day order
Day Order means a buy or sell instruction on the stock market that expires at the end of that trading day if it does not execute.
In plain English
Some promises last a lifetime, and some only last until closing time. Tell your neighbour you will send their ₦5,000 tomorrow and that promise can wait indefinitely, no one cancels it at midnight. But tell a waiter you want the jollof before the kitchen closes at 9pm, and if it does not arrive by then, the offer is gone, kitchen or no kitchen.
A day order works like that waiter's deadline. When you place an order to buy or sell shares on the Nigerian Exchange, you tell your broker how long that order should stay alive. Choose a day order and it only breathes for that one trading session. If the market closes and your price was never matched, the order dies calmly. Nobody carries it into tomorrow for you.
Say you want to buy shares in Dangote Cement at ₦450 each, but the price only ever dips to ₦452 that day. With a day order, that instruction simply expires when trading ends. Tomorrow, if you still want in, you place a fresh order, because yesterday's wish does not roll over automatically.
This matters more than people think, especially for Nigerians abroad who invest in Nigerian stocks through an app or a broker back home. You place an order from London in the morning your time, thinking it will sit there patiently. But if it is a day order and Lagos trading closes before it fills, you wake up to find nothing happened, and you have to start again.
The alternative is a good till cancelled order, which stays active across multiple days until it either executes or you cancel it yourself. Day orders suit people watching the market closely that day. Good till cancelled suits people who set a price and walk away.
Either way, the lesson is the same one your grandmother taught you about deadlines. If you do not show up before closing time, the offer does not wait for you out of sentiment.
You place a day order to sell 200 shares of Access Holdings at ₦28 each. The price only reaches ₦27.50 all day, so your order never fills, and at 2:30pm when trading closes, the order simply disappears from the system.
Questions people ask
What happens to a day order if it does not execute?
It simply expires when the trading session ends. Nothing carries over. You would need to place a new order the next trading day if you still want to buy or sell.
Is a day order the default type when I place a trade?
On many platforms, yes, day order is the standard setting unless you specifically choose an option like good till cancelled. Always check what your broker's app has selected before confirming a trade.
Why would anyone choose a day order over one that lasts longer?
Day orders suit people who want control and are watching prices closely that day. It prevents an old price target from suddenly executing days later when the market conditions have completely changed.
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