When Autopilot actually trades: market hours, the first fifteen minutes, and why an order can wait

I'm Chris, co-founder of Autopilot. You pick a Portfolio, set an allocation, tap confirm, and then you stare at the screen waiting for something to happen. Sometimes it happens in a minute. Sometimes it waits until tomorrow. Here's the schedule we actually run on, the ordinary reasons an order sits, and how to read the status message so you know which one you're looking at before you write to support.

One thing first, because we're an SEC-registered investment adviser and I have to say it. Autopilot is the app. The actual investment advice comes from Autopilot Advisers, LLC. If you want the full legal version of anything in here, it's on our disclaimer page.

1) Market hours only

We send orders during regular US market hours, 9:30 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon Eastern, Monday through Friday. We don't trade premarket and we don't trade after hours. If you set up a Portfolio at night or on a weekend, nothing is wrong; the orders queue for the next open. Some brokerages also stop accepting our orders before the close, so on those accounts the effective window is shorter than the market's.

During market hours, setting up a new Portfolio can take up to about fifteen minutes before the first orders reach your broker. If nothing has been placed after that, that's when it's worth writing to support.

2) What "we send them and your broker fills them" means for timing

You give Autopilot Advisers limited authority to send orders to that account. When the Portfolio changes, we send them and your broker fills them. The money stays put. The second half of that sentence is where most of the waiting lives. We can send an order the moment a Portfolio changes; how fast it fills is your brokerage's business, and it varies by broker and by market conditions.

For the tracker Portfolios built on public filings, our systems pick up a new filing as soon as it's filed and update the Portfolio; the delay you see after that is fill time at your broker, not us reading the filing slowly. For Pilot-run Portfolios, the same thing happens when the Pilot changes their published Portfolio.

3) The ordinary reasons an order waits

Almost every "why hasn't it traded" message falls into one of these. There isn't enough settled buying power: recent sales haven't cleared yet, or you allocated more than was actually available. Your brokerage requires you to approve queued trades yourself, and they sit until you do. Your brokerage's day-trading rules defer the order to the next day. The account is restricted, or set to liquidate only. An agreement your brokerage or we need is unsigned. Or it's simply outside market hours.

The app's status message tells you which bucket you're in: connected, disconnected, waiting on deposits, limited by unsettled funds, positions to review, agreement required, market closed, insufficient buying power. Read it first. In most cases it tells you exactly what to do, and support would tell you the same thing.

4) Approval brokerages

Some brokerages won't let any third party trade in your account without you approving each trade in their app first. On those accounts, our orders queue for your review, sometimes overnight, and we can't complete them until you approve them at the broker. Two consequences. Your fills happen at whatever price exists when you approve, not when the Portfolio changed, so the longer you wait, the further your account drifts from the Pilot. And an unapproved queue means you aren't following at all until you clear it. If you're on one of those brokerages, check its app daily. Whether yours is one is shown on the connect screen, and I wrote about the brokerages in Which brokerages work with Autopilot, and what if yours doesn't?.

5) Disconnections

If your brokerage session expires, your password changes, or a two-factor prompt goes unanswered, the connection drops and we pause all trading on that account until you reconnect. Nothing is sold. Your positions sit at your broker as they were; they just stop following until the link is back. Reconnect using the same name and identity details as your brokerage profile, because mismatches are the most common reason a connection fails.

That pause is a feature, not a bug: if the only thing that can move your account is a live connection you control, then a broken connection can't do anything to you. The full set of things to check before connecting is in Is it safe to connect your brokerage to an investing app? Five checks, and how we answer them, and what happens in the account when a Portfolio changes is in How rebalancing works when you follow a Portfolio.

Frequently asked questions

When will Autopilot start making trades for me?

During regular US market hours, 9:30 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon Eastern, and only then. If you set up outside those hours, the first orders go at the next open. Inside them, allow up to about fifteen minutes for the first orders to reach your broker; if nothing has been placed after that, contact support. Fill speed after that depends on your brokerage.

Why hasn't Autopilot placed my trades yet?

