Market Orders vs Limit Orders

When it comes to using the Coinmetro Exchange platform, you can trade cryptocurrencies by placing either a market order or a limit order. So, what is the difference between the two?

Market Orders

Market orders are the most basic buy and sell trades, where a user places a trade order which then will be filled at the price this is currently going for in the book. When placing a market order, you are opting for whatever price the asset is currently going for, so the trade will be filled rather quickly. For example, if placing a market sell order, this means that the asset will sell for whatever a buyer is bidding for in the books. Please be mindful that the price displayed before executing the order may not be the price that your asset sells for.

However, please note that Coinmetro offers the option to apply price protection on market orders when checking the 'min/max price' box (shown below), which will ensure that your market order is not filled below (or above for buy orders) the specified price. If you would like more fine-grained control of your market order you can use this setting.

Price Warnings

Following our recent platform update, our effort to improve your trading experience is continuing with the introduction of a new Price Warning feature. The Slippage Warning Dialog is there to show you in real time if any of your orders could lose more than 3% due to slippage. This is an important component of your trading arsenal, as it will warn you immediately before confirming orders. Use this to your advantage, so you can be aware, act fast and stay on top of the markets.

The Price Warning Dialog shows up if the user submits an order which could lose more than 3% due to slippage. The mechanism works like this:

• No warning is shown when slippage is under 3.00%

• It shows a green warning from 3.00% to 4.99%

• It shows an orange warning from 5.00% to 9.99%

• It shows a red warning from 10.00%+

• The calculation takes the size of the order into account and adjusts the slippage warning percentage accordingly

• It will appear when placing a new market/limit order or editing an open order

• It will appear on both the Exchange and Margin platforms.

What does it not do:

• Take spread into account (for now)

• It will not appear when doubling or closing a % of Active Positions on Margin (for now).

Please note that Coinmetro is not responsible for any slippage (big or small) when the order is executed. When placing a market order, you are doing so at your own risk. If you wish to avoid slippage, we recommend placing a limit order.

Limit Orders

Limit orders are advantageous as they give users more control over the buying and selling prices of their trades. When placing an order to buy an asset, a maximum acceptable purchase price must be selected. When selling an asset, a minimum acceptable sale price must be selected.

A limit order when buying an asset ensures the user that the buy price will not exceed any higher than the amount selected. When placing a sell limit order, this of course would mean that the sale price would not execute any lower than the amount selected.

This gives users more control over their orders placed, however, please be mindful that limit orders are two-sided, meaning that another user would need to either purchase or buy at your specified price in order for it to fill.