I recently faced an automated account lockdown on E\*TRADE due to what their risk management team flagged as a "High volume of micro spread orders".
After a phone call with compliance and verbally confirming an acknowledgement agreement, my account restrictions were lifted. However, the compliance desk refused to provide specific metrics or hard caps that trigger their anti-spam/HFT detection, stating it’s a "combination of many circumstances".
I want to adjust my trading to stay completely under their radar. I would highly appreciate your insights on retail compliance boundaries.
I am using the E\*TRADE Developer API to run 2-leg options spreads (rolling covered calls; net price of spreads ranges from $0.06 to $0.40) on high-IV tickers with a share price of $15-$25. My standard position size is 1 contract per roll. The total number of placed orders stays within Rule 390 limits (under avg. 390 orders/day) with a solid 80%-85%+ fill rate.
My Question:
What is your experience with daily transaction limits on retail platforms? What is a safe maximum daily order count (including creates, modifies, and cancels) to completely avoid triggering automated risk filters and manual compliance reviews?