Overview

You might be wondering why an order in your trading account was cancelled. Continue below to review the most common reasons why orders are cancelled and what you can do about it.

General reasons we might cancel an order

The following reasons apply to all trading order types:

There was a trading halt placed on the security you were trying to trade.
A trading halt happens when an exchange stops the trading of a security for a particular amount of time. During a trading halt, orders placed for the halted security will be cancelled.

A recent deposit was rejected by your bank.
If your deposit was rejected by your bank, this means that your bank will pull back funds from the rejected deposit. While this is in progress, you are unable to place an order, and any pending orders will automatically be cancelled.

Why we might cancel your market order

You have insufficient funds in the account to cover your trade.
If you don't have enough funds to cover the full balance of your trade in the event of a sudden price movement, your order will be cancelled.

The market order for an option has low liquidity.

 If a market order for an option doesn't have enough buyers or sellers (low liquidity), it might not fill completely or at all, and your order will be cancelled.

Why we might cancel your limit order

Your order didn't meet the price limit.
For a limit order to fill, the securitys price must meet or be better than your set limit price. If you're selling a security, the limit price must be higher than the market price. If you're buying a security, the limit price must be lower than the market price. If the limit price is not met, your order will be cancelled.

There wasn't enough volume at your limit price.
When you want to buy a stock, someone in the market must be selling the stock at a price you are willing to pay. If there isn't enough volume for your stock at your limit price, then your order won't be able to fill and will be cancelled.

The limit price was too far from the quoted price.
If the limit price is very far off from the quoted price, your order may be cancelled.

The limit price wasn't met for an odd lot.
Most securities trade in standard bundles called board lots (usually 100 units). If you place an order for a smaller, non-standard amount of shares (an odd lot) with a limit price, your order will only fill if the limit price meets or goes above the National Best Bid or Offer (NBBO). The NBBO is the best available buy and sell prices across all protected markets where the security trades. Please note that the NBBO might not always match the data from a single quote provider.

The TSX and TSX-V consider the below order sizes to be board lots, anything that is outside of this would be considered an odd lot.

US markets (NASDAQ and NYSE) consider 100 shares to be a board lot regardless of the price.

The security underwent a corporate action or dividend distribution.

If a security goes through a corporate action (like a stock split, merger, or spin-off) or pays out a dividend, any limit orders you placed before the ex-dividend date (the date when the stock starts trading without the value of its next dividend payment) might be rejected or adjusted. This adjustment accounts for the change in the security's price. For example, if company XYZ pays a dividend of $0.10, an open limit order set for $10 before the ex-dividend date might be adjusted to $9.90. This happens because dividends are paid from the company's cash, which reduces the company's value and is reflected in the stock price.

Why we might cancel your stop-limit order

Your stop price wasn't met.
Your stop price must be hit before your limit price for your stop-limit order to fill.

The limit price wasn't met.
For a stop-limit order to fill, the price of the security must also meet or be better than your set limit price. If the limit price is not met, your order will be cancelled.

There wasn't enough volume at your limit price.
When you want to buy a stock, someone in the market must be selling the stock at a price you are willing to pay. If there is not enough volume for your stock at your limit price, then your order will not be able to fill and will be cancelled.