diff --git a/piker/brokers/ib.py b/piker/brokers/ib.py
index 788bc829..5cf7d2f0 100644
--- a/piker/brokers/ib.py
+++ b/piker/brokers/ib.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ Interactive Brokers API backend.
 Note the client runs under an ``asyncio`` loop (since ``ib_insync`` is
 built on it) and thus actor aware API calls must be spawned with
 ``infected_aio==True``.
+
 """
 from contextlib import asynccontextmanager as acm
 from dataclasses import asdict
@@ -547,10 +548,12 @@ class Client:
         # existing order so ask the client to create a new one (which it
         # seems to do by allocating an int counter - collision prone..)
         reqid: int = None,
-    ) -> int:
-        """Place an order and return integer request id provided by client.
 
-        """
+    ) -> int:
+        '''
+        Place an order and return integer request id provided by client.
+
+        '''
         try:
             contract = self._contracts[symbol]
         except KeyError:
@@ -1608,7 +1611,7 @@ async def handle_order_requests(
 
     global _accounts2clients
 
-    # request_msg: dict
+    request_msg: dict
     async for request_msg in ems_order_stream:
         log.info(f'Received order request {request_msg}')
 
diff --git a/piker/clearing/_ems.py b/piker/clearing/_ems.py
index 1567f795..10b1b18d 100644
--- a/piker/clearing/_ems.py
+++ b/piker/clearing/_ems.py
@@ -521,7 +521,8 @@ async def translate_and_relay_brokerd_events(
     router: Router,
 
 ) -> AsyncIterator[dict]:
-    '''Trades update loop - receive updates from ``brokerd`` trades
+    '''
+    Trades update loop - receive updates from ``brokerd`` trades
     endpoint, convert to EMS response msgs, transmit **only** to
     ordering client(s).
 
diff --git a/piker/clearing/_messages.py b/piker/clearing/_messages.py
index e7fadccd..ec5f4afb 100644
--- a/piker/clearing/_messages.py
+++ b/piker/clearing/_messages.py
@@ -155,8 +155,11 @@ class BrokerdOrder(BaseModel):
 
 
 class BrokerdOrderAck(BaseModel):
-    '''Immediate reponse to a brokerd order request providing
-    the broker specifci unique order id.
+    '''
+    Immediate reponse to a brokerd order request providing the broker
+    specific unique order id so that the EMS can associate this
+    (presumably differently formatted broker side ID) with our own
+    ``.oid`` (which is a uuid4).
 
     '''
     name: str = 'ack'
@@ -203,7 +206,8 @@ class BrokerdStatus(BaseModel):
 
 
 class BrokerdFill(BaseModel):
-    '''A single message indicating a "fill-details" event from the broker
+    '''
+    A single message indicating a "fill-details" event from the broker
     if avaiable.
 
     '''
@@ -227,9 +231,11 @@ class BrokerdFill(BaseModel):
 
 
 class BrokerdError(BaseModel):
-    '''Optional error type that can be relayed to emsd for error handling.
+    '''
+    Optional error type that can be relayed to emsd for error handling.
 
     This is still a TODO thing since we're not sure how to employ it yet.
+
     '''
     name: str = 'error'
     oid: str