// GLOSSARY

Worked order

An order executed patiently by algorithm on your behalf: posted passively, re-priced as the market moves, sliced across time and venues, escalating to taking only when needed. How size gets filled in thin books without paying sweep prices.

"Working an order" is what a good execution trader does with size: rather than crossing the spread for everything at once, they post part of it passively, watch the book, re-price when the market moves, take liquidity opportunistically when it appears cheap, and finish aggressively only if the clock runs out. A worked order is that behavior as an algorithm.

Worked example

You want 2,000 contracts; the book shows 300 per level. The worker posts 300 at the bid (passively, earning maker treatment), fills 500 over twenty minutes as sellers hit it, lifts a briefly fat offer for 400 more, re-prices twice as the market drifts, and IOCs the final 300 at your ceiling before close. Average price: well inside what a single sweep would have cost.

Why it matters on prediction markets

Thin books make the passive/aggressive gap unusually wide — often several cents on a $1 contract — so working versus sweeping is frequently the difference between a strategy that backtests and one that banks. Mithril works orders as part of routing, receipt attached. The playbook is in smart order routing.