Position management

Understanding how to open, close, and maintain a position is important.

Opening an Order and Position

To open a position, place a market or limit order. If the quantity requested is available at the request price level, the order will be filled and displayed under the "Filled Orders" tab and your updated position will be reflected in the "Positions" tab. If there is a remaining amount, this quantity will be placed as an open order in the order book and show up in the "Open Orders" tab.

Maker

In this exchange, a maker order is one that has added liquidity to the order book upon placement. In other words, when the order was placed, it did not trigger a match, and thus entered the order book waiting to be matched against at some later point in time.

Taker

A taker order, on the other hand, is one that removes liquidity from the order book upon placement. In other words, when the order was placed, it did trigger a match vs. one or more maker orders in the book.

• Every executed trade (commonly referred to as match or fill) is comprised of exactly one maker order and one taker order. The maker order is the one that was there first, waiting to be matched. The taker order is the second one that triggered the match.

• A maker order will spend some non-zero time on the order book.

• A taker order will never spend any time on the order book.

• Market makers are traders with strategies that generally place maker orders to the book, looking to consistently capture the bid / ask spread.

• Market takers are traders with strategies that generally place taker orders, looking to capture directional moves in the market.

Maker/Taker Fees

For fees related to trading, a hundredth of a percent (a basis point, bp) is used to describe what is due. A trade for a maker is 0 bps while the taker fee is 20 bps.

For more information on Fees, click here.

How to View Current Orders and Positions

To view any open orders, simply navigate to the 'Open Orders' tab. Here any open orders will be listed. Additionally, on the order book, an open order is visible to observe where it is in comparison to the other current prices at that specific time. Open positions can be found on the 'Positions" tab.

Closing an Open Order and Position

To cancel an open order, guide to the 'Open Orders' tab, under the Orders tab. Here, find the order you wish to close or, in other words, cancel. Simply click the 'X' on the far right hand side of the order you wish to cancel. A confirmation message from your wallet will be prompted, and once cancelled, the open order is closed and removed from the order book.

To reduce and/or close your position, you will need to execute a trade in the opposite direction of your current position. In other words, if you currently have a long position open, you must place a market sell order, or have a limit sell execute at some point after placement. Conversely, if you currently have a short position open, you must place a market buy order or have a limit buy execute at some point after placement.

Please note: the "X" for closing open positions initiates a MARKET order, *not* a "reduce only" order type. If your order fails, this is likely because it would violate a slippage safety or because there is insufficient liquidity to close your order.

For more information on Withdrawing after closing a position, click here.