A market order (Market order) is an order to buy or sell cryptocurrency that is executed immediately at the best price available in the order book at the moment it arrives. Unlike pending orders, a market order does not set a specific price: the trader specifies only the volume and direction of the trade, and the exchange matches it with opposing offers.
Execution occurs through opposing limit orders. For a market buy order to be executed, there must be limit sell orders in the book. Accordingly, a market sell order requires the presence of limit buy orders. If the order volume is large, it may be executed across several price levels, gradually "eating up" the available liquidity.
Features of market orders
- instant execution — the main priority is speed, not price;
- dependence on liquidity: with a "thin" order book slippage is possible;
- convenience for entering a trade or quickly exiting a position.
A market order is appropriate when it is more important to guarantee that the trade is completed than to achieve a precise price. On illiquid pairs you should consider the risk of slippage, when the resulting average price differs noticeably from the expected one.
