Understanding the order types

On the order (or buy/sell) panel, you can place the following order types. 

  • A market order executes immediately at the current best available market price.

  • A limit order lets you set a minimum price for the order to execute.

  • A stop-limit order lets you specify the stop price for an order to execute. If the market order price falls to your stop price, your order will trigger a sell.

  • A bracket order lets you buy/sell with a limit price while mitigating potential losses.

For crypto/crypto and crypto/fiat trading pairs available in your region, see the Coinbase Advanced page for the most up-to-date market pair information. See the Market Information page to learn more about order minimums and maximums.

Market order

A market order is an order that executes immediately at the current market price. Market orders cannot be cancelled because they are filled immediately. Market orders may be partially filled at several prices; each part of your order will be shown in the Order panel below the Price Chart.

  1. From a web browser or the mobile app, select a market pair (a crypto/crypto or crypto/fiat trading pair).

  2. Choose the Buy or Sell tab and select the Market button.

  3. Input or use the slider to specify the size of your order.

  4. Confirm the order.

Keep in mind:

  • Market orders are always taker orders because your order is being executed immediately and you’re taking liquidity out of the market. 

  • There is no guarantee that a market order will be filled at the buy or sell price you set.

  • Coinbase will introduce a 10% market protection point on market orders placed for non-stable pairs. Market orders that move the price in excess of 10% will stop executing and return a partial fill. For example, a market buy submitted when the last trade price is $4,000 will only fill at price levels below $4,400. Protection points help prevent large orders from causing more than 10% slippage.

  • Market orders placed for stable pairs will have a 1% protection point.

Limit order

A limit order is a buy or sell order that executes at the minimum price you set or better. Limit orders also feature enhanced order options like expiration and execution instructions. For a buy limit order, your maximum price—also known as the limit price—is what you’ll pay to purchase an asset. For a sell limit order, your order will execute at your limit price or higher.

  1. From a web browser or the mobile app, select a market pair (a crypto/crypto or crypto/fiat trading pair).

  2. Choose the Buy or Sell tab and select the Limit button. 

  3. Input or use the slider to specify the size of your order.

  4. Select your order execution and expiration instructions from the dropdown menu.

  5. Confirm the order.

Additionally, you can choose one of the shortcuts to quickly set the price of your limit order:

  • MID sets your order to the mid-market price for the asset

  • BID sets your order to the current market bid price for the asset

  • 1% or 5% specifies how far you want your order to be from the most competitive price on the book

Execution options

Select one of these options to specify how you want your order to be filed. 

  • Post only will ensure that your limit order is posted to the order book and sits on the order book to be charged maker fees if it is filled. If any part of the order is executed immediately due to its price when arriving at the matching engine, the entire order will be rejected. This is useful for ensuring that an order is not subject to taker fees, if desired.

If you do not enable Post Only, any part of an order that is at a price that executes immediately will be charged taker fees. Additionally, any remainder of the order will remain on the order book and will be charged maker fees, if filled.

  • Allow Taker will allow the order to be executed regardless of whether it crosses the spread to fill an existing order. A spread is the difference between the buying and selling price of an asset. If any part of the order crosses the spread, that portion will be assessed according to the taker fee rate.

Expiration options

Expiration options, also known as time-in-force instructions, allow you specify how long an order will run. 

  • Good 'Til Canceled: The order will be placed on the order book and remain valid until you cancel it

  • Good ‘Til Time: The order will be placed on the order book and remain valid until a certain time is reached or until you cancel it

  • Immediate or Cancel: The order will be placed and if it is not immediately filled, it will automatically be cancelled and removed from the order book

Stop-limit order

A stop-limit order allows you to automatically place a limit order to buy or sell when an asset’s price reaches a specified value, known as the stop price. This order type helps traders protect profits, limit losses, and initiate new positions.

  1. From a web browser, select a market pair (the crypto/crypto or crypto/fiat trading pair).

  2. Choose the Buy or Sell tab and select the Stop Limit button.

  3. Specify the Stop Price and Limit Price at which the order should be triggered.

  4. Confirm the order.

A stop-limit order will automatically post a limit order at the limit price when the stop price is triggered. Note that your stop order will be triggered instantly if the stop price you specified was already met.

