Giordano Salvatori, founder of STA · 06/11/2026 · 5 min read
Every time you buy or sell, someone is on the other side. The place where orders meet is called the order book: on the left the offers from people who want to buy, on the right those from people who want to sell, each with its own price. Platforms split traders into two categories and treat them differently.
The maker (literally "the one who makes the market") is whoever places an order that does not fill right away. Say you want to buy at 100 while the price is 101, and you leave your bid there waiting. You have added an order to the book, that is, liquidity. The taker ("the one who takes") is whoever accepts a price already on the book and fills instantly, removing that order from the book. The fee is almost always lower for the maker and higher for the taker, because the platform wants full books.
It depends on the type of order, but above all on what happens when you send it. An order market fills immediately at the best available price, so it is almost always taker. An order limit sets the price you accept: if the price is already reachable it fills immediately and becomes taker, if it waits on the book and is then taken by someone else it is maker.
The stop deserves a separate mention. When one stop loss is triggered, it usually turns into a market order, so it pays the taker rate and may fill at a price a bit different from the expected one, the so-called slippage. These are real costs, and it is better to factor them in beforehand, not afterwards.
An illustrative example, with made-up percentages to show the mechanism and not those of a real platform. Suppose a maker fee of 0.02% and a taker fee of 0.05% on the value of the trade, with a position of 1,000 USDT.
They look like crumbs, and on a single trade they are. The point is that they are always paid, even when the trade goes badly, and they add up. Someone who trades ten times a day repeats that calculation ten times. With leverage the value of the position grows and the fee, calculated on the total value and not on the margin, grows with it. That is why it matters to know how much it weighs against what you risk: the same amount is nothing on a wide stop and a lot on the risk of a cautious trade. The reasoning is a relative of the one on position sizing.
There are three levers, and none of them is magic. The first is to use limit orders when you are not in a hurry, accepting that the order may not fill. If it does not fill, you saved the fee but also missed the entry, and a missed opportunity has a cost that no table shows. The second is the volume tier: many platforms lower their rates when monthly volume rises, but chasing volume to pay less is a classic way of trading too much. The third is choosing the right product, because spot and futures have different fee schedules, as the article on spot or futures.
Before opening any position it is worth opening the platform's fee page and reading the real numbers, because they change over time and from one tier to another.
No. Besides fees there is the spread, that is, the distance between the price you buy at and the price you sell at, the slippage mentioned above and, on perpetual contracts, the funding rate, which is paid or received at regular intervals while the position stays open. The picture of hidden costs, and whether the game is worth it in the end, is in the article on how worthwhile online trading really is.
Trying out the difference costs little. On a demo account with real prices you can open the same trade once at market and once with a limit order and see how often the latter does not fill. The demo account guide explains how to use it well, and the complete path, from the basics to costs, is in the guide to mindful online trading.
STA works on OKX derivatives: ten artificial intelligence agents analyze the markets twice a day, with a debate between a Bull and a Bear, and every card comes with its stop. Your funds stay in your OKX account, and the platform fees are OKX's own, which you should read on their fee schedule.
The DEMO is free forever, with real prices and the same cards as REAL. You need an account. During the launch phase, which began on 16 October 2026, STA's fees are temporarily disabled, even in REAL; the ordinary price list, suspended while the launch lasts, is 18% of the positive net result of each day, with no offsetting of losses. The history of the cards, losses included, is public on GitHub.
Every card as soon as it closes, with the result and what STA learned from it. It's free and you don't need to sign up.
Follow the channelA DEMO account with virtual capital and real prices, the same cards as REAL users.
Try DEMO for free →This article is for information only and is not investment advice. Trading crypto-assets involves a high risk, including the total loss of the capital used. Numerical examples are for illustration.
Spot or futures: the differences between buying the coin and opening a contract, with costs, leverage and risks. How to choose, with an illustrative example.
Perpetual contracts: what they are, why they never expire, and how funding, margin and liquidation work. An illustrative example, no promises.
Trading liquidation: what it is, how to estimate the liquidation price with leverage and five ways to avoid it. Illustrative example, no promises.
