Just to clarify on positive/negative limits on a cursor: if the limit number is negative, then the database will return that number of results and close the cursor. No further results for that query can be fetched. If the limit is positive you can leave the cursor open to receive further results, hence the option for both. (see <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/a/11995057/1148648" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/a/11995057/1148648</a>)