Orders that were held
Open a run on Trade history and you will often see a group headed something like “Held for a later run (13)” above a much smaller number of executed orders. Thirteen things not done against six done reads badly. In almost every case it is the system behaving correctly.
Exchanges cannot trade arbitrarily small amounts
Section titled “Exchanges cannot trade arbitrarily small amounts”Every market has two constraints:
- A minimum order size, in dollars. Below this the venue rejects the order.
- A quantity step, the smallest increment of the asset you can trade. Some markets trade in whole units, some in thousands, some in fractions.
Together these set a floor. If the strategy wants to move your position by $3.20, and that market only trades in increments worth about $5.21, no order expresses $3.20. It was not rejected. It could not be constructed. So the system holds it and re-checks on the next run.
The guarantee is a bound, not a promise
Section titled “The guarantee is a bound, not a promise”A held adjustment is not a backlog that grows until it is large enough to send. With a stable target and price, a sub-lot difference stays sub-lot forever. It is a fixed point, not a queue.
What you get is a bound:
Your exposure stays within one exchange unit of target.
That holds on every run, including runs where nothing clears. It is a weaker claim than “it will go out eventually”, and it is the true one. Wording in the product promising a held order will be placed once it is large enough is a bug worth reporting.
The two groups
Section titled “The two groups”Held orders are split into two boxes, and the split is the important part.
Held for a later run
Section titled “Held for a later run”Routine and expected on any book. They carry one reassurance line rather than one per row, because thirteen copies of a sentence reads as thirteen problems.
| Label | What happened |
|---|---|
| Below one lot | Smaller than one tradable unit of this market. |
| Below exchange minimum | Below the venue’s minimum order size. |
| Reduction pending | The position is above target by less than the exchange will trade in one order. |
| Below minimum after price move | The price moved between sizing and placing, leaving the order under the minimum. |
The group header states how many adjustments were held, the largest single one, and roughly what they total. Totals are gross, not netted: a missed trim and a missed addition are two positions off target, and netting them toward zero would understate the drift.
Other outcomes
Section titled “Other outcomes”Separated deliberately. These are not claimed to be routine.
| Label | What happened |
|---|---|
| Market data missing | The size increment could not be confirmed, so no new position was opened. Closes are unaffected. |
| No usable price | No reliable price was available, so the order was not placed. |
| Closed in full | Trimming would have left an untradeable remainder, so the position was closed completely. |
An unrecognised outcome also lands here rather than in the calm group. The system will not call something normal when it cannot say what it is.
Sub-lot residuals
Section titled “Sub-lot residuals”You may see a line like “plus 4 sub-lot residuals too small to itemise”. These are counted but kept out of the dollar total, because folding an unpriced count into a priced sum would misstate it. They occur on essentially every run by construction, so their presence is not a signal.
When a held order is worth your attention
Section titled “When a held order is worth your attention”One case genuinely warrants a look: a reduction held run after run. A single held reduction is routine. The same one held for five or more consecutive runs is not, and the app labels it with the streak rather than leaving it under the calm heading. The system alerts internally at the same threshold.
The usual causes are a market with a very large quantity step relative to your position size, or an account small enough that a normal-sized position sits close to the venue’s floor. Neither is dangerous, and both point at the same remedy: a larger account or a venue with smaller minimums.
The small account trap
Section titled “The small account trap”If your account is close to the venue’s minimum, a meaningful share of your twenty positions will fall under the order floor on any given run. You get a concentrated subset of the strategy, with different risk than the published record. This is exactly why the account minimums exist, and why they differ by venue. They are not policy. They are arithmetic.
Related
Section titled “Related”- The daily rebalance covers the two-phase order sequence.
- Choosing a venue compares order minimums.
- Trade history covers reading a run.
- Troubleshooting covers a persistent streak.