Limit Order

A limit order is an instruction to buy or sell only at a specified price or better. A limit buy executes at your limit price or lower; a limit sell executes at your limit price or higher. If the market never reaches your price, the order simply rests on the order book unfilled.

For example, with BTC trading at $60,500, you might place a limit buy at $59,000. If the price dips to $59,000, your order fills at $59,000 or better; if the price rallies instead, you buy nothing. Similarly, a limit sell at $65,000 waits until a buyer is willing to pay that much.

Limit orders give you price control and, on most exchanges, cheaper "maker" fees when they add liquidity to the book rather than taking it. The trade-off is execution risk: the market can move away without ever filling you, so a limit order is not a guarantee of getting the trade. A common misconception is that a limit order filling means you "timed the bottom"; it fills whenever the market trades through your price, including on the way much lower.