days on the Italian Stock Exchange (MTA, Star, EGM, MOT, ExtraMOT, EuroMOT, MIV, including equities, ordinary and convertible bonds, warrants, and closed-end real estate funds), and on ETF PLUS.

Note: These are traded only during daytime sessions and may be delisted in the event of special operations.

364 days on the U.S. markets, where trading is accepted only via Market Maker (not via ECN).
30 days on XETRA and Cboe.
Up to the expiration of the underlying instrument on IDEM, EUREX, and CME.
Until delisting on LMAX (Forex and CFDs on indices).

These types of orders are not expected for the SEDEX and BATS Europe markets.

In the case of partial executed orders the rest of the order remains active for the amount that's still to be negotiated with the same validity as the original order .

For the other characteristics, where compatible, what we have already explained a bove applies, just like the standard orders with daily validity.

The Multi-day orders can be entered 'from Direct's main online trading platform Darwin, through the tiles:multifunction book or Flashbook, as well as from the Web based trading platform dLite, and also from the classic web based basic platform just by ticking off the right box,

conditional Orders

All the information regarding the conditional orders can be found in the respective chapters, accessible through the menu on the left.