Market order price protection: why a market order can leave a remainder
To stop a market order filling at a wild price when the order book is thin, most exchanges cap how far a market order can execute from the current price. This is called market order price protection, or slippage protection. It matters most when you close a position with a market order, because it can leave part of the position behind. Here’s how it works and how to avoid being caught out.
How it works
Many exchanges turn a market order into a limit order placed a set distance from the best price, and submit it immediate-or-cancel. Anything that would fill beyond that band is cancelled. So on a thin or fast-moving market, your market order can fill only partly, and the rest is dropped, usually with no separate alert.
Most fill up to the band and cancel the rest; a few reject the whole order instead. The table below lists each exchange’s band, and what it does when an order can’t fully fill.
The band differs by exchange
The figures below were checked against each exchange’s own documentation in August 2026 (except where noted); exchanges change these without much notice, so follow the source link if it matters to you.
| Exchange | Markets | Band | If it can’t fully fill | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BingX | Futures | ~2% from the mark price | Partial fill; excess cancelled | docs |
| Bybit | Spot & futures | Per-order slippage tolerance you set | Partial fill; rest cancelled | docs |
| Coinbase Advanced | Spot | 10% from the last trade; 1% on stablecoin pairs; fixed | Partial fill | docs |
| HTX | Spot | ~±10% from the latest price; fixed | Partial fill; rest cancelled | docs |
| Hyperliquid | Spot & perps | Slippage-capped IOC limit; a max deviation per order | Partial fill; rest cancelled | docs |
| Kraken | Spot & futures | Futures 1%; spot cancels when the spread is unusually wide (varies by pair, up to ~20%) | Futures: partial fill. Spot: rejects the order | futures, spot |
| KuCoin | Spot & futures | Spot varies by pair (often ~10%); futures ±5% of the mark price | Partial fill; rest cancelled | spot, futures |
| MEXC | Spot | IOC limit 10% from the price | Partial fill; rest cancelled | Altrady testing (no public doc) |
| OKX | Spot | 5% off the best bid/ask; fixed | Rejects the whole order | docs |
| Poloniex | Spot | More than ~20% from the best bid/ask | Rejects the whole order | docs |
| WOO X | Spot & futures | Adjustable 1–10% (default 5% spot, 3% perpetuals) | Partial fill; rest cancelled | docs |
Not every exchange publishes a clear rule, so on any thin market it’s safest to assume some protection applies.
Why it matters most when closing a position
This can affect Market, Stop Market, Stop Loss (market), and Trailing Take Profit orders, since a trailing take profit closes with a market order. If a market close only partly fills:
- On spot, you’re left holding some of the coin, still exposed to price movement.
- On futures, part of the position stays open and keeps accruing funding, margin, and liquidation risk. That’s easy to miss, because nothing visibly failed.
How to avoid it
- Close with a limit order on the opposite side of the book. If it only partly fills, the rest rests on the book instead of being dropped.
- Use a Stop Limit instead of a Stop Loss (market), with the limit price set out at the band distance.
- Use a Trailing Stop Loss > Follow Price (with a limit stop loss) instead of a Trailing Take Profit (which always uses a market order).
Spot short positions are especially prone to a leftover on close, for a related sizing reason. See how do spot short positions work?.
Still stuck?
If a market order left a remainder you didn’t expect, check the market’s liquidity and the exchange’s protection band above. If it still doesn’t add up, reach out through support chat with the market and the order.