Market vs. Limit Orders

Market Orders

A market order is an order to buy or sell an asset immediately at the current quoted price. When placing a market order, a trader prioritizes execution speed over price control. Market orders will always execute immediately, even if the execution price differs from what the trader expected due to market conditions (e.g. slippage).

Limit Orders

A limit order is an order to buy or sell an asset at a specific price or better. The trader sets the maximum price they are willing to pay (for buy orders) or the minimum price they are willing to accept (for sell orders). A limit order will only execute if the market reaches the trader’s specified price, which offers more control but no guarantee of immediate execution.

Comparison Matrix

	Market Orders	Limit Orders
Speed of Execution	Immediately. Market orders execute at the current quoted price, unless the order is rejected due to a slippage limit.	It depends. A limit order may execute quickly if the market moves towards the trader's set limit price, or never if the market price never reaches the trader's set limit price.
Level of Control over Execution Price	Low. Traders can set a slippage limit to reject orders with a quote that deviates too significantly from the mark price, but can not set a specific entry price.	High. Traders can set a specific price that they're willing to open their orders at, which only execute when the quoted price reaches that level.
Inputs	Underlying, buy or sell, sizing, optional slippage limit, optional TP/SL. To place a market order, traders must specify the underlying they wish to trade, whether they want to open a buy (long) or sell (short) order, and the size of the order. Traders can also optionally specify a slippage limit and take profit/stop loss prices with their order.	Underlying, buy or sell, sizing, limit price, optional TP/SL. To place a limit order, traders must specify the underlying they wish to trade, whether they want to open a buy (long) or sell (short) order, the size of the order, and the limit price that the order should execute at. Traders can also optionally specify take profit/stop loss prices with their order.