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Block Orders

Definition​

Block Order is a term which is similar to a standart trade Order, however its aim is different and has a different business flow.

Businesses which manage their customer's finances, such as in Wealth Management or Fund Management, use Block Order concept.

In order to define Block Order, we can start with an example.

Assume the following:

  • Some of the customers are interested in technology stocks and they want to make their investment heavily on technology stocks.
  • For customer A, you would like to BUY, 100 EURO, Microsoft Stock, on 2023-07-12 at 13:00.
  • For customer B, you would like to BUY, 200 EURO, Microsoft Stock, on 2023-07-12 at 13:00.
  • For customer C, you would like to BUY, 300 EURO, Microsoft Stock, on 2023-07-12 at 13:00.

Then you can place 3 orders which have same Side (BUY), ISIN, Currency, and same cut-off date and cut-off time. When you place these 3 different orders as a non-Block Order via OMS API, then each order will be sent to trade provider (market provider).

However, you dot NOT want to

  • send each individual order to trade provider (market provider).

You want to

  • Aggregate/group all these 3 orders (with their quantity or amount sum) into 1 aggregated order,
  • Then, send this 1 aggregated order to trade provider (market provider) as an individual order.
  • Then, as soon as this 1 aggregated order is filled, you do the distribution/booking of money, position into different customers' accounts.

Here comes the Block Order concept handy for these kind of scenarios.

Please note that, Block Order trading is supported in OMS API only, not in FIX API.

SINGLE Block Order (CHILD Block Order)​

SINGLE Block Order (CHILD Block Order) are orders that will not be sent to trade provider (market provider), as they are placed on OMS API, but it will be a child of a parent order which is an aggregated order.

For different customers, multiple similar orders are to be made a Block Order, then they should be sent as SINGLE Block Order (CHILD Block Order) to OMS API.

PARENT Block Order​

PARENT Block Order, or shortly Block Order, is an aggregate of orders which have been marked as SINGLE Block Order (CHILD Block Order).

NOTE

  • OMS API will not send these individual SINGLE Block Order (CHILD Block Order) to trade provider (market).
  • OMS API will aggregate them according to grouping properties of the SINGLE Block Order (CHILD Block Order)s.

Aggregation of CHILD Block Orders​

Aggregation (grouping into a Block) is carried out according to the similar:

  • Trade Provider (market provider, Stock exchange)
  • Cut-off Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
  • Cut-off Time (HH:mm)
  • ISIN Code (financial instrument)
  • Order Side (BUY/SELL)
  • Currency