In order to encourage a responsible attitude towards the use of the system's resources by participants Eurex defines limits for the number of transactions generated on a participants' front-end which can be transmitted to the Eurex back-end.

Every "request" transaction which generates a response to the user (e.g. Order/Quote-Add, Change, Delete, and Inquiries etc.) counts as a transaction. Product-specific limits (the number of transactions per product, per exchange day, per participant) and non-product-specific limits (number of non-product-specific transactions per exchange day, per participant) are defined. In addition separate limits are set for the number of Mass Quote transactions that can be generated as part of the product-specific limits. Special attention should be paid to the fact the number of Mass Quote transactions are a subset of the total number of product specific transactions. As a result these transactions will be included in the sum of all transactions for a participant in a particular product.

Participants are potentially liable for additional fees if the number of transactions entered into the Eurex® system during one day exceeds any of the limits set in each category.

In Report RPTCB065 (System Transaction Overview) exchange participants receive an overview of the number of transactions that were entered in each category during the exchange day, broken down per product, where appropriate, and the additional fees liable due to exceeding any limit.

Report RPTCB068 (Transaction Mix Report) provides exchange participants with detailed information about their transaction behavior, broken down by product, originating MISS or Session ID and individual trader.

Participants who use quote machines or order routing programs should pay particular attention to the transaction limits and the fees charged for exceeding them. Quote machines and similar applications have to be linked to the Exchange system via the Enhanced Transaction Solution or VALUES interfaces. Moreover, Eurex management must approve the use of such applications.

Excess transaction fees which occur as a result of excessive system usage are not charged automatically. In the event of transaction limits being exceeded, Eurex will investigate the causes on an individual case by case basis and contact participants directly before charging the associated fees. In justified cases, the fees may be waived. In the event of sustained violation of transaction limits, Eurex will charge the excess transaction fees to the respective participant.

For futures the number of transactions available per participant and per exchange day is dependent on the number of trades executed by the participant in the product concerned.

Independent of their trading activity, each participant has a minimum number of transactions (the 'floor') available each day in each futures product. In addition, by means of multiplying a product-specific parameter (the 'factor') by the number of trades executed in a particular product, a second daily total for a participant available transactions per product is calculated.

The number of transactions for standard orders submitted on Eurex Exchange’s new trading architecture is limited to 5 percent of the existing valid transaction limits.

Extended transaction limits for standard orders

The actual transaction limit (TL) for each individual participant, per product per exchange day is the larger of the two numbers, i.e. TL = the greater of (number of executed trades in product XYZ times XYZ 'factor') or ('floor' for product XYZ).

Currently the factor for all futures products is 6 and the floor is 200,000.
Example:

• EURO STOXX 50® Futures (FESX); Participants executed trades in FESX on a particular day = 40,000.
  
• Transaction limit on FESX for the participant on that day = Max (40,000 * 6; 200,000)
  = Max (240,000; 200,000)   
  = 240,000