Zerodha order log AMO post-close session market hours execution timestamp settlement

Order execution time shown beyond market hours

From WebNotes, a public knowledge base. Last updated 21 June 2026. Reading time ~11 min.

Key facts

Continuous trading hours	9:15 to 3:30 for the NSE and BSE equity normal session; orders can carry timestamps outside this window
AMO execution	After-market orders queue at Zerodha overnight and are released in a batch at the pre-open from 9:00; the exchange stamp lands a few seconds after, not at the time you placed them
Post-close session	3:40 to 4:00, market orders only, executed at the 3:30 closing price; the timestamp falls in this window but the fill price is the close
Pre-open carryover	Orders unmatched in the 9:00 to 9:15 pre-open carry into the normal session with their timestamp preserved
ETF AMOs	Released at 9:15 rather than 9:00, so their exchange timestamps cluster just after the normal session opens
Why it looks odd	Placement time and exchange execution time are two different stamps; the order log shows both, and the gap is normal

An order can show an execution timestamp outside the 9:15 to 3:30 continuous-trading window for four ordinary reasons: an after-market order released in a batch at the pre-open, the 3:40 to 4:00 post-close session that fills at the closing price, settlement-batch stamps on the order log, and the few-second lag between when Zerodha dispatches an order and when the exchange clock records it. The order log on Kite carries two distinct times, placement and exchange execution, and the gap between them is normal, not an error.

This page reads each case. It separates the after-market order, whose execution stamp lands just after 9:00, from the genuine post-close session, whose stamp falls between 3:40 and 4:00 but fills at the 3:30 close, and it explains the pre-open carryover and the ETF exception that produce timestamps a reader would not expect from when they placed the order. Once you know which of the two stamps you are looking at, the order log reads cleanly.

Conflict-of-interest disclosure. This guide is published by the WebNotes Editorial Team for informational purposes and is written independently. WebNotes operates a Zerodha account-opening referral programme, disclosed on the pages that carry the referral link; this guide does not carry it and earns no referral commission from the procedure described here.

The two timestamps in an order log

An order log entry holds more than one time. The placement time is when you submitted the order, and the exchange execution time is when the exchange matched and confirmed it. For an order placed and filled inside the continuous session, the two are seconds apart and unremarkable. The confusion starts when an order is placed at one time and executed at a very different one, because the log then shows a placement stamp from when the market was closed and an execution stamp from when it next opened, or from a session most traders do not watch. Neither stamp is wrong; they describe different events. Reading the log is a matter of identifying which event each time records.

After-market orders: placed in the evening, executed after 9:00

The most common cause of an out-of-hours timestamp is an after-market order . The label refers to when you can place the order, not when it executes. An AMO placed overnight does not trade overnight; it queues on Zerodha’s servers alongside thousands of other clients’ AMOs and is not yet sent to NSE or BSE. At the pre-open session from 9:00, Zerodha validates margins and fires every queued AMO to the exchange in one large batch. Because thousands of orders go at once, yours does not necessarily land at 9:00:00; it reaches the exchange a few seconds after. So the order log shows an evening placement time and an execution stamp a few seconds past 9:00 the next trading day. That is the dispatch batch, not a fault.

When the market is already closed and you place a normal order, the system reads the timestamp and converts it to an AMO automatically, which is why an order you thought was a regular order can appear with AMO behaviour and a next-morning execution stamp. One operational window to note: you cannot place, modify, or cancel AMOs between 1:00 and 5:30 due to scheduled maintenance, so no order activity is timestamped in that gap.

Pre-open carryover preserves the timestamp

The pre-open auction runs from 9:00 to 9:15 and discovers the opening price. Orders that are not matched in the auction carry into the normal session. A limit order that remains unmatched moves to the normal market session with the same timestamp it had in the pre-open, so its stamp can sit in the 9:00 to 9:15 band even though it executed in continuous trading afterwards. A market order entered in the pre-open is converted to a limit order at the discovered opening price and moved into the normal session. The effect is that an order’s execution stamp can predate the 9:15 normal-session open, because the matching engine preserved the earlier pre-open time.

The post-close session: a stamp after 3:30, a fill at the close

Separate from AMOs, there is a live post-close, or post-market, session from 3:40 to 4:00. It accepts market orders only, and they execute at the 3:30 closing price. An order placed and filled in this window carries a timestamp between 3:40 and 4:00, after the continuous session has ended, while the fill price is the close rather than a freshly discovered price. This is the case that looks most like an error and is not: the execution time genuinely falls after 3:30 because the session genuinely runs then, and the price is fixed at the 3:30 close by design. If you traded in this window, an after-3:30 execution stamp paired with the closing price is exactly what to expect.

