Partial fills: what does your strategy actually do?

Genuine question rather than a lesson, because I suspect my answer is wrong. I send an order for a hundred shares. Sixty fill, forty rest. My strategy was written as though orders fill completely or not at all, and I've never explicitly decided what should happen in between. Options I can see: wait for the rest, cancel the remainder and proceed with sixty, or cancel and treat the whole thing as not having happened. Each implies something different about my exit logic — a stop sized for a hundred shares is wrong for sixty in a way that matters. What do people actually do here? And more importantly, did you decide it deliberately or did you find out what your code does by watching it?
DataDrivenDee
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SpreadWatcher· Aug 2026 ago· edited Aug 2026 ago
I cancel the remainder and size the exit to what actually filled. The alternative. A stop sized for quantity you don't hold — is a real bug that hides for months.
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DrawdownDave· Aug 2026 ago
Found out by watching it, obviously. Turned out mine waited indefinitely, which on a fast name means holding a partial position with a stale intent.
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RiskFirstRita· Aug 2026 ago
The honest answer for most people is the second one, and the fact that it's the common answer is the argument for deciding it on purpose.
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