Pacifica provides a comprehensive suite of order types designed to suit both simple market entries and sophisticated risk-management strategies. Understanding which order type to use — and when — is essential for controlling your execution price, managing position risk, and protecting profits.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/pacifica-fi/docs-migrate/llms.txt
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Core Order Types
- Market
- Limit
- Stop Market
- Stop Limit
A market order executes immediately at the best available prices in the order book. It prioritizes speed of execution over price precision and is the most straightforward way to enter or exit a position quickly.Best used for: Urgent entries or exits where getting filled matters more than the exact execution price.
Take Profit and Stop Loss (TP/SL)
TP/SL orders are conditional orders attached to an open position. They automatically place a closing order when the market reaches a level you specify, allowing you to lock in profits or cap losses without manually monitoring the market.- Take Profit (TP): Triggered when the price moves favourably past your target. On a long position, the TP triggers when price rises above your set level and places a sell order. On a short, it triggers when price falls below your level and places a buy order.
- Stop Loss (SL): Triggered when the price moves adversely past a threshold. On a long, an SL triggers when price falls below your level. On a short, it triggers when price rises above it.
Position TP/SL
You can attach TP/SL orders directly to an open position from the positions panel. These orders are automatically linked to the position and will be cancelled if the position is closed by other means.TP/SL Trigger Price vs Limit Price
When placing a stop-limit style TP/SL, you set two values:| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Trigger Price | The price level that activates the order |
| Limit Price | The price at which the resulting limit order is placed |
Reduce-Only Flag
Marking an order as reduce-only ensures it can only decrease the size of an existing position, never increase it or open a new position in the opposite direction. If no matching position exists, or if the position has already been closed, the reduce-only order is automatically cancelled. This flag is particularly useful for TP/SL orders to prevent accidentally reversing a position in volatile markets.Time-In-Force Options
All limit orders require a time-in-force (TIF) setting that determines how long the order remains active:| TIF | Full Name | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| GTC | Good-Till-Cancelled | Remains active in the order book until fully filled or manually cancelled. |
| IOC | Immediate-or-Cancel | Attempts to match immediately at the specified price or better; any unfilled portion is cancelled instantly. |
| ALO | Add-Liquidity-Only (Post Only) | Added to the order book only if it would not immediately match against an existing order, ensuring maker fee treatment. |
| TOB | Top-of-Book | A special post-only variant: if the order would cross the book, it is repriced to the best available bid or ask rather than being cancelled. Best bid = lowest ask minus one tick; best ask = highest bid plus one tick. |
GTC and IOC limit orders, along with all market orders, are subject to the same randomized 50–100 ms delay applied to protect liquidity providers.
Self-Trade Prevention
Pacifica implements automatic self-trade prevention (STP) to ensure that two orders from the same account never execute against each other. How it works: When a new incoming order would match against a resting order placed by the same account, the resting order is cancelled and the new order proceeds normally through the order book. The cancelled order appears as “Rejected” in your order history. This behaviour is automatic and cannot be disabled. It applies to all order types and all accounts.Common TP/SL Questions
Why was my TP/SL not triggered even though price crossed my level on the chart?
Why was my TP/SL not triggered even though price crossed my level on the chart?
This is most likely because your TP/SL is set to trigger on mark price, while the chart displays last traded price. Mark price is a composite of the oracle price, Pacifica’s own mid/last, and external perpetual prices — it moves more smoothly and does not react to short-lived wicks in Pacifica’s own order book.If you want your orders to trigger on last traded price instead, you can change the trigger condition when placing the stop order.
Why didn't my TP/SL close my position at the exact price I set?
Why didn't my TP/SL close my position at the exact price I set?
Stop orders are not the same as limit orders. A stop order is triggered when price reaches your specified level, but once triggered it executes at market (for a stop market) or posts a limit (for a stop limit). During volatile periods, the market may have moved beyond your trigger price before the order was processed, and natural order book slippage means execution at the exact trigger price is rare. This is expected behaviour across all exchanges.
My TP/SL triggered but didn't close my full position — the price kept moving.
My TP/SL triggered but didn't close my full position — the price kept moving.
If you used a stop-limit order, the triggered limit order will only fill if the market is at or better than your specified limit price. If the market continues to move through your limit price without recovering, the limit order rests unfilled.To guarantee execution once the trigger is hit, use a stop-market order. Stop-market orders prioritise execution certainty over price precision. This is especially important when using stops to prevent liquidation.
Why does my liquidation price look like it's approaching even though this position hasn't moved much?
Why does my liquidation price look like it's approaching even though this position hasn't moved much?
If you are using cross margin, all open positions share the same margin pool. Losses on other positions consume shared equity, which effectively tightens the liquidation threshold on every cross position simultaneously — including positions that have barely moved. Consider using isolated margin for more predictable, position-specific liquidation prices.