dYdX supports 4 different order types: Market, Limit, Stop Limit, Trailing Stop.

A Market Order is an order to buy or sell a given asset and will execute immediately at the current market price determined by the orderbook at the time an order is processed by the matching engine.

To execute a Market Order:

Note: market orders may not execute at exactly the estimated price you see on the website. The price of the orderbook may change before your order is processed by the matching engine.

Let's take a look at each field:

Amount - this is the amount of BTC to buy or sell. This is the amount your position will increase or decrease by when the order is filled, not your resulting position amount.

Leverage — Leverage controls how much of your position is borrowed. The higher the leverage is, the smaller your margin deposit is and the more funds you borrow to open your position. Borrowing more funds is riskier, amplifying both your gains and losses, while also giving your position a riskier liquidation price.

A Limit Order is an order to buy or sell a given asset at a specified (or better) price. A limit order to buy will only execute at the limit price or lower. To place a Limit Order:

**Limit orders have a default Good Til Date of 28 days which can be changed.**

Let's take a look at each field:

Amount - this is the amount of BTC to buy or sell. This is the amount your position will increase or decrease by when the order is filled, not your resulting position amount.

Limit Price — this order can only be filled at the specific limit order or better. If your order crosses at the time of placement, your order will fill any crossing orders at the most favorable price.

You can also add options like Good-Til-Date, Post-Only, Fill Or Kill, or Immediate or Cancel. When selecting a limit order, you can expand the Advanced section to reveal the following Time in Force and Execution policies:

A Stop Limit Order will execute only when the index price crosses a specified Stop Price. Once the Index Price touches your stop price, a limit order will automatically be placed to limit buy/sell your order amount. Stop limit orders can be used to limit losses on your positions by automatically closing them when the price falls below (for longs) or rises above (for shorts) the stop price.

Once triggered, the resulting limit order may either be immediately filled or may rest on the orderbook at the limit price. The limit price operates exactly the same as for normal limit orders.

To place a Stop Limit Order:

Advanced Stop Order Options

You can edit your Good Til Time and optionally Max Slippage under the Advanced section in the trade box.

**Note: Stop orders trigger based off the index price or the last trade price, whichever comes first**

You may have multiple stop orders open for a given position.

Let's take a look at each field:

Trailing Stop orders allow traders to protect gains by enabling a position to remain open and continue to profit as long as the price is moving in their favor.

A Trailing Stop order is a modification of a Standard-Stop Market Order. The stop price on a Trailing Stop is determined by the trailing percent. If the index price moves in favor of your position, the stop price will update to “trail” the index price based on your trailing percent. For a long position, a trader places a trailing stop loss below the current market price. For a short position, a trader places the trailing stop above the current market price.

**Note: trailing stop orders execute as market orders when they are triggered and so can execute at any price, even a worse price than what they are triggered at. If there is not enough liquidity to fill your order, it will be canceled**

To place a Trailing Stop Order:

Advanced Stop Order Options

You can edit your Good Til Time under the Advanced section in the trade box.

Let's take a look at each field:

A Take Profit Limit order allows traders to protect profits by specifying an exact price at which to close an open position for profit. For a long position, a trader places a above the current market price. For a short position, a trader places the trailing stop below the current market price. If the Index Price rises/drops to ake-profit point, the T/P order changes from 'Untriggered' -> 'Open', and then behaves as a traditional limit order.

To place a Take Profit Limit Order:

Advanced Stop Order Options

You can edit your Good Til Time under the Advanced section in the trade box.

You can read more about our authors here.