What Are Price Bands and Freeze Quantities?
Exchanges use price bands and freeze quantities to keep trading orderly. Price bands limit the daily price movement of a security. Freeze quantities cap the maximum contracts you can place in a single order. If you exceed either control, your order can be rejected.
Price bands
- Daily range limits: Most securities trade within an exchange-set band, for example, 2%, 5%, 10%, or 20% from the previous close. Orders outside the band are rejected.
- F&O exceptions: For F&O stocks or stocks included in indices with derivatives, daily upper or lower bands may not apply in the same way.
- Market-wide circuit breakers: Index-based halts at 10%, 15%, and 20% moves on the BSE Sensex or NIFTY 50 trigger coordinated trading halts across equity and equity derivatives nationwide.
Freeze quantity
- Definition: The freeze quantity is the maximum number of contracts allowed in a single order for a given instrument and segment. It is set by the exchange and applies uniformly to all brokers.
- If exceeded: Orders above the freeze quantity are rejected with messages like “ORDER QTY IS GREATER THAN FREEZE QTY.”
- FYERS support: Use Order Slicing to automatically split large orders into smaller parts within the allowed freeze quantity.
Exchange freeze quantity for major indices
| Sl. No. | Index Name | Freeze Quantity |
|---|
| 1 | NIFTY | 1800 |
| 2 | BANKNIFTY | 900 |
| 3 | FINNIFTY | 1800 |
| 4 | MIDCPNIFTY | 5500 |
| 5 | SENSEX | 500 |
| 6 | BANKEX | 600 |
How to handle orders above the freeze quantity?
To simplify trading large orders, FYERS offers the Order Slicing feature, which automatically breaks your order into multiple parts—each within the allowed freeze quantity. This way, your full order can be placed without manual effort.
Use limit orders within price bands and enable Order Slicing to send large orders without breaching freeze quantities.
What if...
| Scenario | Explanation |
|---|
| I placed an order above the freeze quantity | It will be rejected unless the order is split within the allowed freeze quantity. |
| I want to place bulk orders easily | We use Order Slicing to split the order automatically. |
| I need the freeze quantity for a specific contract | Check the latest NSE circulars for the complete list of F&O freeze limits. |
| I place a limit outside the price band | The exchange rejects it. Re-enter the order within the allowed band. |
| The index hits a circuit breaker level | Trading halts market-wide and resumes as per exchange rules. |
Last updated: 07 Nov 2025
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