How do the taker and maker strategies affect your profit

Every trader eventually faces a choice: act quickly or wait for a favorable price. This dilemma underpins the difference between taker and maker orders — two fundamental strategies for interacting with the market. Understanding how taker and maker orders work on a crypto exchange directly impacts your fees and ultimate profit.

Urgency versus patience: what is a taker order

A taker order is a trader’s choice to sacrifice a slightly better price for instant execution. When you place such an order, you take existing liquidity from the order book, matching with already placed orders from other participants. It’s like walking into a store and buying an item at the listed price without bargaining.

Takers are essential for traders who need to open or close a position quickly to lock in losses or profits. However, convenience comes at a cost — for fast execution, the taker pays a higher fee. On most crypto exchanges, this fee ranges from 0.04% to 0.06% of the order amount, depending on the trading pair and user status.

Providing liquidity: how the maker strategy works

In contrast to the taker, a maker is a patient market participant willing to wait for their order to be filled. Instead of taking existing liquidity, the maker creates it by adding their order to the order book and waiting for someone (usually a taker) to match with it.

Makers perform an important social function in the market — they provide stability and narrow the spread between bid and ask prices. Their contribution to market quality is rewarded with reduced fees, typically around 0.01% to 0.03% of the order amount. This lower fee recognizes that makers contribute to the health of the trading ecosystem.

Direct comparison: taker order versus maker order

Practical calculation: how fees eat into your profit

Let’s consider a specific scenario. Imagine two traders trading the same volume on the same position:

Initial conditions:

• Trading pair: BTC/USDT
• Volume: 2 BTC
• Entry price: $60,000 per BTC
• Exit price: $61,000 per BTC
• Profit before fees: $2,000

Scenario 1: trader chose a maker

Using limit orders and patiently waiting for a better price, this trader pays:

• Opening fee: 2 × 60,000 × 0.02% = $24
• Closing fee: 2 × 61,000 × 0.02% = $24.40
• Total real profit: $2,000 − $24 − $24.40 = $1,951.60

Scenario 2: trader chose a taker

Using market orders for instant execution, this trader pays:

• Opening fee: 2 × 60,000 × 0.06% = $72
• Closing fee: 2 × 61,000 × 0.06% = $73.20
• Total real profit: $2,000 − $72 − $73.20 = $1,854.80

The difference in net profit is $96.80 — nearly 5% of the profit lost! While this may seem minor at small volumes, at larger trading sizes, the difference becomes catastrophic.

When to use each strategy

Taker is suitable when:

1. Speed is critical — you see a strong impulse and fear missing out
2. Preventing losses — you need to close a losing position urgently
3. Arbitrage — you catch temporary price discrepancies between exchanges or futures
4. Plan disruption — a force majeure occurs, requiring immediate liquidation

Maker is optimal when:

1. Patience in trading — you have specific entry and exit levels
2. Scaling positions — you gradually buy or sell the desired volume
3. Long-term investing — you’re willing to wait hours or days
4. Cost optimization — you maximize profitability by saving on fees

Tips for effective use of maker orders

If you decide to use the maker strategy to reduce fees, follow these recommendations:

1. Place limit orders strategically. For buying, set the price below the best ask; for selling, above the best bid.
2. Use the “Post-Only” feature (if available on your exchange). This ensures your order remains in the order book and isn’t instantly filled as a taker order.
3. Check the current spread. If the spread is very narrow (a few pips), your maker order may not be filled — set a more aggressive price.
4. Consider volatility. During high volatility, maker orders may often go unfilled. In such periods, sometimes it’s better to pay the taker fee for guaranteed execution.
5. Monitor order lifetime. Don’t leave maker orders active longer than necessary — the market can turn sharply.

Conclusion: choose consciously

The difference between a taker and a maker isn’t just about fees. It’s a choice between speed and savings, between guaranteed execution and cost optimization. Successful traders switch flexibly between both strategies depending on market conditions.

Before opening a position, ask yourself: do I really need execution right now, or can I wait a few minutes and save on fees? In most cases, the maker strategy will help you preserve more capital for future opportunities. But when the moment is missed, a good taker order can save your portfolio from disaster.