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Combo RFQ

Combos Request-for-Quote (RFQ)

What combo RFQ is

Combo RFQ is a private, sealed-bid auction for multi-leg combo prediction contracts. A requester (taker) requests quotes for a bundle of two or more contracts. Market makers submit private quotes during an auction window. When the requester accepts the winning quote and the maker confirms, the trade settles.

Auctions are sealed. Quote submissions and withdrawals remain hidden from all participants while the auction is open. At close, Gemini discloses only the winning quote to the requester. Losing quotes remain private.

The maker interface runs entirely over WebSocket. Event streams broadcast RFQs and state updates, while request-response methods submit quotes over the same connection.

End-to-end flow

Code
 Requester                    Venue                        Makers
 ─────────                    ─────                        ──────
 opens RFQ ───────────────►  broadcast on requestForQuote ───► all subscribers (anonymous)
                             ◄─── rfq.submit_quote ─────────── each interested maker
                             (sealed while open; no quote deliveries)
 selected quote ◄──────────  auction window closes; best eligible quote selected
 accepts winning quote ────► ACCEPTED delivered ────────────► winning maker only
                             ◄─── rfq.confirm_quote ────────── winning maker (last-look)
 CONFIRMED delivered ◄─────  trade proceeds to settlement

Lifecycle timing

The auction operates across three decision windows. All actions must complete strictly before their respective deadlines; actions received at or after the deadline fail.

Phase	Window
Maker quoting	1 second from RFQ creation. The public w timestamp is the quote-submission deadline.
Requester decision	5 seconds from the transition to PENDING_ACCEPTANCE to accept the selected quote.
Maker confirmation	1 second from the transition to CONFIRMING for the winning maker to confirm or decline.

The hard-expiry timestamp x is an absolute upper bound. If reached first, it shortens later windows.

Winner selection

When the quoting window ends, the venue considers only active quotes that:

• were submitted before w and have validUntil >= w;
• cover the complete requested size;
• are at or below the requester's private limit price, when one is set; and
• pass a fresh available-collateral check at close.

Eligible quotes are ranked by lowest price, with an equal-price tie going to the earliest submission. The venue checks candidates in that order and selects the first maker with sufficient available collateral. If a candidate fails that fresh check, the venue continues to the next ranked quote. If none qualifies, the RFQ expires without disclosing a quote.

Quote validity is evaluated against the logical close w, even if close processing runs later. Once a quote is selected, validUntil is not checked again during requester acceptance, maker confirmation, or finalization; those stages use their own lifecycle deadlines.

Request lifecycle

An RFQ moves through these states (S on every stream event):

Code
 OPEN ──► PENDING_ACCEPTANCE ──► CONFIRMING ──► FINALIZING ──► FINALIZED
   │              │                   │              │
   ├── CANCELLED  ├── CANCELLED       └── FAILED     └── FAILED
   └── EXPIRED    └── EXPIRED             (declined or timed out)

State	Meaning
OPEN	Live and quotable. Quotes are accepted during the 1-second quoting window, until w on the broadcast.
PENDING_ACCEPTANCE	The window closed and a winning quote was selected; the requester has up to 5 seconds from this transition to accept.
CONFIRMING	The requester accepted; the winning maker has up to 1 second from this transition to confirm or decline.
FINALIZING	The maker confirmed; the venue is executing and settling the trade.
FINALIZED	Execution completed successfully. f is present on the terminal broadcast.
CANCELLED	The requester cancelled before accepting the winning quote.
EXPIRED	No feasible quote existed at the window close, or the requester did not accept the winner in time.
FAILED	The maker declined or timed out, or execution could not be completed.

:::caution Requester full-size does not guarantee maker full-size The requester's execution order is fill-or-kill and must fill in full for the RFQ to finalize. The selected maker's post-only order executes independently on the normal order book and may fill partially or not at all. A maker partial fill can remain even if the requester order fails and the RFQ ends in FAILED; only the maker order's unfilled remainder is cancelled. See Execution and partial-fill risk. :::

Anonymity and privacy guarantees

• The public requestForQuote feed carries only the auction's existence and parameters — no requester identity, no maker identities, no quote contents.
• While the auction is open, a quote is visible only to the maker who submitted it; the requester receives no submission or withdrawal events.
• After close, only the selected quote is disclosed privately to the requester. Losing quotes remain undisclosed.
• The requester is never told which maker quoted: quotes are keyed by quoteId only.
• The service does not assign participant pseudonyms. rfqId identifies an auction and quoteId identifies a quote; neither identifies a participant or account.
• RFQ streams do not disclose counterparty account identity, including after execution.

Surface map

You want to...	Use
Discover open RFQ auctions	requestForQuote stream (public)
Receive the selected quote on your RFQ or acceptance of your quote	requestForQuote@account stream (authenticated)
Submit a quote	rfq.submit_quote
Withdraw your quote	rfq.withdraw_quote
Confirm or decline after winning	rfq.confirm_quote

Glossary

Term	Meaning
RFQ	One request-for-quote auction, identified by rfqId (a ULID).
Leg	One prediction-market contract inside the combo, with the outcome (YES/NO) the combo takes on it.
Notional	RFQ sized as a USD amount (n). Mutually exclusive with requested quantity.
Requested quantity	RFQ sized as a contract quantity (q). The quantity grid can be whole contracts or 0.01 fractional contracts; mutually exclusive with notional.
Quote	A maker's private, immutable price + maximum quantity on an RFQ. One per account per RFQ.
Last-look	The winning maker's confirm/decline step after the requester accepts.

Read next

• WebSocket Streams — message shapes for the discovery and delivery streams.
• Quote Methods — submit, withdraw, and confirm.
• Maker Integration — the end-to-end maker workflow.
• Examples — a worked auction from broadcast to settlement.
• Combo Contracts — what a combo is and how it settles.