Placing an order

The order ticket is where you send an order from the terminal. This page walks through it top to bottom: what each field does, which checks the ticket runs before it lets you submit, and what you see afterwards. Each algo's own settings have their own page, linked below.

The market

The ticket trades the market the terminal has selected. The market header above the ticket names it, and the submit button names it again, for example Buy BTC-USDT. To pick a market, see The terminal.

What you type belongs to the market you typed it for. When you switch to a different market, the ticket starts clean: the side goes back to Buy, and the quantity, the limit price and Reduce only are cleared. A Spreader's hedge market, its hedge Reduce only and its lead-ahead cap are cleared too.

If the market is briefly unknown, for example while the account reconnects, the ticket keeps what you typed. Nothing can be sent until the market is back, and your entries apply again when the same market returns.

Side and algo

The top row holds Buy and Sell, and the algo menu beside them: DMA, Chase, TWAP, Sniper and Spreader. The ticket opens on Buy and Chase. In the menu, hover the ⓘ beside an algo for a paragraph on how it works.

The algo decides how your order works at the exchange. Choosing an algo compares them. Each one has its own page: DMA, Chase, TWAP, Sniper and Spreader.

Quantity

The quantity card holds everything about size: the amount, its unit, what it comes to, and a slider.

The unit

The unit chip sits to the right of the amount. Which units you can use depends on the algo and the market.

With a quote quantity, Aura spends that amount. It sizes each order it sends in the base asset, at that order's price. With a base quantity, the line under the amount estimates the quote amount it needs. On a futures market the quantity is in the base asset too, not in contracts.

When you switch units yourself, the ticket converts the amount you typed into the other unit. When you change to an algo or a market that doesn't take your unit, the ticket switches to the unit it takes and clears the amount.

What the size comes to

The line under the amount shows the size in the other unit, for example ≈ 6,410.20 USDT at mid. It is priced at your limit price when you've typed one, otherwise at the mid.

Available balance and the slider

On a spot market the card shows Available: the spendable balance that funds this side. The quote asset funds a buy and the base asset funds a sell. Hover it to see the total and the reserved amount.

The slider and its 25%, 50%, 75% and Max chips set the size as a share of that balance, floored to the exchange's lot size, or to its quote step for a quote quantity.

On an OKX or Bybit perpetual the card shows Max buy or Max sell instead, and the slider sizes as a share of that. See Leverage and Max on perpetuals.

On a Coinbase futures market you type the size. The card shows no balance, slider or chips there.

Size checks

The ticket holds the quantity to the exchange's rules and says what's wrong in red under the amount. The submit button stays off until it's fixed.

The minimum size and lot checks apply when the quantity is in the order's own unit: base, or the USD face of an inverse perpetual. A quote quantity converts at a price the ticket can't know exactly, so only the minimum order value is checked for it.

The two maximum checks apply to DMA alone, on OKX and Bybit markets, where the exchange publishes a largest single order. Bybit states it by quantity only, so Maximum order value doesn't show there. A DMA is one order, so one above the maximum can't be sent: place a smaller one, or pick Chase, TWAP or Sniper, which keep each of their orders under the maximum and work the rest in later orders.

Leverage and Max on perpetuals

On an OKX or Bybit perpetual the quantity card adds a leverage chip, for example Cross · 10x. The chip shows the account's margin mode and its leverage on this market.

Changing leverage

Press the chip to open the leverage popover. Its title names the mode, for example Cross leverage, with the current value beside it. Type a new value, or pick one of 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x, 20x and 50x. The picks stop at what the position's tier allows, and when the tier is known the popover says so, for example Up to 20x at this position's tier. A note says what the change covers, for example Applies to BTC-USDT.PERP on this account.

Press Confirm to set it, or Cancel to leave it. The leverage is a setting on your exchange account for that market. Your orders don't carry it. On Bybit it applies to buys and sells alike.

Confirm stays off until the box holds a valid leverage.

The margin mode is set per OKX account, not in the ticket. Open the Accounts sheet, open the account's menu, and pick Cross margin or Isolated margin under Perpetuals. See Connect an exchange.

On Bybit the margin mode is your account's own, set on Bybit, and Aura reads it from there. Under portfolio margin, and on a market in hedge mode, the ticket shows no leverage chip. See Exchanges.

How Max is worked out

Max is free margin × leverage at the price the order would work at. For a DMA that is the limit price. For the other algos it is the mid, or your limit when it is below the mid on a buy or above it on a sell. It adds the margin that closing your current position on this side would free, is capped by the position tier at that leverage, and is floored to the lot. Hover it to read the rule for your order. The exchange still checks the order itself. Chase, TWAP, Sniper and a Spreader's lead keep each order they send within the same figure, less what your open orders on the market and side already take (Chase).

