Our US counter party has the duties & responsibilities to ensure best execution at the National Best Bid & Offer (NBBO) .

All the orders received prior to market open can be routed to any Market Centre and send to the stock’s primary listing exchange. Henceforth, for similar orders that are placed at the same time, they may not be all filled as the orders are competing against each other. Please take note that not all stocks will open promptly at 09.30 am sharp. Similarly, the high and low of the day for certain counters may be executed off the primary exchange and may not be taken as official primary executed prices. This explained why your order may not be executed when you may have seen transactions executed from some financial websites.

Those transactions execute off the primary exchange before the official open, which by themselves are still required to be reported under SEC regulation. Any activity prior to the primary market open that is reported to the tape would be from alternative display facilities or dark pools. The reason that these trades are still reported to the tape, even though the primary market is not opened, is because under SEC rules, every stock transaction must be reported to a consolidated data feed, whether it occurs on an exchange, like the NASDAQ or Intercontinental Exchange Inc’s (ICE.N) New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), or in a dark pool. Off-exchange trades are reported through Trade Reporting Facilities (TRFs) run by NASDAQ and NYSE in conjunction with Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

While trade execution is usually seamless and quick, it does take time. Prices can change quickly, especially in fast-moving markets. Because price quotes are only for a specific number of shares, investors may not always receive the price they saw on their screen. By the time your order reaches the market, the price of the stock could be slightly – or very – different. Order executions are not dependent on traded prices. A buy (sell) limit order is due for execution only when its price matches or is higher (lower) than the best offer (bid) on the NBBO at the time the order is received. Even when an order is due for execution, execution are not guaranteed as it also dependent on price and time priority, i.e. another order of better price and/or of same price but entered earlier will be executed first. Click here to learn more.

More details on opening and closing auction.

Note:
For order quantity less than 100 shares , please note that such order will not be included in the National Best Bid & Offer (NBBO) and execution is not guaranteed. Click here for more information.