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Types of Trading Orders in Crypto

Mar 2, 2023

We will soon be releasing limit orders for Integral SIZE.

There are several types of trading orders that can be used to buy or sell crypto in the markets. Here is a brief explanation of each type of orders available in the crypto markets.

Market Order

A market order is an order to buy or sell a cryptocurrency at the current market price. This type of order is filled immediately, and it guarantees that the order will be executed but not at a specific price. Market orders are useful when you need to buy or sell a cryptocurrency quickly and don't care about the price you get.

Example: If you want to sell Ethereum as soon as possible, you would place a market order to sell ETH.

Limit Order

A limit order is an order to buy or sell a cryptocurrency at a specific price or better. This type of order is not filled immediately, and it only gets filled if the cryptocurrency reaches the specified price. Limit orders are useful when you want to buy or sell a cryptocurrency at a specific price and are willing to wait for the price to be reached.

Example: If you want to buy Bitcoin for no more than $50,000, you would place a limit order to buy BTC at $50,000.

TWAP Orders

A Time-Weighted Average Price (TWAP) order is an order to buy or sell a cryptocurrency at the average price over a specified time period. This type of order is useful when you want to trade a large amount of cryptocurrency over a period of time without affecting the market price. The TWAP algorithm breaks up the order into smaller pieces and executes them over the specified time period to minimize the impact on the market.

This is the type of order offered by Integral SIZE, which uses a 30-minute TWAP to execute trades with no price impact.

Example: If you want to buy a large amount of Bitcoin over the course of a day, you would place a TWAP order to buy BTC at set intervals during the day.

Stop Order (or Stop-Loss Order)

A stop order is an order to sell a cryptocurrency when it reaches a certain price. This type of order is used to limit potential losses on a cryptocurrency position. Stop orders become market orders when the stop price is reached, so the order is filled at the current market price, which may be different from the stop price.

Example: If you own Bitcoin that you bought for $60,000 and you don't want to lose more than 10%, you would place a stop order to sell BTC at $54,000.

Stop-Limit Order

A stop-limit order is a combination of a stop order and a limit order. This type of order becomes a limit order, not a market order, when the stop price is reached. This means that the order will only be filled at the specified price or better, but there is no guarantee that the order will be filled.

Example: If you want to sell Ethereum if the price falls below a certain level but you also want to ensure that you get a certain price or better, you would place a stop-limit order.