Disclosed Quantity
Disclosed Quantity (DQ) is the portion of a large order that a participant chooses to display publicly in the exchange's order book, with the remainder hidden as a reserve — a mechanism available on NSE and BSE that allows institutional traders to execute large positions while limiting their visible footprint.
Disclosed Quantity is the Indian exchange terminology for the visible portion of what is internationally called an iceberg order. NSE and BSE both provide DQ functionality as a standard order attribute available to all registered members, though it is primarily used by institutional participants executing large orders.
NSE's trading rules specify that the Disclosed Quantity must be at least a specified minimum fraction of the total order quantity — historically set at 10 percent — and must meet a minimum absolute lot size. These requirements ensure that the mechanism is used for genuine large-order management rather than for creating effectively invisible orders that could distort the appearance of market liquidity.
The DQ parameter is entered at the time of order placement. A fund manager placing a sell order for five lakh shares with a Disclosed Quantity of fifty thousand shares will see fifty thousand shares appear in NSE's order book at the specified price. Once those fifty thousand shares are fully executed, the system immediately and automatically replenishes the visible quantity from the undisclosed reserve with another fifty thousand shares. This continues until the entire five-lakh-share order is filled or the order is cancelled.
From a regulatory and market integrity perspective, Disclosed Quantity orders occupy a grey area: they conceal relevant information from other market participants, which could be seen as reducing market transparency. SEBI and the exchanges permit them because their alternative — forcing institutions to reveal their full order size — would create even greater market impact and potentially deter large investors from participating directly in the exchange-based order book, pushing activity into off-market channels.
The practical implication for other traders is that Level 2 order book data understates actual pending liquidity at price levels where iceberg orders rest. Sophisticated participants account for this by observing whether visible supply or demand is repeatedly and quickly refreshed after execution — a tell-tale sign of a resting iceberg. For retail participants, the Disclosed Quantity mechanism reinforces why visible order book depth should be treated as a lower bound on actual available liquidity rather than a precise measure.