Options Order and Position Limits

Published on Dec 10, 2019Updated on Apr 4, 20246 min read

I. Order and Position Limits

Rule Type BTC/USD Options ETH/USD Options
#1 Max. No. of contracts for each order 25,000
 50,000
#2 Max. No. of current open orders for one instrument 12 12
#3 Max. No. of contracts of all open orders for one underlying 500,000 500,000
#4 Max. No. of open orders for one underlying 500 500
#5 Max. No. of contracts held for one instrument 100,000 200,000
#6 Max. No. of long or short contracts held for one underlying 300,000 300,000
#7
 Max. No. of contracts held for one underlying 500,000 500,000

These limits are general limits and are subject to change. Please contact customer service or institutional@okx.com to apply for increased limits.

II. Details of Order or Position Limits

The following are position limit rules for options trading. Number in examples shown below are for reference only. Please refer to the above table for the maximum limits.

[Rule #1] Max. No. of BTC/USD Options contracts for each order is 25,000. One can place an order of up to 25,000 BTC/USD options contracts.

Example: User wants to buy or sell 25,001 BTC/USD options contracts. As the number of order contracts exceeds the limit, this order cannot be placed. However, he is allowed to buy or sell 24,999 BTC/USD options contracts.

[Rule #2] The maximal number of total pending orders is 12 for one instrument, including both buy and sell orders.

Example: A user wants to place a buy order for BTCUSD-191227-7500-C and the following is his current order status:

No. Contract Name Order No. of Contracts
1 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C Buy 30
2 BTCUSD-191227-7500-P Sell 2
3 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C Sell 1
4 BTCUSD-191227-8000-C Buy 3

He has already placed 2 orders (Order 1 and 3) for BTCUSD-191227-7500-C. As the total number of orders has not exceeded the limit, he can place a new buy order.

[Rule #3] The maximal number of contracts of open orders for one underlying is 500,000.
Calculation: Total number of contracts of buy and sell orders

Example: A user wants to place a buy order of 1000 contracts for BTCUSD-191227-7500-C.
This shows his order status:

No. Contract Name Order No. of Contracts
1 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C Buy 1000
2 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C Sell 1500
3 BTCUSD-191227-8000-P Buy 6000
4 BTCUSD-190621-8000-P Buy 1200

The user has already placed 1000+6000+1500+1200=9700 contracts.As the total number of orders has not exceeded the limit, he can still place another new order.

[Rule #4] The maximal number of total open orders for a single underlying is 500, including both buy and sell orders.

If a user wants to place another order after placing the followings:

No. Contract Name Order No. of Contracts
1 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C buy 300
2 BTCUSD-191227-7500-P Sell 20
3 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C Sell 10
4 BTCUSD-191227-8000-C Buy 30

He has already placed 4 orders of BTC/USD underlying. As the total number of orders has not exceeded the limit, he can still place another new order.

[Rule #5] The maximal number of contracts held for one instrument is 100,000.
Calculation: Absolute value of (number of contracts to be placed + number of contracts in open orders of the same direction + number of contracts currently held) must not be more than 100,000.

Example: A user has placed orders as follows:

No. Contract Name No. of Long(+)/Short(-) Positions Open Order Contracts No. of Pending Order Contracts
1 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C -500 Buy 5000
Sell 750		 Buy 6000
2 BTCUSD-191227-8000-C 1000 Sell 1200 N/A

The number of contracts in the order to be placed + number of contracts in open orders of the same direction + number of contracts currently held = 6000+5000-500 = 10500. It does not exceed the limit of 100,000 contracts yet and therefore he can place the order to buy 6000 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C contracts.

[Rule #6] The maximal number of long or short contracts held for one underlying is 300,000
Calculation: Absolute value (number of contracts to be placed + number of positions of that contract + number of positions of other contracts of the same direction + number of contracts in all other open orders of the same direction)

Example:

No. Contract Name No. of Long(+)/Short(-) Positions Existing Order Contracts No. of Current Pending Positions
1 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C +950 [3] Buy 100 [4]Buy 1,000 [4]Sell 1 N/A
2 BTCUSD-191227-8000-C -2 [2] Buy 100 [4] BUY 950 [1]
3 BTCUSD-191227-7500-P -200 Sell 10 N/A

The user wants to place a buy order on BTCUSD-191227-8000-C.
The total number of contracts = absolute value (number of contracts in the order to be placed [1] + number of positions of that contract [2] + number of positions of other contracts of the same direction [3] + number of contracts in all other open orders of the same direction [4] ) = abs (950-2+950+(100+1,000+100)) = 3098. The number stays within the limit, therefore he can buy 1,900 BTCUSD-191227-8000-C contracts.

[Rule #7] The maximum number of contracts held for one underlying is 50,000.
Calculation:

  1. Outright positions for each instrument = max(abs(number of long positions as if only all the long open orders are filled), abs(number of short positions as if only all the short open orders are filled))
  2. Sum the quantity in (1) over all instruments, and the sum must not exceed 500,000.

Example:

No. Contract Name No. of Long(+)/Short(-) Positions No. of Existing Order Contracts No. of Pending Long/Short Order Contracts No. of Outright Buy Positions No. of Outright Sell Positions
1 BTCUSD-191227-7500-C 60 Sell 30Sell 3 Buy 50 TRUE TRUE
2 BTCUSD-191227-8000-C -200 Sell 10 N/A -200 TRUE
3 BTCUSD-191227-7500-P 3 Buy 2Buy 3Sell 1 N/A TRUE TRUE

  1. For BTCUSD-191227-7500-C, outright positions = max (110,27) = 110

    For BTCUSD-191227-8000-C, outright positions = max (200,210) = 210

    For BTCUSD-191227-7500-P, outright positions = max (8,2) = 8

  2. Sum = 110+210+8 = 328, which has not exceeded the limit. Therefore he can place orders.

I. Order and Position Limits
II. Details of Order or Position Limits