#OrderTypes101 Market order vs. limit orders

Market orders are orders that you would expect to execute immediately. Essentially, they say at the current price, do x. Suppose you’re on Binance, you want to buy 3 BTC, and Bitcoin is trading at $15,000. You’re happy paying $45,000 for the coins and don’t want to wait for prices to drop lower, so you place a buy market order.

Who’s selling the coins, you ask? We need to look at the order book to figure that out. This is where the exchange keeps a big list of limit orders, which are simply orders that aren’t executed immediately. These might say something like at y price, do x.

For the sake of this example, another user might have placed an order earlier telling the exchange to sell 3 BTC when the price hits $15,000. So, when you place your market order, the exchange matches it