Retail Price Improvement

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. It achieves this through selective order visibility - orders are visible in the UI but hidden from API access.

How RPI Works

Trader Profiles

Paradex offers two trading profiles to cater to different user needs: Standard and Retail. Activating the Retail profile is opt-in and eligibility is determined through authentication and activity checks.

Retail Profile (Opt-in) - Default for UI Traders

Suitable for retail traders seeking price improvement.

• Order Submission Speed Bump: 350ms
• Order Cancel Speed Bump: 0ms
• Activity Thresholds: If exceeded, orders will lose access to RPI liquidity.
  • 10 orders/second
  • 10 orders/minute
  • 100 orders/hour
  • 1000 orders/24 hours

Activated if order is submitted with retail JWT token. To obtain retail token pass ?token_usage=interactive to /v1/auth endpoint.

Standard Profile - Default for API Traders

All orders submitted without retail JWT token are classed as Standard Profile.

Matching Rules

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

1. Retail-Only Matching: RPI orders will only match with orders placed by non-algorithmic users and do not execute against orders submitted via API.

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

3. Price Improvement Rule: RPI orders must be submitted inside the lit bid-ask spread (improving price). If the spread is 1 tick, placing at best bid or best ask is permitted.

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 cancelled 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