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Partial fill

An execution that satisfies only part of an order, leaving the remainder working, cancelled or expired depending on the order's instructions.

Partials are the normal case for any order larger than the size resting at your price. What happens to the leftover is entirely determined by your instructions: a day-order keeps working, an immediate-or-cancel kills the rest, a fill-or-kill would have refused the trade altogether.

They also change your risk arithmetic mid-trade. Your stop distance was sized for a full position; with a third of it on, both your risk and your intended reward are a third of plan.

Example: you buy 3,000 shares with a limit at 22.10. You get 900 at 22.10 and the offer lifts to 22.16. You now hold 900 shares with a 2,100-share remainder working. Averaging in at 22.16 raises your cost basis to roughly 22.142 and invalidates the 22.05 stop you had planned.

Related: fill-rate, average-fill-price, immediate-or-cancel, all-or-none

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