What's a limit order?

What's a limit order and market orders?

When placing an order to buy or sell to close a position, the most commonly used order types are limit orders and market orders. You can choose the order type that best suits your trading needs.

What's a limit order?

A limit order is an order where you set the order quantity and the maximum price you are willing to buy or the minimum price you are willing to sell. When the market price meets your conditions, the system will execute the order at the best available price within your specified limit.Whether a limit order is executed as a maker or taker depends on the price you set, the order quantity, and current market conditions.Example: If the current market price of BTC is 53,000 USDC and you want to buy at a lower price of 52,900 USDC, you can place a limit buy order at 52,900 USDC. Once the market price falls to 52,900 USDC or below, the order will be executed automatically.

When is a limit order charged the maker fee, and when the taker fee?

Applies to order book trading. Placing a limit order doesn't by itself earn you the maker fee. What matters is whether your order rests in the order book before it's matched.

• If your limit price can't be matched when you place the order, your order sits in the order book and waits. When another trader's order matches it later, you're the maker.

• If your limit price can be matched against orders already in the book, your order is filled straight away and you're the taker, even though you placed a limit order. This is what happens if you set a limit buy price at or above the best available sell price, or a limit sell price at or below the best available buy price.

• One large order can be filled in both roles: the part that matches straight away is charged the taker fee, and the part that stays in the book is charged the maker fee when it fills later.

Take-profit, stop-loss and other trigger orders aren't in the order book while they wait. Your order is only sent to the market at the moment your trigger price is reached, so it usually matches against orders already in the book and is charged the taker fee.For the maker and taker rates that apply to your account, see Trading fee rules FAQ.

Why was my limit order only partly filled?

Applies to limit orders on the order book. Your order is matched against the orders available on the other side at your price. If there isn't enough quantity there, only part of your order is filled. The rest stays open and keeps waiting for a match. Your order details show the filled quantity and the remaining quantity, and you can cancel the remaining part at any time.For the same reason, the market price reaching your limit price doesn't mean your order is filled. If the price moves away again before there's enough volume to match you, your order simply stays open.

Where do I find my open limit orders and how do I cancel one?

Applies to limit orders that haven't been filled. Unfilled orders are listed with your open orders on the trading screen, and under your orders in the app. Select an order to see its details or to cancel it. Cancelling an order that hasn't been filled is free, and the funds reserved for it are released back to your available balance.

Can I change the price or quantity of a limit order I've already placed?

Applies to limit orders that haven't been filled. To change the price or the quantity, cancel the order and place a new one with the details you want. Cancelling is free, and the funds reserved for the cancelled order are released to your available balance, so you can use them for the new order. A new order joins the order book at the time you place it, so it's matched according to its own price and its own place in the queue.

Why is my available balance lower than my total balance?

Applies when you have open orders. When you place a limit order, the funds or the crypto that order needs are reserved for it until the order is filled or cancelled. Reserved amounts still count towards your total balance, but they can't be used for another order or for a withdrawal. This is why you can see an insufficient balance message, or an available balance of 0, while you still hold the asset. Check your open orders and cancel the ones you no longer want, and what those orders were holding is released.

Can I cancel an order that has already been filled?

No. Once an order is filled, the trade is complete and can't be reversed. If you want to undo the position, place a new order in the opposite direction. That's a second trade, with its own fill price and its own fees.

Why was my order cancelled automatically without being filled?

Applies to order book trading. Two separate rules can close an order without it being filled, so check which one describes what you saw.Price protection when your order would fill far from the market. Before your order is matched, the price it would fill at is estimated. For a buy order, if that estimated price is higher than the best available sell price × 1.05, the order is fully cancelled. For a sell order, the same happens if the estimated price is lower than the best available buy price × 0.95. Nothing is filled, and no fee is charged. This protects you from filling a long way from the current market when the order book is thin or the price moves suddenly. If it happens, check the order book and place a new order; a limit order priced close to the current book isn't affected. The full rules are in Price limit rules. The price limit on a market order. A market order is only matched within a price limit. Any quantity that can't be filled inside that limit isn't left resting in the order book: it's cancelled. This is why a market order can show as partly filled and then closed, rather than staying open. Place a new order for the remaining quantity if you still want it. See Basic order types. In both cases the order is cancelled by the system under a published rule, and any funds reserved for the cancelled quantity are released back to your available balance.

