Price chasing
How price chasing works
A copied limit order can rest unfilled while the price moves away from it. Price chasing moves such an order toward the market, one step at a time, until it fills or reaches a limit you set. You choose how far it may go, how it steps and how often.
Price chasing is switched on broker by broker as each is proven on a live account, and it is not yet on for most brokers. A chased order is still a limit order: it moves only inside the band you set, and it can still go unfilled.
Worked example
One order, both ways of stepping
A copy of a master's buy that opens a position, placed at ₹100.00 at 09:30 IST. An entry band of 2% (a limit of ₹102.00), steps of +₹0.50 used 3 times, the first 20 seconds after it was placed and the rest 20 seconds apart, and a close step of +₹2.00 from 15:37 IST, one minute before the 15:38 IST cutoff.
IllustrativeIllustrative prices, not your terms. These are not suggested settings.
Measured from the live price
DefaultEach turn puts the order a step beyond the price right now, so it follows the market, inside your limit.
- your order’s price
- live price
- your limit
- Shown with If it cannot fill set to Rest
- Turn 1, +20 s: live price ₹100.20. Moved to ₹100.70.
- Turn 2, +40 s: live price ₹100.80. Moved to ₹101.30.
- Turn 3, +60 s: live price ₹101.70. The step asks for ₹102.20, past your limit, so it is moved to ₹102.00.
- It now rests at your limit. With Rest it stays there and you are told; with Cancel it is cancelled one interval later if it has not filled.
Measured from your order's price
The steps add up from your order's own price, the same walk whatever the market does. Predictable, and slower to catch a market running away.
- your order’s price
- live price
- your limit
- Shown with If it cannot fill set to Rest
- Turn 1, +20 s: ₹100.00 plus ₹0.50. Moved to ₹100.50.
- Turn 2, +40 s: plus ₹0.50 more. Moved to ₹101.00.
- Turn 3, +60 s: plus ₹0.50 more. Moved to ₹101.50, whatever the live price did.
- The steps have ended, so it rests at ₹101.50 and you are told.
- At 15:37 IST the close step takes over: live price ₹102.40 plus ₹2.00 asks for ₹104.40, which is capped at your limit, ₹102.00.
- With Rest it stays at ₹102.00, and after 15:38 IST it may carry overnight; with Cancel it is cancelled 20 seconds after reaching your limit, if it has not filled.
- Had this buy been closing a short position, your exit band (4% here, a limit of ₹104.00) applies, and turn 3 goes to ₹102.20.
- A sell that opens a short position works the same way, downward: a copy of a master’s sell at ₹100.00, with live prices of ₹99.80, ₹99.20 and ₹98.30, is moved to ₹99.30, ₹98.70 and ₹98.00, its limit.
- Steps here are in rupees. They can also be set in percent, or in ticks: a tick is ₹0.05 on NSE and BSE, a price step every share and F&O contract there accepts (some shares also trade in ₹0.01 steps).
- At each turn the order is still resting because no seller had met its price. Turns happen at the platform’s next check after each wait (it looks every five seconds), so real times run a few seconds later than shown.
The rules
Which orders it moves, how each turn goes, and when it ends
Every rule in the first column has to hold each time the platform looks. If one does not, the order is not moved; at the cutoff, an order the chase already moved is cancelled if you chose Cancel (see How it ends).
1 · Which orders
It moves an order only when
- QuantGrid placed it, in a client account you switched on: a copy, a square-off or a rebalance correction. Never an order you placed yourself, and never an order in a master account.
- Price chasing is on in your settings, and QuantGrid has switched it on for that account's broker.
- An order resting at the broker as a limit order. Some brokers turn a market order into a limit a set distance from the price; if part of it rests unfilled, that part can be chased. A stop-loss market order is never moved.
- For a copy, the master's own order has filled completely. A copy never moves ahead of the master.
- For a stop-loss, the live price has reached its trigger. Until then it stays exactly where it was placed.
- It is in shares and F&O on NSE and BSE. Commodity and currency orders are not chased.
- A live price feed for the instrument that has answered within the last minute, from any of your accounts. Without one the chase pauses.
- During the session, up to the placement cutoff, 15:38 IST for shares and F&O.
2 · Each turn
One price change at a time
Wait
Your Start after time, counted from when the order was placed. A copy also waits for the master's own order to fill completely, and moves straight after if that took longer. Then at least your Interval between turns. Several of your orders on one account take turns, one price change per account every five seconds, so the pieces of a large copy move less often than your interval.
Price
The step's offset, measured from the live price or from your order's own price, as you choose. From your order's price the offsets add up turn by turn. Near the cutoff, your close step replaces the steps and always measures from the live price. A negative step waits inside the market (a buy below the live price).
Cap
Never past your band, measured from your order's own price: your entry band when the order opens a position, your exit band when it closes one. A triggered stop-limit is never priced across its own trigger.
Send
One price change, rounded to a price the exchange accepts. Each one counts toward Max moves, never more than 10 for one order. A turn that would not change the price is used up without contacting the broker.
Repeats until it stops or pauses.
3 · How it ends
It stops when
- Filled
The order fills.
- At your limit
It reaches your band. With Rest it stays at your limit and you are told; with Cancel it is cancelled one interval later if it has not filled.
- Moves or steps used
Its moves or steps run out, and it rests where it is. A close step can still move an order whose steps ended.
- Cutoff
The cutoff arrives. An order the chase moved rests and you are told it may carry overnight, or it is cancelled if you chose Cancel. An order it never moved is left as it is.
- Left to you
You change the order from QuantGrid's dashboard, and the chase leaves it to you from then on. A change made in your broker's own app is not seen, and the chase can move the order again at its next turn.
- Broker refused
The broker refuses three moves in a row. You are told in the broker's own words.
It pauses, and carries on with the same order when this clears
- You hide the position.
- You switch chasing, copying or that account off.
- The position an exit was closing reads as closed.
- There is no fresh live price.
Where it runs
Brokers, accounts and pace
- Price chasing, which works a resting order toward a fill inside a limit you set, uses a live price from Angel One, FYERS, Groww, Kotak and IIFL, and from Zerodha and Dhan where the account has that broker's paid data plan; on Motilal Oswal, Upstox and Tradejini it works only while another of your accounts supplies that price.
- Price chasing is not offered on Nuvama Wealth and ICICI Direct; each broker's page says why.
- One setting covers every client account on your login, and you can switch individual accounts off.
- To leave room for new copies, the platform sends at most one price change per account every five seconds.
- If a master and a client account share a PAN, the exchange can cancel an order chased across the other account's resting order under self-trade prevention.
The cost
A chased order gives up price to reach a fill
That is what chasing is. Each move puts the order closer to the market and further from the price it was placed at. Your band is your limit on how far, and nothing, including the close step, is priced past it.
Get started
Start replicating today
Every feature comes with the dedicated static IP each broker account needs. Open an account and link your first parent, or book a free 20-minute demo and we will walk through your setup with you.
Prepaid wallet · No lock-in, stop any time