The stake: where a request lands
A stake is the first number in the column and the first one to be rounded. This page takes eight requests on a single market and follows each one from what the player typed to what the account placed.
- requests
- 8
- increment
- 0.10
- placed
- 74.80
- tail
- 0.24
On a market with a 0.10 increment, a requested stake is rounded down to the nearest multiple of 0.10 and refused if it is below the minimum. Of eight invented requests, three land exactly, four leave a tail between 0.04 and 0.09, and one is refused. The tails total 0.24 out of 75.04 requested, which is 0.32%.
The eight requests
The market in sample B publishes a 0.10 increment and a 0.10 minimum, the finest common arrangement. Even here, most requests do not land where they were aimed.
| Requested | Placed | Tail | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.00 | 5.00 | 0.00 | exact multiple |
| 5.04 | 5.00 | 0.04 | rounded down |
| 5.05 | 5.00 | 0.05 | rounded down |
| 5.09 | 5.00 | 0.09 | rounded down |
| 2.50 | 2.50 | 0.00 | exact multiple |
| 12.36 | 12.30 | 0.06 | rounded down |
| 40.00 | 40.00 | 0.00 | exact multiple |
| 0.08 | - | - | below the 0.10 minimum |
| 75.04 requested | 74.80 placed | 0.24 tail | 7 of 8 placed |
The two facts that matter
First, the tail is not a fee. It is money that was never staked, so it is not charged, not refunded and not shown; it simply stays in the account, which means the account balance is not wrong and nothing needs explaining. Second, the size of the tail is decided by the digits, not by the size of the stake. A request of 40.00 leaves nothing at all, while a request of 12.36 leaves 0.06. The desk's central finding is the same one restated at volume on the volume page: a player who types round numbers pays nothing to the rounding rule and a player who types the arithmetic minimum of their own balance pays it on nearly every request.
- Type amounts that are exact multiples of the increment; those requests land whole.
- Where the increment is 0.10, an amount ending in 0.00, 0.10 and so on lands whole, and an amount ending in 0.01 to 0.09 is rounded down every time.
- Read the minimum separately: on sample B a 0.08 request is refused outright.
- Remember the tail stays in the account, so it is not a loss you can point at - it is a stake you did not make.
- Do not assume the operator rounds to the nearest: sample B is rounded down on every request, and the direction belongs to the rules.