Order types

There are four types of orders on Prodigy:

Market orders

A market order is an order to buy or sell a contract at the current market price. The order is executed at the best available market price.

Example: A participant would like to go long 10 BTCUSD. The participant decides to place a market order. Once the order is placed, the protocol will execute the order as soon as possible at the best available market price. In this case, if there are 10 BTCUSD contracts available for sale at the current market price of $30,000 BTC/USD, the order will be filled at $30,000. However, if there are only 5 BTCUSD contracts available at $30,000, the order will be partially filled and the remaining contracts will be filled at the next best available price.

Limit orders

A limit order is a type of order to buy or sell a contract at a specified price or better. When a limit order is placed, the participant specifies the maximum or minimum price at which they are willing to buy or sell the contract. The order will only be executed if the market price reaches or exceeds the specified limit price.

Example: A participant would like to go long 10 BTCUSD and the current market price is $30,000 BTC/USD. However, the participant is only willing to pay up to $29,000. The participant places a limit order to buy a contract with a limit price of $29,000. Once the order is placed, it will only be executed if the market price of BTC/USD drops to $29,000 or lower. If the market price never drops to $29,000 or lower, the order will not be executed. If the market price does drop to $29,000 or lower, the order will be executed at or below the limit price of $29,000.

Stop limit

A stop limit order is a type of order used to buy or sell a contract at a specific price or better.

It consists of two parts:

  1. Stop Price is the trigger price at which the order becomes activated. When the market price of an asset reaches the stop price, the stop limit order is triggered, and the order is then sent to the protocol for execution

  2. Limit price is the minimum price the seller is willing to accept or the maximum price the buyer is willing to pay for the asset. Once the stop price is reached, the order is executed at the limit price or better.

Example: A participant would like to go long 10 BTCUSD, at a specific price of $29,000 BTC/USD or lower. The participant can place a stop limit order with a stop price of $29,000 and a limit price of $28,500. If the price drops to $29,000, the order is triggered, and the order is sent to the protocol. The order will be executed only if BTC/USD is trading at or below $28,500.

Trailing stop

A trailing stop is a type of order used to set a stop-loss order at a certain percentage or dollar amount below the market price of an asset. As the price of the asset moves up, the trailing stop order follows it automatically, maintaining the same percentage or dollar amount distance.

Example: A participant would like to go long 10 BTCUSD at the market price of $30,000 BTC/USD. The participant can place a trailing stop order with a 10% trailing stop, the trailing stop will be set at $27,000, which is 10% below the current market price of $30,000.

If the price of BTC/USD rises to $40,000, the trailing stop will adjust automatically and will be set at $36,000, which is 10% below the new market price of $40,000. If the price of BTC/USD falls to $35,000, the trailing stop will trigger, and the contracts will be sold at the market price or the next best available price.

More information on executing the different order types is available here.

fill or kill: "Fill or kill" is a type of order used in financial markets where the investor specifies that the entire order must be executed immediately and in full, or cancelled ("killed").

take profit limit/stop: "Take profit limit/stop" is a type of order used in financial markets that allows investors to lock in profits or limit losses by automatically closing out a position once a certain price target or limit is reached.

bracket: "Bracket" is a type of order used in financial markets that combines multiple orders into a single trade. This order includes three parts: a limit order to take profit, a stop-loss order to limit losses, and an initial order to open a position.

post-only: "Post-only" is a type of order used in financial markets that instructs the broker to only execute the order if it can be posted to the order book as a limit order without immediately filling an existing order. Post-only orders are useful in fast-paced markets where prices can move quickly and traders need to adjust their orders quickly to avoid being executed at unfavorable prices.

good til date: "Good til date" is a type of order used in financial markets that instructs the broker to keep the order open and valid until a specified date or time, after which it will be automatically cancelled if it has not been executed.

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