> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ryft.market/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Trading
> Pick a market, choose a direction and size, read the preview, confirm. ryft handles the rest.
ryft handles which exchange — or exchanges — the order goes to, and moves your funds there.
`SOL-PERP`, `BTC-PERP`, or anything in the market list.
**Long** profits if the price rises; **Short** if it falls.
Expected fill, fee, routing, and ETA.
## Read the preview before you confirm
The preview is read-only — nothing moves while you're looking at it.
Two things worth pointing out in that panel. **Route via** compares the smart route against each
venue's own price, so you can see what routing is buying you. And every book level carries a
**source** tag — `HL`, `AST`, `PAC`, `PHO` — so a fill is never anonymous.
| What it tells you | Why it matters |
| ----------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Expected fill price** | What you'll actually pay, walking the book at your size |
| **Fee** | The taker fee in USD, so the number you compare is all-in |
| **Effective price** | Fill plus fee — the honest cost |
| **Route** | Which venue, or the split across venues |
| **Warm or cold** | Whether funds are already on that venue |
| **ETA** | How long until you're filled |
| **Bridge cost** | If funds have to cross a chain, what that costs |
If the size is bigger than the available depth, the preview says so rather than quoting a price it
can't fill.
## Warm and cold — why the first trade is slower
Your deposit sits in a Solana pool, and exchanges live on different chains. So the first time you
trade on a given venue, your funds have to get there.
* **Warm** — collateral is already on that venue. Fills immediately.
* **Cold** — funds move first. Seconds to about a minute.
| Venue | Chain | First trade | After that |
| --------------- | --------- | ----------- | ---------- |
| **Phoenix** | Solana | \~5s | immediate |
| **Pacifica** | Solana | \~8s | immediate |
| **Hyperliquid** | Arbitrum | \~25s | immediate |
| **Aster** | BNB Chain | \~57s | immediate |
**A cold trade that seems stuck usually isn't.** Bridging takes as long as it takes; the ETA in the
preview is the honest estimate. If it exceeds that materially, the job reports an error rather than
hanging silently. Cold trades run in the background — you can leave the panel.
## How routing picks a venue
ryft builds a **consolidated order book** from every live venue and walks it by price to fill your
size as cheaply as possible. If the best fill is 3 on one exchange and 2 on another, the order
goes out as two legs.
The comparison is **fee-adjusted** — a venue with a better headline price but a worse taker fee can
lose, because what you pay is the all-in number.
If you tell ryft how long you plan to hold, routing also prices in the funding you'll pay or earn on
each venue over that period. For a multi-day hold that can outweigh the entry price difference
entirely — see [funding](/concepts/perps-explained#funding).
Routing only considers venues ryft can actually execute on. You can override it and force a specific
venue if you want.
## Market and limit orders
* **Market** — fills now, at the best available price across venues. Use when getting in matters more
than the exact price.
* **Limit** — fills only at your price or better. Use when the price matters more than certainty of
filling. It may not fill at all.
## Closing a position
Open the **Positions** panel and close from there. Like opening, closing runs as a background job.
Closing returns your collateral **on that venue** — it stays there, which keeps your next trade on
that venue instant. To bring it back to your Solana pool,
[**reclaim**](/guides/withdrawing) it; to take it off ryft entirely, reclaim then withdraw.
## What can go wrong
| You see | What it means | What to do |
| ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| "Insufficient depth" | Your size is larger than the book can fill | Reduce size, or split across two orders |
| Stuck at "executing" | A cold start — funds are bridging | Wait for the ETA; it resolves or reports an error |
| "Not enough collateral" | Position needs more margin than you've deployed | Fund more into the trade, or reduce size/leverage |
| Fill worse than preview | The book moved between preview and confirm | Normal on fast markets — a preview is a quote, not a guarantee |
| Failed after funds moved | The bridge landed but the order didn't | Funds are on the venue, not lost — retry, or check the portfolio |
**Your money is never unaccounted for.** If a job reports `failed`, the error names the stage that
failed. Funds are always in exactly one of three places: your pool, on a venue, or in a position.
**Risk.** Positions can be **liquidated** — closed automatically at a loss — if the market moves
against you far enough. At 20× leverage that's roughly a 5% move. ryft shows your liquidation price
on every open position. Know it before you open, not after.