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Risk Limits

Execution venues enforce risk controls on a per-partner basis to manage market exposure. These limits are applied automatically and may result in order rejections or throttling when exceeded.

Types of Risk Controls​

Buying Power​

A cap on the total exposure (long + short) your account can carry. When buying power is exhausted, new orders that would increase exposure are rejected.

Order Notional​

The maximum dollar value of a single order. Orders exceeding this limit are rejected at submission. Some venues apply different notional caps during regular vs. extended trading hours.

Trade Notional​

An aggregate limit on the total filled notional across a time window. This may apply across asset classes (e.g. equities and options combined).

Order Rate​

The maximum number of orders that can be submitted per time interval (e.g. per second or per 10-second window). Exceeding the rate results in temporary throttling or rejection.

Duplicate Order Rate​

A separate throttle on orders with identical parameters (same side, symbol, quantity, price) within a time window. This prevents accidental duplicate submissions.

Max Order Quantity​

The maximum number of shares or contracts per order.

Price-Away Rules (Max Away)​

The maximum percentage a limit order price can deviate from the current NBBO (National Best Bid and Offer). Orders priced beyond this threshold are rejected. Price-away limits are typically tiered by stock price and may differ between core market hours (AV3) and extended sessions (AV1, AV2, AV4, AV5).

Session Differences​

Some risk controls vary by trading session:

  • Core market (AV3, 9:30 AM–4:00 PM ET) — Tighter price-away thresholds; full execution of all order types.
  • Extended hours (AV1, AV2, AV4, AV5) — Wider price-away thresholds; some venues apply lower notional caps during pre-market and after-hours sessions.

See the Orders Acceptance Matrix for order type and execution rules by session.

Getting Your Limits​

Venue-specific risk parameters are provided during production onboarding. Contact Atomic Vaults to receive the detailed limits applicable to your account and execution venues.

tip

In the staging (UAT) environment, risk controls are relaxed to allow testing without hitting production-level limits. Always validate your order flow against production parameters before going live.