Orders per second limits nobody mentions at sign-up

[Fairman]

Orders per second limits nobody mentions at sign-up

Plenty of brokers cap the number of orders per second, per minute, or per day. The limits live in the fine print, if anywhere, and a scalper running several instruments or a basket-style approach hits them without noticing.

The error message on a breach is rarely helpful. "Too many requests" or a generic failure code shows up in the log. Some platforms retry automatically and the retry itself counts toward the limit, so a minor burst turns into a blocked connection.

Where it hurts: closing a basket of positions at once. Ten close orders fired in the same instant can exceed a limit that opening them one by one never touched. The result is half the basket closed and half still open into a fast move.

Sensible approach is to find out the limits in writing, then pace requests in code with small delays. A hundred milliseconds between orders is usually plenty and costs nothing.

For discretionary traders the same limit applies to rapid-fire clicking. Spamming the button on a requote can trigger the throttle and lock the session for a short while.

Does the broker publish a numeric limit on orders per second, or was it only discovered by hitting it?