Limit Buy/Sell
A limit order is an order that you place on the order book with a specific limit price. You determine the limit price. So when you place a limit order, the trade will only be executed if the market price reaches your limit price (or better). Therefore, you may use limit orders to buy at a lower price or to sell at a higher price than the current market price.
Unlike market orders, where trades are executed instantly at the current market price, limit orders are placed on the order book and are not executed immediately, meaning that you save on fees as a market maker.
Generally, unless you want to buy or sell a coin immediately, you should use a limit order to save on fees.
Shown here is the BTC/USDT order book.
The red numbers represent sellers, and the green numbers represent buyers. For each price bracket (example 16,839.1 USDT) there is an available amount (0.45653332 BTC), and a total in BTC is displayed. Remember the shown example is based on BTC/USDT.
When you make an order, it will appear here. Your order will go up and down the order book until it is completed. You can cancel it if it does not complete, or when it is partially complete in the ‘Open Orders‘ section.
If you want to make a market order but save on the market order fees, a little trick you can use is to click on either the red or green number second closest to the middle, this will fill the price in the spot limit order form. Then fill out the ‘Total’ or ‘Amount’ field and click ‘Buy’ or ‘Sell’.
This is what the BTC/USDT limit trading field looks like.
Here you can enter the price you wish to sell/buy at, then select the amount you want to buy or sell in BTC.
You can also select a percentage of (in this case) USDT to spend on the order to buy BTC, or if you are selling BTC, the percentage of BTC you want to sell.
The percentage is based on how many coins you hold.
This is an example of the filled in fields. Now I would either buy 0.009 BTC at the price of 16800 USDT or sell 0.009 BTC at the price of 16900 USDT.
Once you are ready, click the ‘Buy‘ or ‘Sell‘ button, and your order will appear in the order book and in ‘Open Orders‘, where you can track its completion. Or cancel the order altogether.
When should you use a limit order?
It would be best if you used limit orders when you are not in a rush to buy or sell. Unlike market orders, limit orders do not execute instantly, so you need to wait until your ask/bid price is reached. Limit orders allow you to get better selling and buying prices, and they are usually placed on significant support and resistance levels. You may also split your buy/sell order into many smaller limit orders, so you get a cost-average effect.