Iceberg#
Iceberg orders are large single orders divided into smaller orders for the purpose of hiding the actual order quantity. The term comes from the fact that the visible orders are just the "tip of the iceberg" — a much larger stack of limit orders sits ready to be placed below the surface. This lets you buy or sell your selected pair at a predefined price without tipping off other traders to your total size.
When to use it#
- You want to hide your total order size so other market participants only see a small visible portion.
- You want to work a large order at a predefined price level rather than across a schedule.
- You are working on a short horizon — the usual timeframe for Iceberg orders is seconds to minutes.
How to place an Iceberg order#
The order form always trades the symbol selected in your workspace, so there is no symbol field in the form itself. Pick Iceberg from the algo dropdown in the form's top row (Market | Limit | algo), then fill in:
| Parameter | Example | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Side | BUY or SELL | Yes |
| Account | Main Account | Yes |
| Quantity | 10 ETH | Yes |
| Trading style | Aggressive / Hybrid / Passive | Yes |
| Reduce only | Off | No (perpetuals only) |
| Iceberg delay | 0.25 seconds (the default) | No (Advanced Settings) |
| Advanced Settings | Would Price, Trigger Price, etc. | No |
The Iceberg Delay tab of Advanced Settings holds the timer delay — the minimum time between two Iceberg slices. It defaults to 0.25 seconds and can be set anywhere from 0 to 3,600 seconds. A Randomization dropdown (Yes / No) adds noise around that delay so the replenishment pattern is harder for other participants to detect.
Advanced settings#
All advanced settings are optional. They open in the Advanced Settings modal, which shows one tab per setting; the behavior below is described for your Iceberg order.
Unless you change them, orders run with sensible defaults: the trading style defaults to Hybrid.
The price at which you are willing to fill the entire remaining order. When enabled, the Iceberg takes any available liquidity up to that price — a "get-it-done" price for the order should the market move favorably.
You control the percentage of the order to execute at this price, and the execution style used for it (Passive, Hybrid, or Aggressive).
Default: off. When you set a would price, you must also choose the would style.
The worst price you are willing to accept — a maximum for buys, a minimum for sells. When set, the Iceberg only consumes liquidity at prices no worse than the limit.
Default: none — the order executes at market prices unless you set a limit.
Note
A limit price can prevent the order from reaching full completion if the market stays beyond it.
The Iceberg only starts once the trigger price is reached. For example, with ETH trading at 2,000 and a sell order with a trigger at 2,500, execution begins only when ETH reaches 2,500.
The trigger condition can be Above or Below the specified price. See Trigger Orders for details.
Default: none. When you set a trigger price, the condition defaults to Above.
Controls where the passive side of your order rests in the book, and how far the market has to move before it is repriced. Two levels define it:
- the placement level — how deep in the bid or ask book the child order is posted (level 1 is the top of the book);
- the cancel level — the depth at which a resting child order is pulled and re-posted, once the book has moved away from it.
Default places at level 1 and cancels at level 4; Tight places at level 1 and cancels at level 2. With Custom, the placement level can be 1–10 and the cancel level 2–15, and the cancel level must be deeper than the placement level.
The size of the child orders. By default it is automatic: clip size is derived from recent trade sizes and order-book depth so child orders stay digestible for the market — targeting roughly 7.5% or less of per-second traded volume, with a minimum of about 10 slices per order.
You can instead set the clip size as a percentage of the parent order or as an absolute value — a 10% clip size produces 10 child orders. A ±20% randomization is applied to all child orders (automatically reduced when the clip size is close to the exchange minimum).
Orders expire after 6 months by default. You can shorten this to 1 week or 1 month.
