AMO (After Market Order) on Zerodha

An AMO (After Market Order) is a feature on Kite, Zerodha’s trading platform, that allows traders to place buy or sell orders outside normal market hours. The order is stored on Zerodha’s servers and submitted to the exchange at the start of the next trading session. This facility enables traders who cannot monitor markets during live hours to set orders in advance, including in the evenings, early mornings, or on weekends.

AMO is not an exchange-level order type. It is a Zerodha platform-level feature. When the designated submission window opens, Kite routes AMO orders to the National Stock Exchange or Bombay Stock Exchange as standard limit, market, SL, or SL-M orders.

When AMO orders can be placed

Zerodha accepts AMO orders within specified time windows. Orders placed outside these windows are queued for the following session.

The exact window may vary slightly and is subject to change by Zerodha or the exchanges. Traders should verify the current AMO window on the Zerodha support portal before relying on critical overnight orders.

Orders cannot be placed as AMO during the live market hours of 9:15 AM – 3:30 PM for equity. During this window, orders are placed directly to the exchange in real time.

How AMO orders are submitted

When a trader places an AMO on Kite outside market hours:

1. Kite validates the order parameters (instrument, quantity, order type, price).
2. The order is stored on Zerodha’s servers with the AMO flag.
3. At the designated submission time in the morning, Zerodha’s system routes all queued AMO orders to the exchange.
4. The exchange places the orders in the pre-open or opening phase, depending on the session schedule.

For NSE equity, AMO orders are submitted during the pre-open session (9:00–9:08 AM). Market-type AMO orders participate in the opening call auction. Limit-type AMO orders are placed in the pre-open limit order book and are carried into the continuous session if not matched at open.

Order types available for AMO

AMO supports the full range of standard Kite order types:

• Market: Submitted as a market order; filled at the opening auction price or at the best available price at the start of the continuous session.
• Limit: Submitted at the specified limit price; participates in the pre-open auction or rests in the continuous session book.
• SL: A stop-loss limit order submitted at open with the specified trigger and limit prices.
• SL-M: A stop-loss market order submitted at open.

Traders most commonly use limit or SL AMO orders, since market AMO orders are exposed to the volatility of the opening auction price.

Product code interaction

AMO orders work with all product codes:

• CNC: For delivery equity purchases or sales; most common AMO use case.
• MIS: For intraday orders; the position must be closed or auto-squared before end of day.
• NRML: For overnight F&O positions.
• MTF: For margin-funded delivery purchases.

Using MIS for an AMO is unusual, since MIS positions auto-square at 3:20 PM, placing an AMO in MIS means the position will be both opened and closed within the same day, which limits the utility of the after-market placement.

Modifying or cancelling an AMO

AMO orders stored on Zerodha’s servers can be modified or cancelled before they are submitted to the exchange. Once the submission window opens and the order has been routed, it behaves like any live exchange order and must be cancelled through the standard Kite order management interface.

Zerodha allows AMO modification and cancellation up to approximately 8:57 AM for equity and 9:10 AM for F&O, corresponding to the submission windows above.

Common use cases

Overnight risk events. A trader holding equity positions is concerned about a global event overnight (US Federal Reserve decision, major earnings release). An AMO sell order at a target price or a stop-loss level ensures the position will be managed at open even if the trader is unavailable.

Pre-planned buying on corrections. An investor following a company plans to buy on any dip to a specific price. Placing a buy limit AMO each evening ensures the order is active for the next session without requiring a morning login.

Salary investment scheduling. A systematic investor who receives a monthly salary and wishes to deploy it into a specific stock or fund can place AMO orders on payday evenings for execution the following morning.

Weekend research and planning. Traders who do research on weekends and identify entry points can place AMO orders on Sunday evenings, which queue for Monday’s market open.

Comparison with GTT

For a buy target that may take weeks to be reached, GTT is more practical than placing an AMO every evening. AMO is more suitable for overnight-specific risk management or one-time next-session orders.

Common mistakes and edge cases

Market AMO and opening auction volatility. A market AMO submitted to the pre-open auction receives the equilibrium opening price. If the market opens with a large gap due to overnight news, the market AMO fills at the gap price, which may be far from the previous day’s close. Limit AMO orders provide price protection against this.

AMO outside acceptance window. Attempting to place an AMO during live market hours on Kite results in a standard live order, not an AMO. Traders who want to place an order for the next session during live hours must use the GTT feature instead.

Order rejection at submission. AMO orders are validated at placement time by Kite for obvious errors. However, exchange-level rejections (insufficient margin, circuit limit violations, exchange-imposed restrictions) only become apparent at submission time. A trader who places an AMO at 8 PM may find the order rejected at 9 AM due to margin shortfall caused by mark-to-market losses on existing positions overnight.

Pre-open fill uncertainty for F&O. F&O contracts do not have a formal pre-open auction like NSE equity. AMO F&O orders submitted at 9:10 AM go directly into the continuous session at open.

MIS auto-square-off applies to AMO-initiated MIS orders. An AMO placed with MIS product code will be auto-squared at approximately 3:20 PM if not closed earlier.

Regulatory context

AMO is a broker-level facility. SEBI does not specifically regulate the timing of after-hours order acceptance by brokers, but it requires brokers to accurately represent to clients how and when orders will be placed. Zerodha’s AMO service is covered under its general client-broker agreement. The exchange-side treatment of AMO orders follows standard exchange rules for pre-open sessions and continuous trading.

References

1. Zerodha support article: “What is AMO (After Market Order)?”, support.zerodha.com.
2. NSE pre-open session circular, NSE/CMPT/2010 series.
3. Zerodha Kite documentation: AMO order placement, kite.zerodha.com/support.
4. SEBI circular on broker obligations for order management, SEBI/HO/MRD/2023.
5. BSE notice on pre-open call auction mechanism, BSE/Notice/2010 series.