Read the app's status message first; it names the reason. The usual ones: the market is closed; there isn't enough settled buying power because recent sales haven't cleared or you allocated more than was available; your brokerage requires you to approve queued trades in its own app; day-trading rules deferred the order; the account is restricted; an agreement is unsigned; or the connection dropped and trading is paused until you reconnect.

Does Autopilot trade after hours or premarket?

No. Autopilot Advisers sends orders only during regular US market hours, 9:30 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon Eastern, Monday through Friday. Orders that would fall outside that window queue for the next open. Some brokerages also stop accepting orders before the close, which shortens the window on those accounts.

How long after a Pilot's filing do my positions update?

The Portfolio updates as soon as our systems pick up the filing, and orders go to your broker immediately after. Any delay you see from there is fill time at your brokerage, or one of the ordinary waiting reasons: unsettled funds, a required approval at the broker, or market hours. Filings themselves arrive on the SEC's schedule, up to 45 days after a quarter ends, so a tracker always follows with that lag.

TLDR

Market hours only, 9:30 to 4:00 Eastern; setup outside them waits for the open, and inside them allow about fifteen minutes. We send orders the moment a Portfolio changes; your broker's fill speed is the rest. When an order waits, the status message tells you why: unsettled funds, a required approval at your broker, day-trading rules, a restriction, an unsigned agreement, or a dropped connection, which pauses trading and sells nothing.

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Since Autopilot Advisers is an SEC-registered investment adviser, we have to put disclaimers on stuff like this. They're below, and the full version is on our disclaimer page.

Disclosures

© Autopilot Holdings Corporation 2026 — All rights reserved. “Autopilot” refers to Autopilot Holdings Corporation and its wholly-owned, and separately managed subsidiaries, including Autopilot Advisers, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. All investing is subject to investment risks, including possible loss of the principal invested, and past performance is not indicative of future results. View our Customer Relationship Summary and other important information at joinautopilot.com/disclaimer.

This information is provided by Autopilot for educational and illustrative purposes only and is not a recommendation, an offer to sell or the solicitation to buy any security. Autopilot relies on information from various sources believed to be reliable, including information from Clients, Pilots and other third parties, but cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of that information. Autopilot does not provide tax or legal advice and you are encouraged to consult with professionals before making investment decisions.

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Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. You should carefully consider your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and time horizon before investing through Autopilot.

Autopilot Advisers, LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Additional information about Autopilot is available in our Form ADV Part 2A, available at adviserinfo.sec.gov or joinautopilot.com/adv.

Autopilot provides limited investment advisory services focused on Portfolio selection and suitability assessment. Our services are not intended to replace comprehensive financial planning. We recommend consulting with a qualified financial advisor regarding your complete financial situation.

This content is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice and should not be relied upon as the basis for any investment decision. You should consult with qualified professionals regarding your specific circumstances.

Autopilot does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult with qualified tax and legal professionals regarding your specific circumstances.

Autopilot does not hold client assets. All investments are held at the brokerage firm you select and connect to Autopilot. Your brokerage firm is responsible for trade execution, custody, and reporting. Autopilot is not responsible for your broker-dealer’s services, fees, or execution quality.

Autopilot’s services depend on technology systems, third-party APIs, and internet connectivity. System outages, API disruptions, or connectivity issues may temporarily affect service availability or trade execution timing.

Client account holdings are designed to track the Portfolio you’ve selected, but your actual holdings and performance may differ from the Portfolio due to execution timing, market conditions, brokerage capacity constraints, fractional share availability, and other factors outside Autopilot’s control.

For Portfolios inspired by publicly disclosed trading activity, there may be a delay between when a Pilot executes a trade and when that trade becomes publicly available and is incorporated into the Portfolio. This timing delay may affect the suitability or performance of trades when executed in client accounts.

Trading hours, the setup window, status messages, and the reasons orders wait follow Autopilot's public help center and website FAQ as of the publish date; brokerage-specific cutoffs, approval requirements, and settlement rules are set by each brokerage and can change. Nothing here is a recommendation or a claim about results.