TWS Message: could not value contract at this time

Overview: 

Account holders receiving the message could not value contract at this time will be unable to successfully transmit an order for the product in question. 

 

The basis for the rejection varies, however, all potential issues causing this are related to an inability of our automated systems to accurately determine a value for the instrument based on real time data and credit management.  Some scenarios that may cause this type of rejection are as follows;

  • A product that is not reflecting a daily change in the market data line may not have a previous day settlement price.  For some products (futures) customer service can facilitate having a settlement price applied manually intraday.  For other products (future options, stock, stock options), this change cannot be made intraday and traders will have to wait until the following trading day before being able to place an order to open a new position.
  • Futures options contracts that are margined using span and have no open interest may not be able to be traded.  Generally, exchanges that disseminate span files to brokerage firms do so only for contracts that have open interest.  This is done in attempt to reduce the amount of information being sent to firms to include only those contracts where traders are currently maintaining open positions.  Presently, traders will be unable to open new positions in span margined contract in which we have not received margin information from the exchange.
  • Products that are currently being tested for future release to customers may appear in the database.  When this happens, traders can add these instruments to the trading platform as they can for any other tradable product.  Until testing of these products is complete, customers may be able to add market data lines but will not be able to trade these products.