The ETF exception and segment-specific release times

Not every after-market order fires at the same instant. AMOs for ETFs are released to the exchange at 9:15 rather than at the 9:00 pre-open, so their exchange timestamps cluster just after the normal session opens. An ETF AMO can therefore show a 9:15-plus execution stamp while an equity AMO from the same evening shows a just-after-9:00 stamp. The difference is the release schedule for the segment, not anything about your order, and it explains a timestamp that would otherwise look inconsistent across instruments placed together.

Settlement-batch and clock stamps

Some entries in the broader transaction record, as opposed to the live order book, are stamped by settlement and end-of-day batch processes rather than by the matching engine. A trade executes intraday, but the settlement obligation, the contract note line, and the Console ledger entry are written by batch jobs that run after the session, so the time attached to those records reflects when the batch ran, not when the trade matched. This is why a back-office timestamp can read well after 3:30 for a trade that filled mid-afternoon. The exchange execution time on the order itself is the authoritative trade time; the later batch stamps are bookkeeping events. Keep the two apart when reconciling a trade: use the order’s exchange execution time to know when you traded, and treat the settlement-batch and ledger times as the processing times for those downstream records.

How to read your order log

Find the order in the order book and read the exchange execution time, not just the placement time. If the order was an AMO, expect an execution stamp a few seconds after 9:00, or after 9:15 for an ETF. If you traded between 3:40 and 4:00, expect a post-close stamp with a fill at the 3:30 close. If the stamp sits in the 9:00 to 9:15 band, the order likely carried over from the pre-open with its time preserved. If a back-office or ledger record reads later still, that is a settlement-batch processing time, not the trade time. Each out-of-hours stamp maps to one of these mechanisms; identifying which one resolves the apparent anomaly without a support ticket.

External references

References

Zerodha support, What are pre-market and post-market sessions on NSE and BSE? (pre-open 9:00 to 9:15, post-close 3:40 to 4:00 at the closing price; as of 21 June 2026).
Zerodha Z-Connect, Pre-market, post-market, after-market orders (AMO batch release at pre-open, few-second dispatch lag, ETF AMO release at 9:15, 1:00 to 5:30 maintenance window).
Zerodha support, What is an After Market Order (AMO) and its timings? (placement versus execution, automatic conversion of out-of-hours orders to AMO).
NSE market-timings framework for the equity segment (pre-open, normal, and post-close sessions).

Frequently asked questions

Why does my order show an execution time beyond market hours?

The order log records placement time and exchange execution time separately. An after-market order placed in the evening shows that placement time plus an execution stamp a few seconds after 9:00 the next day. A post-close trade between 3:40 and 4:00 shows a time after the 3:30 close. Both are normal.

When do after-market orders actually execute?

An AMO queues on Zerodha’s servers overnight and is released to the exchange in a batch at the pre-open from 9:00. With thousands of orders firing together, the exchange timestamp lands a few seconds after 9:00, not at the moment you placed the order the previous evening.

What is the post-close session and why does it stamp after 3:30?

The post-close, or post-market, session runs from 3:40 to 4:00 and accepts market orders only, which execute at the 3:30 closing price. An order placed and filled in that window carries a timestamp between 3:40 and 4:00, but the fill price is the close, not a fresh price.

My AMO timestamp says 9:00:03, not 9:00:00. Why?

At the pre-open, Zerodha validates margins and fires every queued AMO to the exchange in one large batch. Thousands of orders go at once, so yours reaches the exchange a few seconds after 9:00. The few-second offset in the order log is the batch dispatch, not an error.

Do ETF after-market orders execute at a different time?

Yes. ETF AMOs are released to the exchange at 9:15 rather than at the 9:00 pre-open, so their exchange timestamps cluster just after the normal session opens. That is why an ETF AMO can show a 9:15-plus stamp while an equity AMO shows a just-after-9:00 stamp.

Can I place orders between 1:00 and 5:30 in the morning?

No. You cannot place, modify, or cancel after-market orders between 1:00 and 5:30 due to scheduled maintenance, so no order timestamps appear in that window. Outside it, an order placed when the market is closed is automatically converted to an AMO.

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Last reviewed: 21 June 2026
Conflicts of interest: WebNotes is independent. No relationship with any broker, registrar or bank named in this article.