Retail Price Improvement

Better pricing for retail traders with selective order visibility

Overview

Retail Price Improvement (RPI) is a specialized order type that provides better pricing and execution opportunities for retail traders while protecting market makers from toxic flow. RPI orders are selectively accessible. They can match with Retail Taker orders, but are not accessible to standard API traders. Retail Taker orders are also subject to speed bumps and rate limits, which reduces adverse selection and allows market makers to quote more competitively for retail flow.

Matching Rules

RPI orders follow specific matching rules to ensure fair and efficient trading:

  1. Retail Only Matching Guarantee: RPI orders are guaranteed by the matching engine to match only against Retail Taker orders, and are never eligible to match against regular API orders. Retail Taker orders are orders submitted with a JWT token using the token_usage=interactive query parameter and are subject to Retail Order speed bumps and rate limits.

  2. Quote Protection: Because RPI orders can only interact with Retail Taker flow, they are protected from latency sensitive regular API flow. Retail Taker orders are subject to a 300ms speed bump and rate limits that are between 267-575x lower than standard API limits, reducing adverse selection and providing quote protection for RPI orders.

  3. Post-Only Requirement: All RPI orders must be Post-Only, meaning they will only provide liquidity and never take liquidity.

  4. Execution Priority: RPI orders have the lowest execution priority, regardless of when they’re placed. They will only be filled after all non-RPI orders at the same price level have been executed.

Order Behavior and Visibility

  1. Order Persistence: Accepted and resting RPI orders remain active until canceled by the user, even if they are no longer at the best bid or offer (BBO).

  2. Cross Book Behavior: The orderbook visible in the UI may appear crossed due to RPI orders that are not matching with API orders. The crossed section of the book is visible and highlighted in the UI. However, the API orderbook remains uncrossed as it does not contain any RPI orders.

Limitations and Restrictions

  • Orders must be placed through the API interface
  • RPI orders cannot be placed in combination with other special order types
  • Minimum order size requirements may apply

Placing an RPI Order

1

Use the New Order endpoint

Make a request to the New Order endpoint

2

Set RPI instruction

Set instruction="RPI" in your order parameters