The short answer
An IBKR order is rejected by one of four parties, and the message says which. IBKR's own price check refuses an order priced too far through the market: 10% for stocks, 20% for options. Your own order preset refuses a price, size or value you once set as a precaution, and asks whether you mean it. The account can be restricted to closing orders. Or the single contract can be. Only the second is a rule you set yourself. So the first thing to do with a rejection is not to resend it. Read the sentence, find it in the table below, and you know whether the fix is a new price, a click, a phone call or a ticket.
What does each IBKR rejection message mean?
Every row is a message IBKR prints on one of its own pages, with what that page says about it. Wording you see that is not here is not in this guide because no IBKR page read for it prints it. On Robinhood the list is shorter, and it is in the Robinhood rejected and canceled orders guide.
| The message | Who refused it | Can you override it | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Limit price too far outside NBBO", or "This order is not accepted. The limit price cannot be more than 10% through the NBBO" | IBKR's price check | No | Reprice closer to the market |
| "The price specified would violate the percentage constraint specified in the default order settings. Do you really want to submit this order?" | Your own order preset | Yes, by clicking Yes | Decide whether the price is the mistake or the preset is |
| "Order price is not reasonable" | IBKR's reasonability check | No | Change the price; a market order on a contract with no quote becomes a limit |
| "Cannot verify reasonableness of order" | IBKR could not judge it | Yes, with caution | Check the order is what you meant, then acknowledge |
| "You are trying to submit an order without having market data for this instrument" | Nobody: it is a warning | Yes, it can be bypassed | Bypass it, or subscribe to the data in Client Portal |
| "Your account has been restricted to placing closing orders only" | IBKR, on the account | No | Contact Client Services |
| "At the moment, orders for this contract are only accepted if they are close or reduce open positions" | An exchange or IBKR, on the contract | No | Trade another contract, or ask by web ticket |
Why does IBKR say my limit price is too far outside the NBBO?
Because it is, by IBKR's measure, and the measure is published. IBKR's FAQ on order price describes two checks. Of the first it says: "stock buy orders which are 10% above the prevailing NBBO ask price will be automatically rejected by us as will stock sell orders which are 10% below the prevailing NBBO bid price. In the case of options, our automatic rejection threshold percentage for both buy and sell orders is 20%."
Put numbers on the options case. A call is quoted 1.00 bid, 1.10 ask. A buy limit at 1.40 is more than 20% above the 1.10 ask, since 20% above it is 1.32, and by that sentence it is rejected. A buy limit at 1.25 is not. The FAQ offers no way round this check, and that is the difference between it and the next one.
The second check is yours. The same FAQ: "the account holder is able to establish Precautionary Settings by selecting the Order and then Configure Order Presets menu options," with thresholds in percent or ticks outside the NBBO, and "settings may also be defined in terms of share/contract quantity or total dollar value of trade." An order that breaks one is stopped with the question in the table's second row, and, in the FAQ's words, "the account holder has the option of overriding their own settings and transmitting the order by clicking on the 'Yes' button."
That Yes deserves a second of thought. The precaution was set by you on a calm day to catch exactly the order you are now sending on a fast one. Sometimes the preset is stale. Sometimes the order has an extra digit in it.
What does "Order price is not reasonable" mean?
It is a different check with a different rule, and IBKR's FAQ splits it into two messages that behave in opposite ways:
- "Order price is not reasonable." Account holders "will have to modify the price associated with the order before it will be successfully submitted." No override.
- "Cannot verify reasonableness of order." Account holders "will have the option of overriding the message and transmitting the order."
The FAQ says these exist "to prevent orders from being executed based on erroneous price submissions," and gives the cases. The one an options trader meets is the contract with no quote: "If a security has no active quote (no bid or ask price) traders may be prevented from submitting market orders." The way through is on the next line: "Traders are able to transmit and execute limit orders for security that is not displaying a market quote." So a market order refused on a far strike with an empty bid is not a broken platform. It is IBKR declining to sell something at a price nobody has named, and a limit order is how you name one.
The other case is a marketable price far from the mark: "an order to buy at a price well above the mark price or a sell order at a price that is well below." The FAQ's remedy is to bring the price "to a level closer to the mark price." It gives no percentage for this check, so this guide does not either.
A related message is not a rejection at all. "You are trying to submit an order without having market data for this instrument" means, per IBKR's FAQ, that "you are attempting to place an order without having live market data. You may bypass this message on the TWS and place your trade," or subscribe in Client Portal. The FAQ adds that the message cannot be switched off while you have no subscription.
Why can I only place closing orders?
Two messages say this, and they are about different things.
The account. "Your account has been restricted to placing closing orders only." IBKR's FAQ says holders are "limited to placing orders which serve to close or reduce existing positions," and on why: "The basis for this restriction varies and often involves pending documentation, compliance and/or risk issues." It sends questions to Client Services. Nothing you change in TWS lifts it.
