Spot trading

When you place a spot order, it matches against existing orders on the exchange's order book and ownership transfers right away: buy and the coins land in your account balance, sell and the cash does. There's no borrowed money and no expiry date involved, which is what separates spot from derivatives like margin or perpetual futures.

For example, buying 0.01 BTC at a price of $60,000 costs $600 and leaves you holding 0.01 BTC directly — the position doesn't need to be closed by any deadline, and there's no liquidation risk because nothing was borrowed.

A common mistake is assuming every trading interface is spot by default. Many exchanges bundle spot, margin, and futures trading into the same app, so it's worth double-checking which market you're actually placing an order in before you click confirm.