> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.entry.fi/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Market orders

A market order is the fastest way to enter or exit a trade. When you place it, you are telling the terminal: `Fill my order now at the best available price`. If you want to see where this is selected in Entry Finance, go to [Open positions and orders](/using-the-terminal/open-positions-and-orders).

The system matches your order against the current liquidity in the order book. Because speed is the priority, the final execution price can be slightly different from the price you saw right before clicking.

<Info>
  Market orders optimize for speed, not price precision.
</Info>

## Why traders use market orders

Market orders are useful when execution matters more than getting one exact price. Traders usually use them to:

* enter a trade immediately
* exit a position quickly
* close risk during fast market moves
* avoid waiting on the order book

## Simple example

Imagine BTC is trading around `60,000`. You place a market buy for `500 USDC`. The terminal instantly takes the best available sell orders from the book, so your average fill may be `60,002`, `60,008`, or slightly higher if liquidity is thin.

## Slippage

Because a market order takes existing liquidity, it can move through multiple price levels in the order book. That difference between the expected price and the actual fill is called **slippage**.

Slippage is usually small in liquid markets, but it can increase when:

* the market is moving fast
* your order size is large
* the order book is thin

If you want the practical trader view of slippage, partial fills, queue effects, and thin-book behavior, read [Execution quality and slippage](/order-types/execution-quality-and-slippage).

<Warning>
  In volatile markets, the final fill price may be noticeably worse than the price shown before submission.
</Warning>