FAQ
The mechanism
Section titled “The mechanism”Why don’t orders trade when they arrive? Because it is a call auction. Orders collect during a window and all trade at once, at one price, so thin markets can meet in one place instead of each trader crossing a spread alone. Why a call auction
How is the price chosen? It is the price that trades the most shares. Ties go first to the smallest imbalance between demand and supply, then to the price nearest a fresh Pyth price if one passed the gate, then to the midpoint. The clearing rule
Will I pay my limit? Only if the auction clears exactly at it. If you bid $250 and it clears at $247.50, you pay $247.50 and the difference comes back. Order statuses
Can I get a worse price than someone else in the same auction? No. Everyone who trades gets the clearing price. Money moves in whole micro-dollars, so two buyers’ totals can differ from exact pro-rata by one micro-dollar. The clearing rule
My limit was on the right side of the clearing price, but I filled nothing. Why? Price priority. When more shares are willing to trade than can be matched, better-priced orders fill first. Who fills at the clearing price
Why is the best bid above the best ask? Because nothing executes until the cross. Overlapping buyers and sellers are exactly what will trade. Glossary
When can I cancel? Until the freeze, the last 700 slots of the window (about two minutes at the measured devnet slot rate). Auction lifecycle
Can I place an order during the freeze? Yes. Only cancelling stops. An order placed during the freeze cannot be cancelled. Auction lifecycle
How long is an auction? 7,000 slots, about 19 minutes at the measured devnet rate. A new one opens for each scheduled ticker as soon as the last one ends. Auction lifecycle
Money and safety
Section titled “Money and safety”Who holds my funds while I wait? The auction’s vaults, token accounts owned by the auction’s program-derived address. Only the program can move them. What the program guarantees
Can the operator take my funds? No instruction lets anyone redirect escrow. Settlement pays each order’s owner, checked by the program. The token issuer is different: it can pause the token or move tokens from any account. xStocks and Token-2022
What if the issuer pauses the token mid-auction? Settlement fails safely. Dollar refunds still go out, and share refunds go out once the pause lifts. Tested for real on devnet. Test: pause mid-auction
What if there’s a stock split mid-auction? Nothing changes. The program holds raw amounts, and a split only changes the display multiplier. Tested for real. Test: split mid-auction
Are there fees? No trading fee. You pay Solana’s transaction fee and 0.00121412 SOL of rent for each order’s account, which is not returned, by design. Costs and rent
Why isn’t order rent returned? The order account is the permanent record of your order and its settlement. It lets you rebuild your outcome from chain even after the auction is closed. Costs and rent
Does Pyth set the price? No. It can only break an exact tie between prices the book already supports, and only if it passes eight on-chain checks. What Pyth is used for
Does the reference price stop after the 4pm close? Not in the window measured. The AAPL feed kept publishing at every one of 80 checks over 10h38m. An earlier claim that it stops was retracted. After the close: a retraction
Has the Pyth tie-break ever run on chain? No. Devnet has no fresh Pyth price, so it is covered by unit tests only. The on-chain gate
Devnet
Section titled “Devnet”Why devnet, not mainnet? On devnet the mints could be built to match the real xStocks with authorities the team holds. That made it possible to test a pause and a split mid-auction, which only the issuer can do on mainnet. Why devnet
Is any of this real money? No. Everything is test tokens on devnet. Get test tokens
Does the clearing price show real price discovery? No. Most devnet orders come from a test bot priced around Pyth. A cross near Pyth shows the bot followed instructions. Honest limitations
Why can’t I trade PreStocks or Tessera tokens? They charge a transfer fee (PreStocks 100 bps, raised from 50; Tessera 20 bps), which leaves escrow short. Tokens we cannot support
Checking
Section titled “Checking”How do I check a clearing price myself? Read the auction account from chain and replay the rule, or run a one-file script. Verify a clearing price
Has it been audited? No. Honest limitations
Every answer is a summary of the page it links to; the sources are listed there.