Limit order: trading at the price you choose

Price Control Over Speed

A limit order tells the exchange to buy or sell only at a specific price or better. A buy limit at $60,000 means "buy only if you can get me $60,000 or less." A sell limit at $65,000 means "sell only if you can get me $65,000 or more." Unlike a market order, which executes immediately at whatever price is available, a limit order may sit unfilled indefinitely if the market never reaches your price.

Limit orders are the standard tool for traders who care about execution price more than speed. They eliminate slippage by definition: you either get your price or you do not trade at all. They also let you scale into positions methodically by placing a ladder of limit orders at successively lower prices, accumulating only if the market dips to your levels.

The tradeoff is the risk of non-execution. If the market never touches your price, you miss the move. If it touches briefly and reverses, you might fill only a fraction of your intended size. Limit orders also rest visibly on the order book, where they can be picked off by others or used as targets by short-term traders. Most platforms offer variants like post-only, fill-or-kill, and good-til-cancelled to fine-tune behavior.