A Limit order permits a purchase or sale only at a specified unit price or better. For a buy, the limit is a price ceiling; for a sale, it is a minimum. Whether and how much of the order executes also depends on opposing offers, priority and how long the order remains valid.
Eva sets a buy limit of 60,000 USD per BTC. She is saying that she will accept that price or less per bitcoin. If she used the same limit to sell, she would want that price or more. Distinguish the buying ceiling from the selling minimum: a better price means less spent by a buyer and more received by a seller. The amount concerns the price per bitcoin on a particular market, not automatically the entire trading budget. [1] [2]
In our example, Eva buys 1 BTC with a limit of 60,000 USD. Someone already offers 0.3 BTC at 59,990 USD and another 0.7 BTC at 60,000 USD per bitcoin. If her order matches those offers, its average price is 59,997 USD per bitcoin. The better available offer is not repriced to Eva’s higher limit. Execution can therefore happen immediately; not every limit buy waits for a future fall. These are illustrative figures, not current offers. [1] [3]
Eva later sees that the price touched her limit. That does not prove her order, or its entire quantity, was reached. Other orders may be ahead of hers, with too little opposing quantity for everyone. Coinbase calls its ordering rule Price-Display-Time Priority: price, displayed quantity and time matter. Its rules also address hidden portions of larger orders. A chart of recent trades does not reveal that queue; Eva must check her order status to know the outcome. [1]
A price also needs an instruction for how long the order stays valid. Imagine another order for 1 BTC, but only 0.3 BTC is immediately available within the limit. IOC, Immediate or Cancel, may buy 0.3 BTC and cancel the remaining 0.7 BTC. FOK fills nothing under this condition: Fill or Kill requires immediate, complete execution. GTC, Good til canceled, lets an open portion wait in the order book until cancellation. Available settings and price protections vary by platform; the name Limit order does not specify them. [1]
If Eva takes an existing seller’s offer, she removes an available trading opportunity, or liquidity, and acts as Taker. If her offer waits for someone else, she adds liquidity as Maker. Coinbase allows both roles for a limit without Post Only, potentially for different parts of the same order. Under its rules, an accepted Post Only order preserves the Maker role. That guarantees neither a fill nor zero fees. An auction, where orders are matched together at a designated moment, can also have different conditions from ordinary continuous trading. [1]
Return to the purchase value of 59,997 USD. Adding a separate assumed fee of 10 USD gives Eva a total expenditure of 60,007 USD. This alone does not breach her limit of 60,000 USD when buying 1 BTC: individual execution prices were within the limit, while the fee adds to spending. The fee here is only an assumption. A real order needs allowance for charges and possible holds on funds; a price ceiling is not automatically a budget covering every cost. [1]
Eva decides to cancel. Before that request is processed, another execution may occur. She therefore checks confirmed cancellation, the quantity already bought and any portion still open. Canceling the remainder does not reverse completed trades. GTC is also a validity instruction, not a promise that the exchange will keep an order forever. Coinbase’s rules reserve the ability to cancel open orders, for example for technical reasons. The final status matters, not just the button pressed. [1]
An ordinary limit order can be submitted directly, whereas Stop Limit first waits for its specified trigger. Only then does a limit order appear, and the price boundary remains. If the market moves sharply past the relevant prices, a suitable counterparty may be missing. A sell order, for example, may remain unfilled if all buyers are below its minimum. Stop Limit therefore does not guarantee a sale. Eva checks the activation price, her limit and the actual outcome separately; each answers a different question. [1] [2]
For the clearest picture, read this entry together with Market order, Slippage, Order book, Post-only order. The reverse links also lead from Market maker, Bid–ask spread, Slippage, Market order.