Order Placement vs. Order Filling: Mastering the Two Core Operations of Cryptocurrency Trading

In cryptocurrency trading, placing orders (maker) and taking orders (taker) are two fundamentally different trading methods. They not only affect your execution speed but also directly relate to fee costs and risk management. Many novice traders are confused about these two concepts, leading to unnecessary losses. This article will analyze the essence, differences, and application strategies of placing and taking orders from a practical perspective.

Placing Orders and Taking Orders: Two Roles in Market Liquidity

Placing Orders (Maker) refers to actively creating new orders in the order book—whether buying or selling—waiting for someone in the market to match your price. These orders add liquidity to the market, so exchanges usually reward you with lower fees.

Taking Orders (Taker) is the opposite—you directly accept existing orders in the market, executing immediately at the current market price. This operation consumes existing market liquidity, so fees are usually higher.

Simply put: placing an order is “I bid, waiting for someone to match,” taking an order is “I accept the current price.”

Placing Orders: A Low-Cost Strategy for Patience

Placing orders is suitable for traders who have clear price requirements and are not in a rush to execute immediately. You can set buy or sell orders and wait for a favorable opportunity.

Three main advantages of placing orders:

• Lower fees: Exchanges encourage liquidity provision, typically charging less than 0.1%, far lower than taker fees
• Price control: You have full control over the execution price, unaffected by market volatility
• Suitable for long-term strategies: Whether for long-term investment or grid trading, placing orders allows precise cost control

Disadvantages of placing orders:

• Uncertain execution: If the market price does not reach your order price, the order may remain unfilled for a long time
• Requires patience: In rapidly changing markets, placing orders might cause you to miss opportunities

Taking Orders: Speed Priority for Quick Execution

The core advantage of taking orders is immediate execution. When you choose to buy at the best bid or sell at the best ask, the transaction completes instantly without waiting.

Advantages of taking orders:

• Immediate execution: Regardless of market fluctuations, your trade is executed instantly
• Capture opportunities: During rapid market rises or falls, taking orders helps you quickly enter or exit, avoiding missing critical moments
• High certainty: No worries about orders failing to match

Disadvantages of taking orders:

• Higher fees: Exchanges charge over 0.2% for taker orders, directly increasing your trading costs
• Slippage risk: In low-liquidity situations, the actual transaction price may deviate significantly from your expected price

How Placing and Taking Orders Impact Costs

Suppose you trade 1 cryptocurrency with a market price of $50,000:

• Placing order: Fees might be only $25 (0.05%), leaving more capital for investment
• Taking order: Fees might be $100 (0.2%), four times higher

This difference becomes even more pronounced in high-frequency or large-volume trading. Performing 10 trades per month with placing orders can save substantial costs, helping to improve long-term returns.

Strategies for Different Market Conditions

Stable markets: placing orders is the first choice. The bid-ask spread is small, your orders are more likely to be matched, and you can enjoy low fee discounts.

Volatile markets: taking orders become more valuable. Prices fluctuate rapidly, and placing orders might become invalid instantly, while taking orders ensure your trades are executed, despite higher costs.

High liquidity periods (e.g., major trading pairs): placing orders will execute faster, so prioritize placing orders.

Low liquidity periods (e.g., obscure coins): although taking orders costs more, it might be the only way to complete a trade.

How Beginners Can Flexibly Use Placing Orders

For novice traders, it’s recommended to start with placing orders to build experience:

Learn to read the order book: observe buy and sell distributions, understand current supply and demand. The order book shows how many people are willing to buy or sell at what prices.

Set reasonable prices: avoid placing orders at the absolute best prices immediately. Based on current order book conditions, set slightly above (buy) or below (sell) the market price to increase the likelihood of execution while maintaining some price advantage.

Patience and risk balance: placing orders requires patience, but don’t wait indefinitely. If market trends move against your expectations, actively cancel and adjust your orders rather than stubbornly holding.

High-Frequency Traders’ Advantage with Placing Orders

For traders with monthly trading volumes exceeding one million, the cost advantage of placing orders is even more significant. Lower fees mean more profit, especially in grid trading, arbitrage, and high-frequency strategies, where fee savings directly translate into gains.

Many professional traders actively switch between placing and taking orders based on market liquidity—preferring to place orders when liquidity is ample to reduce costs, and taking orders decisively when opportunities arise.

The Ultimate Application of Placing and Taking Orders

Experienced traders do not rely solely on one method but adaptively combine them based on actual conditions. Fundamentally, placing and taking orders are a trade-off between time and cost:

• Placing orders is “exchanging time for lower costs”
• Taking orders is “exchanging money for guaranteed speed”

Beginners should spend time learning how to place orders, understand order book mechanics, and develop patience and price sensitivity. As experience grows, gradually incorporate taking order techniques, making optimal decisions based on market environment and personal trading style.

Mastering the art of applying placing and taking orders is a fundamental skill every cryptocurrency trader must develop. Whether you are a short-term speculator or a long-term investor, using these two methods appropriately will significantly improve your trading results.