Time-in-Force

An order instruction that defines how long it remains active (e.g., day, good-till-cancelled, immediate-or-cancel).

1 min

Why it matters

Time-in-force is risk control. It prevents stale orders from triggering in a different regime than the one you designed the order for.

Trading use: the point is not vocabulary. The point is prediction: what changes when this shows up?

Common trap

Leaving orders live across sessions or events. A valid setup at 9:00 can be a terrible trade at 15:00, but the order doesn’t know that.

Example

You set a limit order in London. It doesn’t fill. Hours later during illiquid conditions it fills, then immediately slips against you because the regime changed.

Operational cue: if you can’t point to it on the chart, in the DOM, or in your broker logs, treat it as a story and trade smaller.

Notes

Quick rule

If you see this repeatedly, you are in a different regime than your model assumes.
Regime change usually means position size change.
When in doubt: trade smaller, or don’t trade.