Spot trading basics
How the Exchange works, and what happens when you place an order.
Spot trading is buying or selling a coin for immediate settlement at the price you agree. There is no borrowing and no leverage — you can only trade what you actually hold.
Trading pairs
Everything trades as a pair, for example BTC/USDT. The first coin is what you are buying or selling; the second is what you are paying with or receiving. To buy BTC with USDT you need USDT in your spot wallet.
Placing an order
- Open the Exchange and select a pair.
- Choose Buy or Sell.
- Choose an order type.
- Enter your price (where the order type needs one) and your amount — or drag the slider to use a percentage of your available balance.
- Check the total and the rows above the button: Avbl (your available balance), Max Buy or Max Sell (the most this order can be at your price), the minimum order value and the fee. Then submit.
What happens next
A market order fills right away against the best available prices. A limit order sits in the order book until the market reaches your price — it may fill immediately, gradually, partially, or not at all. Unfilled orders stay under Open Orders until they fill or you cancel them.
If you just want to swap one coin for another without any of this, Convert is simpler.
Related
- Order types explained Limit, Market, Stop Limit, Stop Market and Trailing Stop — what each one does.
- Trailing stop orders A stop that follows the price and triggers when it reverses by your chosen percentage.
- Take Profit and Stop Loss (TP/SL) Attach a take-profit and a stop-loss to a limit order in one go.
- Slippage Tolerance on market orders Cap how far from the current price a market order may fill.
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