  • Good 'Til Canceled (GTC): This order will be placed on the order book and remain valid until you cancel it

  • Good ‘Til Time (GTT): This order will be placed on the order book and remain valid until a certain time is reached or until you cancel it

  • Good ’Til Date (GTD): This order will be placed on the order book and remain valid until a certain date is reached or until you cancel it. Note, if the market is closed on that date then the last trade date prior will be used

  • Immediate or Cancel (IOC): This order will be placed on the order book and must be executed immediately. Any portion of an IOC order that cannot be filled immediately will be canceled

Bracket order

Bracket order is an order type that allows buy/sell with a limit price while mitigating potential losses in volatile markets. A single SELL order can specify the limit price (in quote currency) for momentum trading strategies, and a trigger price is used to automatically trigger a sale to reduce risk exposure in case the market moves against you.

Note: As soon as a fill occurs for the order at one of the specified price levels, the other side is automatically disabled. Execution of downside protection is not guaranteed during high market volatility.

Note that there are different rules for bracket orders on derivatives markets.

  1. From a web browser, select a market pair (the crypto/crypto or crypto/fiat trading pair).

  2. Choose the Buy or Sell tab and select the Bracket order button.

  3. Specify the Limit Price to encode the buy/sell and a Stop Trigger to specify when the downside protection should be triggered.

  4. Confirm the order.

Execution options

Bracket orders can be only executed with the following execution options:

  •  Allow Taker will allow the order to be executed regardless of whether it crosses the spread to fill an existing order. A spread is the difference between the buying and selling price of an asset. If any part of the order crosses the spread, that portion will be assessed according to the taker fee rate.

Time in Force

Time-in-force instructions allow you specify how long an order will run. Bracket orders can only be created with the following time-in-force:

  • Good 'Til Canceled (GTC): The order will be placed on the order book and remain valid until you cancel it

  • Good ’Til Date (GTD): This order will be placed on the order book and remain valid until a certain date is reached or until you cancel it. Note, if the market is closed on that date then the last trade date prior will be used

To give an example, consider the current price of BTC to be $60,000. Alice believes the price of BTC will go up, and wants to sell their 1 BTC to lock in a profit at $70,000. At the same time, Alice is  concerned that the market might move against them, and they might lose all of their investment. If the price of BTC drops to 50,000 Alice wants to sell and invest in other assets before losing more of their investment.

When the price is $60,000, Alice buys 1 BTC, then creates a Bracket order to sell with a limit price of $70,000 and a stop trigger of $50,000. If the price of BTC goes up to $70,000 and Alice’s offer at $70,000 executes, Alice has made $10,000. 

If the market price instead drops and BTC trades below $50,000 without any fills, then Alice’s $70,000 sell limit is automatically re-priced as a stop limit order to sell between $50,000 and $47,500 (since the downside protection is set to $50,000*95%). This order limits Alice’s loss to $12,500 from the original market price at order entry.

Like limit orders, Bracket orders allow you to set a price to buy or sell an asset. However, when the market unexpectedly moves away from your limit price, the additional trigger price provides protection to reduce loss exposure (e.g., no worse than 5% off the specified trigger price). Bracket orders can be a tool to help mitigate risk in a volatile market environment.

The stop trigger is a price level (in quote currency) at which the system will try to exit the position on the user’s behalf. When the market moves to hit the stop trigger, a stop limit order is automatically set up with a limit price 5% higher than the stop trigger for BUYS and 5% lower for SELLS , mitigating larger losses.

First, if the Bracket order has fills at the specified limit price, it will remain unchanged on the book even if the price drops to hit the stop trigger. 

Assuming no fills at the limit price, in most cases where the market price hits the stop trigger, the stop limit order will execute given the 5% buffer. However, in periods of extreme market volatility, should the price of the asset drop by more than 5% before the sell order is re-priced, the new stop order will not execute and no assets are exchanged. 

  • When creating a Bracket order, a limit order with the specified limit price is created and rests on the order book

  • When the market price drops and trades at the stop trigger, the original limit order is re-priced as a stop limit order with the user specified trigger and an aggressive stop limit price of within 5% of the trigger (e.g. a SELL with a trigger of $50,000 will have a stop limit price of $47,500; a BUY with a trigger of $50,000 will have a stop limit price of $52,500)

  • If the market moves to the initial limit price and your order starts filling, the stop trigger is automatically disabled 

  • Conversely, if the market trades at the specified stop trigger price, the initial limit order is no longer active

  • Both the upside limit order and the downside stop limit order are validated according to standard trading rules.

Locations and trading pairs

For the trading pairs available in your country, see the market pairs listed in the Coinbase Advanced view. Some countries have access to crypto/fiat trading pairs while other countries can only access crypto/crypto trading pairs. Check out this help article for availability of crypto/crypto trading pairs by country.

Trading rules

Coinbase Markets is Coinbase's set of limit order books that are accessed by clients through the Coinbase trading platform. The Coinbase Markets Trading Rules governs orders placed via these trading platforms.