There are two kinds of orders. Both will exist in your Gopnik wallet UI as buttons. They behave very differently, and choosing the right one is half the battle.
Market orders
A market order says: "I want to trade right now, at whatever the best available price is."
- Fills: Always (assuming there's liquidity).
- Price: Whatever the order book gives you, eating up offers until your order is filled.
- Slippage risk: High, especially for large orders.
- When to use: When time matters more than price. You need to exit a position before news hits. You're hedging a real-world cash flow with a deadline.
Most retail traders default to market orders because they're simpler and feel decisive. Most retail traders also lose money to slippage on those orders. The two facts are related.
Limit orders
A limit order says: "I want to trade only if the price reaches at least X."
- Fills: Only if a counterparty meets your price (it might never fill).
- Price: Exactly the price you set, or better.
- Slippage risk: Zero. You see what you'll get before you sign.
- When to use: Almost always, if you're patient. Especially for entries — you can set a limit a few percent below the current ask, let it sit, and only buy if the market dips to you.
There's a subtle benefit too: limit orders add liquidity to the book. Market orders consume liquidity. Adding liquidity is what makes markets work; venues sometimes pay rebates for it (a maker fee discount). Consuming liquidity costs you the spread and sometimes a taker fee.
A worked comparison
Say you want to buy 5,000 XRP. The current ask is $0.5510. Your two options:
Market buy now. You eat through the book. Estimated average fill: $0.5515. Total cost: $2,757.50. You own 5,000 XRP. Done in 4 seconds.
Limit buy at $0.5495. You place the order and wait. The book moves up and down. After 18 minutes, the market dips to $0.5495 and a seller takes your order. Total cost: $2,747.50. You saved $10. You also took 18 minutes and might have missed the trade if the price kept rising.
Which is right? If the $10 matters and the 18 minutes don't, limit. If you need the XRP now (you're paying for something), market. There is no universal answer. Knowing both lets you pick deliberately, which is the entire game.
What Gopnik's UI shows you
On any swap or order screen in Gopnik, you'll see a tab toggle: Market / Limit. The default is Market, because that's what most users want for small amounts. As you advance, you'll find yourself flipping to Limit more often.
In Trading 201 we cover the math of limit-order strategies — laddering, post-only orders, time-in-force. For now: know that the limit-order button exists, and using it is usually the smarter choice.
Last lesson: when to walk away from a trade entirely.