What causes "LIMIT order requires a price" in nautechsystems/nautilus_trader?

Provide a valid limit `Price` when constructing the LIMIT order/request.

nautechsystems/nautilus_trader · error · anyhow::Error

LIMIT order requires a price

Error message

LIMIT order requires a price

What it means

This error is raised by `build_order_configuration` when a `LIMIT` order is submitted without a `price`. A limit order is meaningless without a limit price, and Coinbase's `LimitGtc`/`LimitGtd`/`LimitFok` payloads require `limit_price`, so the adapter fails fast rather than sending a malformed request. It typically indicates the submit request was constructed as LIMIT but its price field was None.

Source

Thrown at crates/adapters/coinbase/src/http/client.rs:1651

            match time_in_force {
                TimeInForce::Ioc | TimeInForce::Gtc => {
                    Ok(OrderConfiguration::MarketIoc(MarketIoc {
                        market_market_ioc: params,
                    }))
                }
                TimeInForce::Fok => Ok(OrderConfiguration::MarketFok(MarketFok {
                    market_market_fok: params,
                })),
                _ => {
                    anyhow::bail!(
                        "Unsupported TIF {time_in_force} for MARKET on Coinbase (use IOC or FOK)"
                    )
                }
            }
        }
        OrderType::Limit => {
            let limit_price =
                price.ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("LIMIT order requires a price"))?;

            match time_in_force {
                TimeInForce::Gtc => Ok(OrderConfiguration::LimitGtc(LimitGtc {
                    limit_limit_gtc: LimitGtcParams {
                        base_size: qty,
                        limit_price,
                        post_only,
                    },
                })),
                TimeInForce::Gtd => {
                    let expire = expire_time
                        .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("GTD LIMIT requires expire_time"))?;
                    Ok(OrderConfiguration::LimitGtd(LimitGtd {
                        limit_limit_gtd: LimitGtdParams {
                            base_size: qty,
                            limit_price,
                            end_time: format_rfc3339_from_nanos(expire)?,
                            post_only,

View on GitHub (pinned to 18893faf8b)

Solutions

Provide a valid limit `Price` when constructing the LIMIT order/request.
Check the strategy/order-factory code path to ensure price is populated for LIMIT orders.
Validate before submission: reject LIMIT requests with no price early with a clearer message.
If the order was meant to be MARKET, change the order type instead of leaving price unset.

Example fix

// before
let order = factory.limit(instrument_id, Buy, qty); // price never set
// after
let price = Price::from("65000.00");
let order = factory.limit(instrument_id, Buy, qty, price, TimeInForce::Gtc);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn validate_limit_request(order_type: OrderType, price: Option<Price>) -> Result<(), String> {
    match order_type {
        OrderType::Limit if price.is_none() => Err("LIMIT order requires a price".into()),
        _ => Ok(()),
    }
}

Try / catch

match build_order_configuration(OrderType::Limit, side, qty, price, None, tif, None, post_only, false, false) {
    Ok(config) => submit(config),
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("requires a price") => {
        tracing::error!("limit order submitted without price; fix order construction");
        Err(e)
    }
    Err(e) => return Err(e),
}

Prevention

Always set a price for LIMIT/STOP_LIMIT orders at the order-factory level.
Add pre-submit validation of required fields per order type.
Use typed builders that force a price for limit orders.
Add unit tests asserting limit orders carry a price.

When it happens

Trigger: Submitting a LIMIT order where the price parameter is None — e.g. a strategy building a limit order without specifying price, or a generic order factory that leaves price unset, with any TIF (GTC/GTD/FOK).

Common situations: Strategy bugs where the limit price is computed but never passed into the order request; converting market-order code paths to limit without adding a price; serialization round-trips dropping an unset price.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of nautechsystems/nautilus_trader@18893faf8b (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/11e0c67c1e4d2b9e. Report an issue: GitHub.