# Your account has been restricted to placing closing orders only.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-account-has-been-restricted-to-placing-closing-orders-only/490653>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 24, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-account-has-been-restricted-to-placing-closing-orders-only/490653 "2009-03-24T22:09:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-account-has-been-restricted-to-placing-closing-orders-only/490653/1 "2009-03-24T22:09:16Z")

</div>

This is what e-trade tells me when I try to place an order. Since I have no idea what a “closing order” is, I don’t know how to go about placing one.

Any help here?

TIA

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-account-has-been-restricted-to-placing-closing-orders-only/490653/2 "2009-03-25T01:55:43Z")

</div>

Have you contacted E\*Trade and asked them?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-account-has-been-restricted-to-placing-closing-orders-only/490653/3 "2009-03-25T02:11:22Z")

</div>

Etrade is getting rid of some of their index funds, so maybe that’s the message you get when you try to buy new shares of these funds. If you poke around there’s an explanation somewhere, but the gist is that if you do nothing you’ll be redeemed out at the NAV here in a bit.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-account-has-been-restricted-to-placing-closing-orders-only/490653/4 "2009-03-25T02:57:01Z")

</div>

A closing order is an order that closes a position. It would be a sale for something you own, but if you have any short positions it would be a position. Whether or not you could close a portion of a position (e.g., sell some of the shares you own) would depend on whatever rule they are applying?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-account-has-been-restricted-to-placing-closing-orders-only/490653/5 "2009-03-25T03:29:54Z")

</div>

A closing order is an order to sell a stock you own or buy to cover a stock you sold short.

Your account can be restricted for many reasons. They’re not going to stop you from selling a stock that is tanking just because you wrote a check on the account that bounced, for example.