IBKR Desktop Market on Close Order

A Market-on-Close or MOC orders are a type of market order that aims to execute a trade as close as possible to the closing price of the trading day. MOC orders are used to achieve the last possible price of that trading day, often in anticipation of potential price movements on the next trading day.  

Set up of Market on Close order in IBKR Desktop

The order panel in IBKR Desktop can be populated by either clicking on a symbol in the Portfolio or Watchlist screens or typing in a symbol in the search bar. Once the symbol is selected the investor can click “Buy” or “Sell” to create an order window. In this example the investor chooses to create a “Buy” order and can select the quantity. Note that  fractional shares are not supported.  The investor chooses 100 shares. Directly below are three order types; Limit, Market, and Stop. The investor clicks on “Stop” and scrolls to “Market on Close”, the line below automatically changes from a value to Market. Because this is a Market order there is no need to change the Time-in-Force field.

Submitting a Market on Close order in IBKR Desktop

When the investor is satisfied with the order inputs, they can either click on “Preview” to see a breakdown of the order as well as its effect on margin, “Save” to save the order to be transmitted later, or “Transmit” to send the order. The investor chooses “Preview”, and the Order Preview window appears. Once satisfied they click “Transmit” to send the order.

Please note that the Nasdaq stops accepting MOC orders at 3:55 pm ET and NYSE stops accepting MOC orders at 3:50 pm ET. Please see each exchanges website for more details.