If you buy Bitcoin through spot trading, you hold that Bitcoin. This is the most familiar form of trading and works much like buying a stock through a traditional brokerage app.
What is spot trading?
Spot trading is the direct purchase or sale of an asset for immediate ownership. When you buy an asset on the spot market, it becomes yours: you can hold it, sell it later, or in some cases use it elsewhere.
The word “spot” distinguishes it from perpetual trading, where you trade the price movement of an asset without owning it. In spot trading, your profit or loss comes simply from the change in the asset’s price after you buy it.
How is spot trading different from perpetual trading?
The core difference is ownership. Spot trading means you own the asset. Perpetual trading means you hold a contract that tracks the asset’s price, without owning it. See What Is Perpetual Trading?.
Spot Trading
You own the actual asset Profit only when the price rises No leverage by default No funding payments
Perpetual Trading
You hold a contract tracking the price Profit in either direction (long or short) Leverage commonly used Funding payments apply
What order types can you use in spot trading?
There are two main order types on Nado:
Market order — buys or sells immediately at the best available market price. This is the fastest way to trade, but the final execution price may differ slightly from the price shown, especially when the market is moving quickly.
Limit order — lets you set a specific price at which you want to buy or sell. It only executes if the market reaches your chosen price and there is enough liquidity, so it may not fill immediately.
A market order prioritizes speed; a limit order prioritizes price control.
What is fractional buying?
One useful feature of spot trading is that you don’t always need to buy one full unit of an asset. If a tokenized stock is priced at around $600 per unit but you only want to invest $300, you may still be able to buy roughly $300 worth rather than a full unit. This is known as buying a fractional amount, and it makes higher-priced assets accessible with smaller budgets.
Key takeaways
Spot trading means buying or selling an asset for direct ownership.
It differs from perpetual trading, where you trade price movement without owning the asset.
Market orders execute immediately; limit orders let you set your price.
Fractional buying lets you purchase part of a unit rather than a whole one.