1. The five order types you need
Every order trades off speed against price control. Orders execute against theorder book, the list of open buy (bid) and sell (ask) orders. Learn these five before anything else.
| Order type | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Market | Executes immediately against the best orders in the book. You pay the taker fee and accept whatever price the book offers. | Small sizes in liquid markets, or when getting out matters more than the price. |
| Limit | Rests in the order book at your price or better. Usually charged the lower maker fee if it does not fill immediately. | Default choice for planned entries and exits. Accept that it may not fill. |
| Stop-loss (stop-market) | Becomes a market order once the trigger price is touched. It fills, but not necessarily at the trigger price. | Limiting downside on an open position when an exit matters more than the exact price. |
| Stop-limit | Becomes a limit order at a set price once triggered. Protects the price but may not fill if the market gaps through. | Less liquid pairs where a market fill could be very poor. Accept the risk of no exit. |
| OCO (one-cancels-the-other) | Pairs two orders, typically a take-profit limit and a stop-loss. When one fills, the other is cancelled. | Defining both exit points of a trade in advance so you do not have to watch the screen. |
2. Choosing the right order
A simple rule set: enter with limits, because you planned the entry and can wait for it.Protect with stops: every position gets a stop-lossthat you set before entering, not afterwards. Exit with OCO when you know both your target and your invalidation level. Use market orders only when the size is small relative to theliquidity, or when getting out quickly matters more than the price. The stop distance and your account risk together determine the position size. Use theposition size calculator instead of guessing.
Remember: A stop-loss is an instruction, not insurance. A stop-market order will exit you but not at a guaranteed price. A stop-limit order guarantees a price but not an exit.
3. The fee layers
Fee schedules show only the first two rows of this table. The rest you have to work out yourself.
| Fee | Meaning | Visible upfront? |
|---|---|---|
| Maker fee | Charged when your order adds liquidity to the book (a resting limit order). | Yes - fee schedule |
| Taker fee | Charged when your order removes liquidity (market orders, crossing limits). Usually higher than the maker fee. | Yes - fee schedule |
| Spread | Gap between best bid and best ask. You pay roughly half of it on every market order. | Partly - visible in the book |
| Slippage | Extra price impact when your order is larger than the liquidity at the best price. | No - only after execution |
| Withdrawal fee | Flat fee per withdrawal, per coin and network. Can exceed trading fees on small amounts. | Yes - often on a separate page |
| Instant-buy markup | Simple "Buy" buttons often add a percentage fee plus a wider spread on top of the market price. | Rarely itemised |
Watch out for instant-buy screens in particular. Brokerage-style apps often charge a percentage fee and quote a price worse than the order book. The same platform usually offers an "advanced" or "pro" view with ordinary maker/taker fees. Compare venues with thefee comparison tool.
4. Worked example: a $10,000 round trip
This example buys $10,000 of an asset and sells it later at the same price, so there is no gain and no loss from the price itself. Everything you lose is cost. It includes one withdrawal of $15. The rates are illustrative and do not belong to any specific exchange. Check the live values in eachexchange profile.
| Execution | Fee per side | Spread per side | Round trip + withdrawal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limit in / limit out (maker 0.16%) | $16 | $0 | $47 (0.47%) |
| Market in / market out (taker 0.26% + half-spread 0.05%) | $26 | $5 | $77 (0.77%) |
| Instant buy / instant sell (1.5% fee + 1.0% spread markup) | $150 | $100 | $515 (5.15%) |
The same trade costs between $47 and $515, depending only on how it is executed. If you repeat it 20 times a month with market orders, costs reach about $1,540 per month before a single winning trade. That figure ignores slippage, which grows with size and shrinks with liquidity.
5. When this fails
Gaps: in a crash or during an outage, stops can fill far below the trigger price, and stop-limits may not fill at all. Thin books: a market order on an illiquid pair can walk through several price levels. Changing fee tiers: promotional "zero-fee" pairs often hide a wider spread. Exchange downtime: orders stored on the exchange do not help if the matching engine is paused, and peak volatility is exactly when outages tend to happen.
Risk: Low fees do not make a venue safe. A cheap exchange with frozen withdrawals is the most expensive one you can use. Check licence, incidents and proof of reserves before you compare fees.