Placing Orders and Opening Positions

Market Orders vs Limit Orders

When you open a position, you have a choice of order types:

• Market Order: A market order executes immediately at the best available current price in the order book. Use a market order when you want to enter or exit a position instantly, and you are willing to accept the current market price. Market orders may incur a small amount of slippage (executing at a slightly different price) if the order size is large relative to market liquidity.

• Limit Order: A limit order lets you specify a price at which you are willing to buy or sell. The order will only execute if the market price reaches your specified price (or better). Use limit orders if you have a desired entry/exit price and you are not in a rush. Placing limit orders can also save on fees if OrbDex offers a lower maker fee for providing liquidity. Keep in mind that a limit order might not fill if the price never reaches your limit.

You can choose the order type in the order entry panel (usually a toggle or dropdown for Market/Limit).

Example: If the current price of BTC-PERP is $30,000 and you want to go long: - A market buy will execute around $30,000 (whatever the nearest ask price is). - A limit buy at $29,500 will wait until the price dips to $29,500 or below to fill (if it does).

Opening a Long or Short Position

To open a position on OrbDex, follow these general steps:

• Select Buy (Long) or Sell (Short): Decide if you want to go Long (expecting the price to rise) or Short (expecting the price to fall). Click the corresponding button – for example, Buy/Long (often green) or Sell/Short (often red) – in the order entry panel.

• Enter Order Details: Input the specifics of your trade:

• For a Market order, simply enter the Amount you want to trade. The price field will be auto-filled with “Market” or left blank since the order will match at best price.

• For a Limit order, enter both the Limit Price and the Amount you wish to trade.

• Choose your Leverage. For instance, select 5× leverage if you want your position to be five times the size of your collateral used. OrbDex will show how much margin is required for this trade at the chosen leverage.

• Review the Margin Impact. The interface will usually display how much collateral will be used (initial margin) and may calculate the projected Liquidation Price for your position based on current inputs.

• Optional – Set Stop-Loss and Take-Profit: It’s highly recommended to set a Stop-Loss and/or Take-Profit when opening a new position:

• If the interface allows, enter a Stop-Loss price at which OrbDex will automatically close your position if the market moves against you. This price should be at a level where you want to cap your maximum loss. For a long position, the stop-loss is a price lower than your entry; for a short, it’s a price higher than your entry.

• Enter a Take-Profit price at which to automatically close and secure profits. For a long, this is a higher price than entry; for a short, it’s lower. These orders will appear in your Open Orders list once the position is opened. If the market hits your specified prices, the Stop-Loss/Take-Profit will execute and close the position at roughly those levels.

• Place the Order: Double-check all details (order type, price, amount, leverage, stop-loss, take-profit). When ready, click the “Place Order” button (it may say “Buy/Long” or “Sell/Short” accordingly).

• Confirm in Wallet: Your connected wallet will prompt you to confirm the transaction. This is where you authorize the OrbDex smart contract to execute the trade. For a market or limit order, you are signing a transaction that posts your order to the blockchain.

Order Execution:

• If it was a Market order, your position will be opened almost immediately (once the transaction is mined). You will see a new entry in the Open Positions list, and your collateral (margin) will be deducted from available balance and allocated to this position.

• If it was a Limit order, your order will be placed in the order book. You will see it listed under Open Orders. The limit order will execute (fill) once the market price reaches your limit price. If it fills, then an Open Position entry will appear. If market never reaches that price, the order remains open (and you can cancel it anytime).

• Position Opened: Once open, the position details will show:

• Entry Price: the price at which the position was filled.

• Position Size: how many contracts or units you bought/sold (this should equal the amount you set with leverage taken into account).

• Margin Used: how much collateral is tied to this position.

• Leverage: the effective leverage being used.

• Unrealized PnL: this will start updating as the price moves. If the market moves in your favor, you’ll see a positive PnL (profit); if against, a negative PnL (loss).

• Liquidation Price: an estimate of the price at which your position will be liquidated (forced closed) due to insufficient margin (more on liquidation in a later section).

Figure: Abstract visualization of market momentum. OrbDex’s trading interface combines real-time data and robust tools, enabling traders to open long or short positions with just a few clicks while managing risk through stop-loss and take-profit orders.

Congratulations, you have opened a position on OrbDex! Remember that your Available Balance in the wallet panel is now reduced by the margin used. Next, we’ll cover how to monitor your position and eventually close it.