Place Your First Order

Step-by-step guide to placing your first trade on Vela.

This guide walks through placing a limit order on Vela from start to finish. Before you begin, make sure you have connected your wallet and deposited funds.

Quick Reference

Order detail	Example
Market	ETH-USDC
Side	Buy
Type	Limit
Price	3,200 USDC
Quantity	0.5 ETH
Time in Force	GTC
Cost	1,600 USDC

Step-by-Step

1. Navigate to a market

   From the Vela home screen, select a market from the sidebar or navigate directly to /markets/ETH-USDC. The full-screen trading UI loads with the order book, chart, and order entry panel.

2. Verify your wallet is connected

   Your connected address should appear in the top navigation. If not, click Connect Wallet and complete the authentication flow. You cannot submit orders without a connected and authenticated wallet.

3. Check your balance

   In the order entry panel on the right side of the screen, your available USDC balance is shown below the order form. Make sure you have enough to cover the order you want to place.

4. Select Buy or Sell

   Click Buy (green) or Sell (red) in the order entry panel. This determines the side of your order.

5. Select Limit or Market order type

   Choose Limit to specify a price, or Market to fill immediately at the best available price. For your first order, Limit is recommended so you can see exactly what price you’re agreeing to.

6. Enter your price and quantity

   For a limit order:

   • Price: Enter the price per unit in USDC (e.g., 3200)
   • Quantity: Enter the quantity of the base asset (e.g., 0.5 for 0.5 ETH)

   The order panel shows the total cost: Price × Quantity = 3200 × 0.5 = 1600 USDC.

7. Select Time in Force

   Choose how long the order should remain active:

   • GTC (Good Till Cancelled) — rests in the book until filled or you cancel it. Best for most limit orders.
   • IOC — fills immediately, cancels any unfilled remainder.
   • FOK — must fill entirely immediately, or is cancelled.
   • Post-Only — guaranteed maker order; rejected if it would match immediately.

   See Time in Force for full details.

8. Click Submit — your wallet signs the order

   Click Submit Order. Your wallet will prompt you to sign the order. The signing payload is the canonical JSON serialization of your order parameters.

   This is an off-chain signature — no gas is spent. Review the message and click Sign.

   Every order on Vela is signed by your wallet. The engine verifies the signature before accepting the order. This means no one can place an order in your name without access to your private key.

9. Order appears in the book

   For a limit order that doesn’t immediately match, your order appears in the order book as a resting order. You can see it in the Open Orders panel below the chart and in the order book itself (highlighted in your account color).

   Your available USDC balance decreases by the reserved amount (price × quantity).

10. Fill appears in Trade History when matched

    When your order matches with a counter-order, a fill event is generated. The fill appears in:

    • Trade History panel — shows the fill price, quantity, and timestamp
    • Open Orders panel — the order updates to Partially Filled or disappears if fully filled
    • Balances — your ETH balance increases, USDC reserved balance decreases

    If you are subscribed to the WebSocket API, a fill message arrives on your private channel.

Order Signing Details

Every order you submit to Vela is authenticated by your wallet. The signing payload is the canonical JSON representation of the order:

{
  "market_id": "ETH-USDC",
  "side": "bid",
  "price": "3200000000",
  "quantity": "500000",
  "order_type": "limit",
  "time_in_force": "gtc",
  "nonce": 1
}

Fixed-point encoding: Prices and quantities are encoded as integers scaled by 1,000,000. A price of 3200.00 USDC is 3200000000 (×1,000,000) and a quantity of 0.5 ETH is 500000. This ensures deterministic arithmetic across the engine and zkvm prover.

The nonce is a monotonically increasing integer per account. Reusing a nonce is rejected with DUPLICATE_NONCE. Keep a local counter and increment for each order.

What Happens If My Order Doesn’t Fill?

A GTC limit order rests in the book indefinitely until:

1. A counter-order arrives that matches your price
2. You cancel the order manually from the Open Orders panel or via POST /orders/cancel
3. The market is paused by the operator

Your funds remain reserved (unavailable for other orders) while the order rests. Cancelling returns the reserved funds to available immediately.

Next Steps

Order Types

Learn more about limit vs. market orders.

Time in Force

Understand GTC, IOC, FOK, and Post-Only.

Order Status

Track your order through its lifecycle.

API Reference

Automate order placement via the REST API.