In accordance with my trading plan, I use MOC orders on Totality to buy or sell positions after new entry or exit signals.
As the Portfolio Manager uses the last closing price to estimate the quantity of shares to buy for a new position, it may result in a position that is too large or small if price moves strongly before the MOC order is executed.
Do people adjust the quantity of shares to buy (through editing the MOC order) just before market close if you have access to live prices (assuming you are up already)? What is SWS’s view on that?
There are 2 things to be aware of with MOC orders when filling the last vacant position in a portfolio:
The ETF / stock price can rise during the day causing the order value to be > than the cash available in the account
The order value is > the account value less the Cash Buffer required by Saxo / Totality for MOC orders.
This is a confirmation received from Billy Macris at Gleneagle at the beginning of January 2026.
"MOC orders on US markets which are placed outside of US hours do require a buffer.
For each of the risk categories the buffer requirement is as follows.
Rating
Cash Buffer
1
10%
2
10%
3
10%
4
15%
5
25%
6
50%
You can find the Rating for each stock / ETF by selecting Trading conditions, Instrument on the same drop down menu as you find New trade.
QLD has a Rating = 6.
To ensure a ‘last-position trade’ is executed your choices are:
Place a Market or Limit order while the market is open, close to the Close.
Place a Market order before the market opens - this will achieve a Market on Open (MoO) order.
Place a MOC order but use a CFD - this will attract interest charges for the whole position size.
Whilst we endeavour to use MOC orders as much as possible, the odd MoO order is okay. This is what the SPA3 Income Public Portfolio will do in this instance.
When the US market closes at 08h00 AEDT, the PP would consider placing a Market or Limit order shortly before the Close.