On Bybit, free margin under cross margin is your account's available balance in USD, and under isolated margin the settle coin's own, USDT or USDC.

With Reduce only on, Max is at most the position this side closes.

When Max shows —, the hover says why. Common reasons:

• Reading the leverage and position tiers for this market.
• No price to size at: type a limit price or wait for the book.
• Free margin is not known for this account.
• The account is in long/short position mode; the ticket sizes net mode only.
• The ticket does not size a portfolio-margin account.
• Leverage can't be set while this account uses portfolio margin. (Bybit)
• This market is in hedge mode on the exchange. Switch it to one-way mode to trade it here. (Bybit)

While Max is blank the slider and its chips are off. You can still type a quantity.

The Order section

Under the quantity, the Order section holds the price and the algo's own settings. A Spreader shows its Legs instead. See Spreader.

Reduce only isn't offered on spot markets or on Coinbase futures. Coinbase's order interface has no reduce-only field, so the ticket doesn't offer one there. When you switch to a market that doesn't offer it, the ticket turns it off. A Spreader sets reduce only per leg.

Start time and expiry

Below the Order section, Timing holds when the order starts and when it expires. In a TWAP these sit at the end of Schedule, under the duration and interval (see TWAP).

The section is one summary row showing Starts and Expires with their values, Now and Never until you change them. Press it to open the two boxes. A sentence under them reads your choice back, such as Starts on submit, good till canceled.

The instants read in your clock, local or UTC. See Settings.

The ticket refuses a window it can't send, and the sentence turns red to say why:

• a start or an expiry that has already passed;
• a start or an expiry more than a year out;
• an expiry at or before the start;
• for a TWAP, an expiry before the schedule ends.

If the time passes between the moment the button turned on and your click, the order isn't sent and the sentence shows the problem.

In a TWAP whose At end is Cancel remainder, the schedule's end already cancels what's left, so Expires doesn't apply. The summary reads With the schedule.

The fee estimate and pre-trade readouts

Below the submit button the ticket shows figures worked out from what you entered. They don't change the order.

Est. fee

Est. fee is your account's fee rate for this market times what the order trades. Beside the label, the rate shows in basis points before you type a quantity.

On a spot market the estimate is in the quote currency, such as USDT. OKX and Bybit charge a spot buy's fee in the coin you buy, so the ticket shows what that fee is worth in the quote at the order's price, and the hover names the coin it's charged in, for example "charged in BTC, shown in USDT". Perpetuals and futures show the coin they settle in.

The ticket shows one figure when the order's side of the book is certain, and a range otherwise.

Hover the row to see the rate, your fee tier and when it was read. The hover also notes when the value is priced at the mid, when tax is added (+ GST), and venue caveats: OKX's interface doesn't report zero-fee promotions, and a Coinbase futures per-contract minimum may apply. A paper account pays its own fee rates. See Paper trading.

When there's no estimate, the hover says why, for example Enter a quantity (and a price where the tape is dark) to estimate the fee. or No fee estimate until the account is active.

A Spreader shows Est. lead fee and Est. hedge fee, one per leg.

Pre-trade readouts

Your risk limit

You can set a ceiling on order size in Settings → Risk. Turn on Reject orders above a max USD notional, enter Max USD notional in USD, and press Save risk settings. It's off until you turn it on, and it covers every account you trade.

Aura checks each order's USD value against the limit before it sends anything to the exchange, on markets quoted in USD, USDT, USDC or USDG. An order at or above the limit ends with Above your Max USD notional. See Settings.

When the submit button is off

The ticket stays visible at all times. When something blocks trading, an amber banner says what, and the button says what you can do. One banner shows at a time, in this order.

See Connection status for what each connection state means.

Once the account is ready, the button turns on when the quantity, the algo's fields and the timing all pass their checks.

Two notices can also sit above the button. Neither stops you from submitting:

• Maintenance: the exchange's announced maintenance, from an hour before it starts until it ends.
• Unconfirmed orders: what the exchange hasn't confirmed on this account. See Managing orders.

Submitting

The button names the order once you've typed a size, for example Buy 0.5 BTC. Press it and it reads Placing… until Aura answers.

After you submit

Your order shows in the Open Orders tab, with its status, while it works. When it ends it moves to Order History. See Managing orders to follow, amend or cancel it.