# Rules and limits

> Your admins set the rules each account’s orders are checked against. Agents can’t change them.

Status: In development. Not released yet; names and formats may change. Web page: https://retrade.app/docs/concepts/rules

## Who sets the rules

Your business’s people do, with their admin keys, through reTrade’s admin API and its command line, `retrade-admin` (both in development). A tenant has at least two admin keys. An agent’s key can ask for decisions and engage a stop, never change limits, modes or keys. So no AI can change the rules it’s checked against, including your own agent.

A tighter limit applies at once. A looser one waits 24 hours.

> First setup is the time before any account enforces. During it, changes apply at once. Whether to keep this setup window is still being decided.

## What a rule can limit

Each rule has a code, and a CUT or BLOCK names the one that decided it. Limits that leave room for fewer shares give a CUT, or a BLOCK when there’s no room at all:

Limits that can cut an order:

| Code | What it limits |
|---|---|
| `single_name_cap` | How much of the account one stock may take, such as no more than 10% of the account in any one stock. |
| `group_cap` | How much a group of holdings may take. |
| `order_size_cap` | How big one order may be. |
| `cash_funding` | Buying with cash the account doesn’t have. |
| `no_short` | Selling shares the account doesn’t hold. |

Rules that forbid an order outright give a BLOCK:

Rules that block an order:

| Code | What it checks |
|---|---|
| `restricted_list` | The stocks the account won’t trade. |
| `agent_permission` | Which agents may trade the account. |
| `order_form` | The order’s form. |
| `new_position_pace` | The pace of new positions. |
| `written_exit` | The order’s exit level: it reads the order’s stop price. |
| `runaway_throttle` | Too many orders a minute from one agent, or a duplicate. |
| `agent_conflict` | Another agent trading the same stock the other way. `fits` is 0. |

[Reason codes](https://retrade.app/docs/reference/reason-codes.md) lists every code, with what the agent can do about each.

## Dollar lines

Dollar lines cap the value of orders: per order (`per_order`), per agent per day (`per_agent_day`), per day (`per_day`), and in two other ways (`openings_pct`, `hard_cap_day`). An order over a line isn’t held for anyone. It comes straight back as a BLOCK, code `approval_line` with the line as its reason, and `fits`: the largest quantity that would pass.

The lines are your own, not limits of reTrade’s. A new tenant starts at 5,000 per order and 10,000 per day. Your admins set their own lines when the tenant is made, or later with `retrade-admin policy set`.

For example, a buy of 40 at a 187.25 limit is worth 7,490. Under the 5,000 per-order line it comes back as BLOCK, `approval_line` `per_order`, with `fits` of 26: 26 shares at 187.25 is 4,868.50.

## Missing or old facts mean BLOCK

reTrade decides only on facts it can check. An account it doesn’t know, a price older than 30 seconds, or a stock it can’t match exactly is a BLOCK, with a code that says which: `ACCOUNT-UNKNOWN`, `QUOTE-STALE`, `SYMBOL-UNKNOWN`. So is account data that’s missing, old or doesn’t add up.

The account data always comes from your broker, through your adapter, never from the agent.

## Stops

A stop halts trading for the whole tenant, one account or one agent. Any executor key can engage one, your agent’s included, with `stop`. Only an admin key releases it (`retrade-admin release`). While a stop is engaged, the orders it covers come back as BLOCK `STOPPED`. When reTrade’s runaway check switches an agent off, its orders come back as `AGENT-STOPPED` until an admin turns it back on.