What's an advanced limit order?

Applies to limit orders on the order book. An advanced limit order is a limit order with an execution instruction attached to it. The instructions you'll commonly see are:

• Post only — your order is accepted only if it goes into the order book as a maker order. If it would be matched straight away, it's cancelled instead of being filled as a taker.

• Fill or kill (FOK) — your order must be filled in full at once, otherwise the whole order is cancelled.

• Immediate or cancel (IOC) — whatever can be filled at once is filled, and the rest is cancelled instead of resting in the order book.

Use the instructions shown in the order type selector on the market you're trading. For an overview of all order types, see How do I trade with different order types?.

What's a market order?

A market order allows you to buy or sell immediately at the best available price in the current market, enabling fast execution.Example: Assume the latest BTC market price is 53,000 USDC. If you want to buy BTC immediately, you can place a market order and enter the total order amount, such as 40 USDC. After placing the order, it will be executed instantly. In a rapidly fluctuating market, the final execution price may not be exactly 53,000 USDC. It will be based on the real-time market price and may be higher or lower than 53,000 USDC.

Why is my execution price different from the price I saw?

Applies to market orders and to the express Buy/Sell flow. The price shown before you confirm is a reference price, not the price you're certain to get. Three things usually explain the difference:

• The spread. The best available buy price and the best available sell price aren't the same. You buy at the sell side and sell at the buy side, so an asset is normally worth slightly less than you paid the moment after you buy it. The spread is wider on markets with less trading activity.

• Order book depth. A market order is filled against the order book price level by price level. A large order can work through several levels, so its average fill price is worse than the price at the top of the book. On markets with little liquidity, even a moderate order can work a long way through the book.

• Fees. Trading fees are charged on top of the fill price.

If the exact price matters to you more than speed, use a limit order: a limit order isn't filled at a worse price than the one you set, though it may not be filled at all.

Why is my trigger order filled at a different price from my trigger price?

Applies to take-profit, stop-loss and other trigger orders. A trigger order isn't in the market until your trigger price is reached. At that moment your order is sent to the market and filled at the prices available then. In a fast-moving market the fill price can end up some distance from your trigger price. Setting a limit price on your trigger order limits how far the fill price can move away from what you expect, at the cost of the order possibly not being filled at all.

Why hasn't the price of a market changed for a long time?

Applies to spot markets. Your spot order is matched on the order book of the trading pair you selected, and the price shown for that market is the price of the last trade that took place on it. If nothing is traded on that pair for a while, the price stays where it is, even when other markets are moving. This isn't a fault, and it doesn't mean your account is restricted. A price you see on another platform, or on a different pair for the same asset, comes from a different market with its own order book.

Which currency am I trading against?

Some markets are quoted in USD rather than in one specific stablecoin. The price you see is the USD price of that market, and a separate control on the order panel decides which currency your side of the trade actually uses: Trade with when you buy — the currency your order spends — and Receive when you sell — the currency your proceeds are paid in.This is why you may not find a separately listed pair for every stablecoin combination. Selecting the USD market and setting the currency you want to trade with achieves the same result: your order is matched on the shared USD order book, and your side of the trade is settled in the currency you selected.The markets that work this way, and the currencies you can select on them, are shown on the order panel for the market you're on. Use what the panel shows rather than a fixed list, because it depends on the market and on your account. For more on how the shared order book works, see Unified USD orderbook FAQ.

Will my crypto be sold automatically if the price falls?

No. Crypto you buy on the spot market stays in your account until you sell it. Spot holdings don't expire. Your crypto is only sold automatically if you've set an order to do that — for example a limit sell order, or a take-profit or stop-loss order — and that order's conditions are met.

Do I lose money if the price falls after I buy?

While you hold the asset, the quantity you own doesn't change; what changes is its value measured in your reference currency. A gain or a loss is only realised when you sell.

Why do I get an error when I try to sell?

Check three things on the market you're selling on: that the quantity you're selling isn't larger than your available balance, that it meets the minimum order size shown on the order panel for that market, and that the asset isn't reserved by an order you've already placed. Crypto reserved by an unfilled order isn't available to sell until you cancel that order.

How do I sell part of my spot holding to take profit?

Spot holdings don't have a partial take-profit setting of their own. Place a separate sell order — a limit sell order, or a trigger order — for the quantity you want to sell, and keep the rest.