The contract. "At the moment, orders for this contract are only accepted if they are close or reduce open positions. Please contact Client Services for assistance." Here the restriction is on one security. The FAQ gives two sources: "Certain equity options series may be placed in a closing only state by options exchanges," and IBKR itself "may choose not to allow trading in certain securities for various reasons including, but not limited to; account security concerns, clearing limitations, or corporate action processing." A trader can ask for it to be removed by web ticket with the symbol, and for an equity option the contract month and strike, and a short reason; IBKR will "review the request and determine whether or not removal of the restriction can be facilitated."
Both restrictions leave the exit open, by design. The account FAQ says the restriction lets holders "manage and reduce the market exposure of their positions while in effect." You can get out. You cannot add.
What do the TWS API codes 201 and 202 mean?
If your orders go through software, a charting platform or anything else on the TWS API, the rejection arrives with a number. IBKR's message codes page begins with a caution worth knowing: TWS uses the same error channel "not only to deliver errors but also warnings or informative messages." So a number is not automatically a rejection. The ones that matter for an order:
| Code | IBKR's text | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 201 | "Order rejected - Reason:" | "An attempted order was rejected by the IB servers." The reason follows the colon |
| 202 | "Order cancelled - Reason:" | "An active order on the IB server was cancelled." It existed, and now does not |
| 110 | "The price does not conform to the minimum price variation for this contract." | The price has "more digits of precision than is allowed for this particular contract" |
| 111 | "The TIF (Tif type) and the order type are incompatible." | That time in force "cannot be used with this order type" |
| 163 | "The price specified would violate the percentage constraint specified in the default order settings." | Your precautionary setting, as above |
| 388 | "Order size is smaller than the minimum requirement." | Check the size rules in the contract's details |
| 403 | "Invalid stop price." | "The Stop Price you specified for the order is invalid for the contract" |
| 404 | "Shares for this order are not immediately available for short sale. The order will be held while we attempt to locate the shares." | Held, not rejected |
| 2109 | "Attribute 'Outside Regular Trading Hours' is ignored based on the order type and destination. PlaceOrder is now processed." | A warning. The order went |
For 110, the page says where the allowed increments are: "Minimum increment information can be found on the IB Contracts and Securities Search page." Software that connects and has every order refused, whatever the order, is usually a setting rather than a message, and that case is in the TWS API setup guide.
What if the order IBKR rejected was my stop?
Then you have a position and no stop, and nothing on the chart says so. This is the rejection that costs money, because the entry filled and the protection is the order that bounced. A rejected order is not a working order: the message codes page calls 201 "an attempted order." Nothing is resting anywhere on your behalf.
So after any rejection or cancellation while you hold a position, look at the Orders panel before the chart, and count: is there a working sell for the quantity you hold. A 202 on a stop is the same emergency as a 201, one step later. What makes a stop hold once it is accepted is in setting a stop loss on IBKR that actually fires; the ways a bracket's stop is cancelled by its own group are in the bracket orders guide; and every way out of a position in TWS, with what each does to the stop under it, is on one page, each marked documented, reported or untested.
One more case from IBKR's FAQ, because it has a clock on it. An order that has "been placed, but do not appear to be acknowledged" is neither accepted nor rejected, and IBKR's instruction is blunt: "you must contact us via telephone immediately." Web tickets are "not real time," and a request to cancel an erroneous trade has to reach IBKR "within 15 minutes of the erroneous transaction."
Can I see a rejection coming before I transmit?
The price ones, by looking at the quote. For the account's ability to carry the order, TWS has a preview. IBKR's guide: "See the potential margin impact for an order using the Check Margin feature." From Mosaic it is under the Advanced icon in Order Entry, where "in the case of option orders, the button is labeled Performance/Margin"; in Classic TWS it is Check Margin Impact on the order line's right-click menu. It shows "commissions, margin impact and the order description" before anything is sent.
What this guide does not cover, and why. No IBKR page that prints the wording of a funds or margin rejection could be opened for it, and neither could IBKR's page on day-trading limits for small accounts, so neither message is quoted or explained here. If the reason after "Order rejected" is about margin, funds or day trades, the preview above is the place to start and IBKR's Client Services is the place to finish.
Where Degen Pro fits
Mostly it does not. This page is about what Interactive Brokers will and will not accept, and no app changes that. Degen Pro is a Mac app for Interactive Brokers for the part that comes after the entry is accepted: the stop is a real order at the broker and the app will not loosen it; if you cancel it by hand it puts it back and counts the attempt, on the settings where it holds the stop. It gives no signals, opens nothing you did not choose, and needs Trader Workstation on a Mac. What it does and costs is on the front page.
Before you resend a rejected order
- Read the whole message. It names the party: IBKR's check, your preset, the account or the contract.
- If it asks "Do you really want to submit this order?", it is your own precaution. Find out which of you is wrong before clicking Yes.
- If it is a price check, look at the bid and ask, not at your last order. Reprice; do not repeat.
- If a market order was refused on a contract with no quote, use a limit.
- If it says closing only, stop trying to open. The exit still works.
- If you hold a position, confirm in the Orders panel that a stop for the right quantity is working before anything else.
None of this is investment advice. Trading involves risk of loss, and an order IBKR accepts is not thereby a good one.