what is a market on close moc order 
a market on close moc order is a non limit market order which traders execute as near to the closing price as they can either exactly at or slightly after the market close the purpose of a moc order is to get the last available price of that trading day moc orders are not available in all markets or from all brokers all moc orders must be received at new york stock exchange nyse markets by 3 50 p m eastern time et unless entered to offset a published imbalance nyse markets rules also prohibit the cancellation or reduction in the size of any moc order after 3 45 p m et on the nasdaq all moc orders must be received at island by 3 55 p m et but may not be canceled or modified after 3 50 p m et 1understading market on close moc ordersa market on close order is simply a market order that is scheduled to trade at the close at the most recent trading price the moc order remains dormant until near the close at which time it becomes active once the moc order becomes active it behaves like a normal market order moc orders can help investors to get into or out of the market at the closing price without having to place a market order immediately when the market closes traders often place moc orders as part of a trading strategy for example some traders will want to exit at the close by either buying or selling a given financial instrument if a certain price level was breached during the trading day moc orders do not specify a target price but traders sometimes use moc orders as a limit order qualifier which means that a limit order will be automatically canceled if it isn t executed during the trading day using a moc order in this way ensures that the desired transaction is executed but it still would leave the investor exposed to end of day price movements although placing a market on close moc order can guarantee that your buy or sell order will occur at the close of trading it does not guarantee the price benefits and risks of moc ordersthere are a number of situations in which an investor might want to get the closing price of a security if you suspect that a company s stock might move drastically overnight as the result of a scheduled after hours earnings call or an anticipated news story for example then placing a moc order would ensure that your purchase or sale would take place before the news breaks the next day moc orders can also be convenient when an investor knows that they re not going to be available to execute an essential transaction like exiting a position at the end of the day being able to place market on close orders is also useful if you want to trade on some foreign exchanges that are not in your time zone an obvious drawback of moc orders is that if you will not be present at the close of the market then you really do not know at what price your order will be filled in addition to risking end of day price fluctuations moc orders can also risk being poorly executed because of end of day trading clusters though this is rare example of an moc ordersuppose a trader owns 100 shares of company abc which is expected to report negative earnings after the closing bell abc s earnings have failed to surpass analysts expectations for several quarters but its stock price has not displayed adverse price movement during the day in order to minimize losses from a selloff in abc s shares after its earnings call the trader places a moc order to sell all or part of their shares in abc 