Crypto trading basics: spot, futures, CFDs, orders and fees
Before the first trade, know what you are buying, how your order is filled and what it costs. This guide explains the three ways to trade crypto, the order types you will use every day and the fees that quietly decide whether a small edge survives.
Three ways to trade crypto
Spot means you buy the coin itself. Pay 1,000 USDT for Bitcoin and you own about 0.01 BTC: it sits in your account or wallet, you can send it, and the worst case is that its price falls towards zero. There is no leverage, no liquidation and no time limit.
Futures are contracts on the price. Crypto exchanges mostly offer perpetual futures, which never expire; a small payment between buyers and sellers every few hours, the funding rate, keeps their price close to spot. You can go long or short and use leverage, so a position can be much larger than the money you put in. That also means it can be closed for you: see leverage, margin and liquidation.
CFDs (contracts for difference) on BTCUSD or ETHUSD are offered by forex brokers on platforms such as MT5. You trade in lots like gold or EUR/USD, the broker charges a spread and an overnight fee (swap), and the margin rules are the broker's. Many traders who already trade forex use crypto CFDs because the platform, the charts and the risk tools are the same.
| Spot | Perpetual futures | CFD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You own the coin | Yes | No | No |
| Short selling | No | Yes | Yes |
| Leverage | No | Yes | Yes |
| Can be liquidated | No | Yes | Yes (stop out) |
| Main costs | Trading fee | Trading fee + funding | Spread + swap |
| Size measured in | Coins | Coins or contracts | Lots |
Order types you will actually use
- Market order: fills at once at the best price available. Fast, but in a thin or fast market the fill can be worse than the price you saw (slippage).
- Limit order: buys at your price or lower, sells at your price or higher. It may never fill, but you control the price. A limit that waits in the order book is a maker order and usually pays the lower fee.
- Stop (stop-market): becomes a market order once price touches your stop. This is the normal stop loss; it closes the trade even if the fill is a little worse.
- Stop-limit: becomes a limit order at the stop. It protects the price but can be skipped in a fast move, which is dangerous for a stop loss.
- Take profit: closes the trade at your target.
- Reduce-only (futures): the order can only make your position smaller, never flip it. Use it for stops and targets so a fill never opens a new position by accident.
Fees: maker, taker, funding, spread
Exchanges charge a percentage of the position value on every fill. Taker fees (market orders and stops) are higher than maker fees (limit orders that wait). Typical numbers are around 0.02 % to 0.1 % per side, depending on the market and your volume tier; check your own exchange's fee page.
Fees are charged on the whole position, not on your margin. With leverage this matters: 1,000 USDT of margin at 10× is a 10,000 USDT position, and a 0.05 % taker fee on open and close costs 10 USDT, which is 1 % of your margin before the price has moved at all. Perpetual futures add funding every few hours; CFDs add the spread and swap.
A sensible first trade
- Write the plan before entering: the entry, the stop loss and the target.
- Decide the risk: 1 % of the account is a common limit. Turn it into a size with the crypto position size calculator.
- Check the reward against the risk with the risk-reward calculator.
- On futures, check that the liquidation price is far beyond your stop.
- Place the stop and the target as soon as the trade is open, and keep a simple journal of every trade.
Worked example
You buy 0.01 BTC on spot at 100,000 USDT (1,000 USDT) and sell it at 103,000 (1,030 USDT). With a 0.1 % fee on each side you pay 1.00 + 1.03 = 2.03 USDT, so the profit is 30 − 2.03 = 27.97 USDT. The same move on a 10× futures position of 0.1 BTC gives 300 USDT, minus about 10 USDT of fees at 0.05 % per side, and the same 3 % move against you would have cost 300 USDT, nearly a third of the margin.
Tools for this guide
Questions
Is spot or futures better for beginners?
Spot is simpler: no liquidation, no funding and no short selling. Learn position sizing and stops on small spot trades first; futures add leverage, which makes every mistake bigger.
What is the difference between crypto futures and CFDs?
Futures are traded on a crypto exchange and sized in coins or contracts; CFDs are offered by brokers on platforms such as MT5 and sized in lots, with a spread and swap instead of funding.
Why did my market order fill at a different price?
That is slippage: the order takes the best prices in the order book, and in a fast or thin market those can be worse than the last price you saw. A limit order avoids it but may not fill.
How much does one crypto trade cost?
The fee rate times the position value, on both the open and the close. Add funding for perpetual futures, or the spread and swap for CFDs.
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