Settlement & T+2
When you place and fill an order, the trade is agreed instantly — but the actual exchange of cash and securities happens a couple of days later. That gap is settlement.
What "T+2" means
EGX equities, ETFs, and government bonds settle T+2: two business days after the trade date (T). If you buy on a Sunday, settlement lands on the following Tuesday, skipping any trading holidays. Corporate bonds settle T+0 (same day).
The market clock and trading calendar know the business days, so the settlement date is computed for you — GET /v1/calendar returns the settlement_date for each trading day, and a filled order's contract note carries the trade and settlement dates.
Settled vs. unsettled cash
Because settlement takes time, cash has states:
- Settled — fully cleared; available to trade or withdraw.
- Reserved — held against a working order (the price plus a fee ceiling).
- Unsettled — proceeds of a sale that have not yet settled.
The platform tracks these on a double-entry ledger so a buy can only draw on settled cash. This is why an order can be rejected with INSUFFICIENT_SETTLED_CASH even when a recent sale "looks" like it covered it — the sale's proceeds have not settled yet. See Funding.
Why it matters for each asset class
| Class | Settlement |
|---|---|
| Equity / ETF | T+2 |
| Government bond / treasury bill | T+2 |
| Corporate bond | T+0 |
| Fund subscription / redemption | per fund (settlement_days) |
Settlement is a market-structure fact, not a strategy. Caravan enforces it so your integration never has to compute settlement windows by hand.