There could be several reasons for receiving this message:
- The cash balance available in your account is too low. Please top up your funds or reduce the value of the trade.
- Pending Buy orders - when placing a Buy order, the system checks the cash balance available plus cash reserved for any pending Buy order(s). You can cancel the pending Buy order(s) and try to place your trade again.
- Market orders, placed while the market is closed, might be rejected due to the fact that the system will calculate an additional cash buffer based on the instrument's rating that must be available in order to buy shares. Please place a Limit order instead in such case, as the limit price will provide a maximum purchase price.
Rating Cash Buffer 1 10% 2 10% 3 10% 4 15% 5 25% 6 50%
Placing market orders when the market is closed requires using the previous closing price as the basis for calculating the total cash needed for the purchase. However, news releases during market closure can cause the stock to reopen at a significantly higher price, thereby requiring more funds to complete the purchase. The higher an instrument's rating, the more volatile it is considered, and thus a larger cash buffer is needed for placing market orders when the market is closed.
If you wish to place a market order while the market is closed, you must have the additional cash buffer available. For example, if Share A closed at $100 and is rated 3, placing a market order to buy 10 shares will require ($100 x 10) x 1.10 = $1,100 in cash. If Share A is rated 5, the market order will require ($100 x 10) x 1.25 = $1,250. Please note that commission and fees are not included in this calculation.