Skip to content
GetProfitable
Search
Dictionary

Central limit order book (CLOB)

A single shared book where all orders for an instrument meet and are matched by transparent priority rules.

A CLOB is all-to-all and anonymous: your limit order stands beside a bank's, and the matching-engine does not care who is who. Futures markets are the purest examples, because each contract trades on one book at one exchange.

Equities are the opposite: dozens of competing books, glued together by the nbbo and reg-nms rather than by a single CLOB.

Example: an index futures contract has one book. A resting bid for 50 contracts at 5,000.00 is genuinely the whole market's bid at that price. In equities, 50,000 shares "at 25.00" may be split across eight venues plus hidden and dark size, which is why smart-order-routers exist.

Related: exchange

Educational only, not advice. Spotted an error? Post in Site Feedback.