Home > Internet Trading Demo > Order Types
At present there are 4 types of order available for input into the Internet trading service, they are At-auction Limit Order, Price Limit Order, Enhanced Limit Order and Special Limit Order. Client should base on their needs to select the appropriate order type while placing buy/sell orders. The following part will describe the uses and features of each order type and clients should understand the application of each type of order before order placing.
HKEX Trading Hours
Trading is conducted on Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays) at the following times:
Pre-opening Session |
09:00 a.m. to 09:30 a.m. |
Morning Session |
09:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. |
Extended Morning Session |
12:00 p.m. to 01:30 p.m. |
Afternoon Session |
01:30 p.m. to 04:00 p.m. |
There is no Extended Morning session and afternoon session on the eves of Christmas, New Year and Lunar New Year. There shall be no Extended Morning session if there is no morning session.
Pre-opening Session
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) introduces a Pre-opening Session for the securities market, which is an additional trading session of 30 minutes commencing before the Morning Trading Session. The Pre-opening Session allows orders to be entered into the trading system for a single price auction and transactions concluded before the commencement of the Morning Trading Session to be reported by brokers.
The purpose and features of the Pre-opening Session are as follow:
- Allow Exchange Participants to start order input during the Pre-opening Session and improve their operational efficiency;
- Reduce the loading of the system arising from the large number of order inputs and trade execution messages at the commencement of morning session;
- Prevent significant price fluctuations and possible manipulation at the commencement of Continuous Trading Session
- Establish an optimized opening price
- Maximize the quantity of order matching
- Allow Exchange Participants to report pre-open trades
6.1 At-Auction Limit Order
Our Internet trading service supports the input of At-auction Limit Order by clients during the Pre-opening Session. An at-auction limit order is an order with a specified price and is entered into the trading system during the Pre-opening Session. An at-auction limit order with a specified price at or more competitive than the final IEP (in case of buying, the specified price is equal to or higher than the final IEP, or in case of selling, the specified price is equal to or lower than the final IEP) may be matched at the final IEP.
Unmatched at-auction limit orders will be converted into limit orders and carried forward to the Morning Trading Session provided that the specified price of that at-auction limit order does not deviate 9 times or more from the nominal price.
Indicative Equilibrium Price (IEP)
IEP is the price at which the maximum number of shares can be traded if order matching occurs at that time. IEP will be calculated only if the highest bid price of the buy at-auction limit orders is equal to or higher than the lowest ask price of the sell at-auction limit orders.
Indicative Equilibrium Volume (IEV)
IEV is the number of shares that can be traded at the IEP. Both IEP and IEV will be continuously updated and displayed on the Automatic Order Matching and Execution System (AMS/3) until the completion of order matching. This information will also be disseminated to information vendors.
Trading Mechanism of At-auction Limit Order during Pre-opening Session
Periods |
Time / Duration |
Main Features |
1) Order Input |
9:00 am – 9:15 am |
|
2) Pre-order Matching Period |
9:15 am – 9:20 am |
|
3) Order Matching |
9:20 am – 9:28 am |
|
4) Blocking |
9:28 am – 9:30 am |
|
6.2 Price Limit Order
Price Limit Order means a buy order or a sell order with a specified price input into the System for automatic order matching at exactly the specified price when the current ask price or current bid price matches the specified price. Any unfilled Price Limit Order will be queued in the market pending for matching via AMS/3 at that price until the end of the trading day. A Price Limit Order will be rejected by AMS/3 if the specified price input for a Buy order is higher than the current best Ask price or if the specified price input for a Sell order is lower than the current best Bid Price.
Example 6.2
6.3 Enhanced Limit Order
Enhanced Limit Order (ELO) is similar to the Price Limit Order except that it allows matching of up to five price queues. The sell order price of ELO can be matched up to four spreads lower than the current bid or the buy order price can be matched up to four spreads higher than the current ask price. Any unfilled quantity of ELO after matching will remain in the market as a Price Limit Order at the input order price.
Unfilled orders after matching will be converted to limit orders at the input limit price.
Example 6.3
6.4 Special Limit Order
A limit price has to be input for SLO but there is no restriction on the limit price with respect to the best price on the other side of the market. SLO will match up to five price queues (i.e. the best price queue and up to the fifth queue at 4 spreads away) as long as the traded price is not worse than the input limit price. Any unfilled quantity of SLO after matching will be cancelled and not stored in the System. The number of price queues allowed for matching can also be increased in future if necessary.
Unfilled orders will be rejected and will not be queued in market order book.
Example 6.4