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Every trade on MagicMarkets has two sides. Knowing which side you are taking explains most of the behaviour you will see.

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Making and taking

Taking means accepting a price that is already on the book. It matches immediately if the size is there. Making means posting a price nobody has met yet. Your order sits on the book and waits. Someone else takes it, or it does not match at all. Taking fills now, as far as the size on the book allows. Making can get a better price, but the order may not fill.

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Buying and selling

An outcome has two sides. On most markets you can trade either one. Buy means you win if the outcome happens. Your risk is the amount you put in. Sell means you win if the outcome does not happen. You are the counterparty. Your risk is your liability: what you would owe if the outcome does happen. Below 50c, your liability is larger than the amount you stand to win. Above 50c, it is smaller. A buy at 33c and a sell at 33c are the same trade seen from either end. When you buy, someone sells. Exchanges and the API call these back and lay, and quote prices in decimal odds. Buying at 40c is backing at 2.50. See Prices and ticks.

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Where the liquidity comes from

The book you see combines two sources:
  1. Orders from other MagicMarkets traders.
  2. Aggregated liquidity from more than 25 sportsbooks, sports exchanges and prediction markets, the authorised liquidity providers.
Both appear as one book, and you are not told which source filled you. That is deliberate. The point is the price, not the venue. The consequence is depth, especially in-play. A single-venue book often thins out once a match is running, where an aggregated one holds up.

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Matching and partial fills

An order can match in pieces. If you want 500 USDT at 2.10 and only 200 is available there, you get 200 filled and 300 still working. The order shows Filling while it works, then Filled if it completes or Partial if it stops part way. Profit and loss uses your average matched price. A partly filled order shows both that price and your limit. You are never filled worse than your limit. A limit order matches at your price or better, and a fill at a better price is normal.

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Closing before settlement

You do not have to hold a position to the final whistle. To close, you take the other side of the same outcome at the current price. The two trades sit against each other and the difference is locked in whichever way the event goes. A sell puts up liability, so closing needs free cash in your account for a moment. Smart credit recognises when two of your positions offset and returns the capital behind them to your available balance instead of holding it to settlement. Closing a position walks through the arithmetic with an interactive example.

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Zero commission

No commission is charged on a match, for either side. MagicMarkets adds no fee or markup to the price. See Zero commission.

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