Why the desk's orders are the size they are

If you run an Aggressive $100,000 book you will see mornings where the PM opens four or five names at $9,499.96, $9,499.98, $9,500.00. That is not the model shading orders to stay under a line. It is arithmetic the platform does in code, the same way every time, and this page walks through it.

From posture to a dollar figure

1. 1Your posture· Strategy › Profile › Posture sets the largest single order as a share of equity: Conservative 3%, Moderate 5%, Aggressive 10% (with a dollar floor for small books and a ceiling for the account's size band; Limits & halts has the table). On $100,000 Aggressive that is $10,000; on Moderate, $5,000. The number the Executor enforces right now is on Risk › Limits.
2. 2For a new name the sizing code starts from risk, not from the cap: the posture's risk unit (a fraction of a percent of equity) divided by the distance to the desk's stop. On a large, steady stock that distance is small, so the risk-based amount comes out above the per-order cap more often than not.
3. 3Whatever binds, the size is then set to 95% of the binding cap, on purpose: a few cents of price drift between the preview and the order window must never turn a pass into a refusal. 95% of $10,000 is $9,500.
4. 4Dollars become shares rounded down to four decimal places (or whole shares for a name that does not trade in fractions), which is why the figures differ by a few cents: $9,499.98 is 13.48 shares of a $704 ETF, $9,500.00 is 25.3 shares of a $375 stock.

The PM is shown this figure three ways before it writes an order (its constraints, its state card, and the size column of its decision table) and is told to copy it rather than invent one. So when several strong, liquid names qualify on the same morning, several orders come out at the same size. A smaller order means the risk-based amount, the position limit or the exposure band bound first; the approval card's Why block names which.

Why those orders did not wait for you

Autonomy· Strategy › Profile › Autonomy decides what waits. On Full, nothing waits for its size: the hands-off line is set one cent above the per-order cap precisely so that a correctly sized order never asks, and an order can never be larger than the cap anyway. On Semi the line is a dollar figure you choose (or 5% of equity if you leave it on auto), and every order above it waits in the Inbox. On Manual everything waits.

So under Full autonomy an order in your Inbox is there for a named reason, never for its size, and the card says which:

• A figure in the PM's reasoning did not match any data it was shown. A code check compares every signal value and price the PM cites against what the session actually saw: its decision table, its own signal reads, the quotes and bars it pulled, and the facts it was woken with. A quote that matches none of them holds the order for you, whatever the autonomy, because an order argued from a wrong number should not go out on its own. You can approve it if the idea stands on its own; the next session is told to correct or withdraw it either way.
• The pre-trade Critic raised a serious objection (only when that gate is switched on for your book), or the PM has been asked to answer the Critic's challenge first.
• An options order, which always waits.

While it waits, the card says "Waiting for you because a figure in the PM's reasoning does not match any data it was shown." Once you decide, the row under Decided today keeps the same reason in the past tense ("Held for you: a figure in the PM's reasoning did not match any data it was shown.") under a pill that says who decided, and the order's row in Activity › Orders & fills carries the full technical detail. A long note you typed when deciding is folded behind More on that row, never cut.

The day's order count

The "Orders today" figure counts order decisions, the same way the Executor's own check does: an entry and its corrected resubmit are one decision, and the protective stops the Executor keeps resting at the broker for every holding are maintenance, not decisions, so they never use up the allowance. The count only ever refuses the next buy. A sell that reduces or closes a position, whether the PM's, the Executor's protective exit or your own from the trade sheet, still goes out after a busy day: refusing an exit could only keep risk on. The allowance itself comes from your posture (Aggressive 10 a day, on top of a per-session limit of 5) and you can type a higher number on Risk › Limits; a number you type is enforced as typed, up to 200.