Order-to-trade ratio

The order-to-trade ratio is the number of order messages a participant sends for each contract or share actually executed. High ratios are normal for market makers, so the metric is a surveillance filter rather than evidence of wrongdoing on its own.

market microstructure · updated 2026-09-08

Where does order-to-trade ratio come up?

This term is used in the following manipulation techniques, each explained in full on its own page.

• Spoofing — Spoofing is placing orders a trader intends to cancel before execution, to create a false impression of supply or demand and move the price toward a smaller genuine order on the other side.
• Quote stuffing — Quote stuffing is flooding a trading venue with order messages in order to slow down the processing of market data, so that competing participants act on prices that are already stale.

Enforcement actions involving these techniques

See also

• Surveillance — Surveillance, in a market context, is the automated monitoring of order and trade data for patterns that suggest abuse. Exchanges,…
• Cancellation rate — The cancellation rate is the share of a participant's orders that are cancelled rather than executed. In modern electronic markets…

Terms that refer here

Cancellation rate · Quote stuffing

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