diff --git a/skills/fomo-kernel/engine/market_data.py b/skills/fomo-kernel/engine/market_data.py
index f5d3c0ed..f81555dd 100644
--- a/skills/fomo-kernel/engine/market_data.py
+++ b/skills/fomo-kernel/engine/market_data.py
@@ -822,9 +822,31 @@ def to_price_feed_envelope(bundle, currency_by_ticker=None, instruments_only=Tru
 
     ``currency_by_ticker`` is required for any ticker that is not USD:
     ``price_feed.currency_conflicts`` compares this against the trades, and
-    guessing here would either invent a conflict or hide one. Returns ``None``
-    when the bundle priced nothing — there is no such thing as an envelope with
-    no prices, and ``parse`` rightly refuses one.
+    guessing here would either invent a conflict or hide one.
+
+    **Returns ``None`` when no instrument row survived** — nothing the bundle
+    priced was both inside this envelope's scope (a benchmark is outside it
+    unless ``instruments_only`` is false, so a bundle whose only successes are
+    benchmarks yields no envelope) and reconcilable onto one split basis by the
+    rule above. Stated as one condition rather than a list of causes on purpose:
+    the claim this paragraph replaces went stale by enumerating. That is this
+    lane's own rule and not a restatement of what ``price_feed.parse`` will
+    accept: this envelope is defined over instrument closes and dates itself
+    from them, since ``as_of`` is ``max(row date)`` read off the rows themselves,
+    so with no rows there is no observed session to declare one from. Nothing is
+    concealed by returning ``None`` — a dropped instrument is already recorded as
+    a gap on the bundle before this point, so the coverage fact outlives the
+    envelope, and the caller degrades to the pre-#605 unpriced answer rather than
+    raising into a review.
+
+    One consequence worth naming, because it is not obvious from the return
+    value: a currency rate this bundle *did* resolve is discarded along with it,
+    as ``fx`` is assembled below this point. A book whose held tickers all fail
+    to price while its currency pair resolves therefore reaches ``consider``
+    rateless, even though the bundle counts as ``usable`` on the strength of that
+    very rate. Whether such a rate should be able to travel on its own is a
+    question about this lane, open at the time of writing; it is not answered by
+    what ``parse`` does or does not accept on the other side.
     """
     currency_by_ticker = currency_by_ticker or {}
     skipped = []
diff --git a/tests/test_market_data.py b/tests/test_market_data.py
index 7d2cffd8..1c09d141 100644
--- a/tests/test_market_data.py
+++ b/tests/test_market_data.py
@@ -897,9 +897,12 @@ def test_i_the_declared_currency_is_the_callers_not_a_default():
 
 
 def test_i_a_bundle_that_priced_nothing_yields_no_envelope():
-    """`parse` rightly refuses an envelope with no prices, so the builder must
-    return None rather than hand one over: the caller then degrades to the
-    pre-#605 answer instead of raising into a review."""
+    """This envelope is defined over instrument closes and dates itself from
+    them — `as_of` is `max(row date)` — so with no rows there is no observed
+    session to declare one from, and the builder returns None rather than hand
+    over an envelope it cannot date: the caller then degrades to the pre-#605
+    answer instead of raising into a review. That is this lane's own rule, not a
+    claim about which envelopes `price_feed.parse` accepts."""
     with provider() as p:
         bundle = p.resolve(_request(instruments=["DEAD"], benchmarks=[], currencies=[]))
     assert market_data.to_price_feed_envelope(bundle) is None