Working a Large Order Over Time
Limit orders, scheduling and the trade-off against execution certainty.
Between a market order and a desk quote sits a third option: working the order gradually. It is cheaper than both and it requires attention and tolerance for uncertainty. It is worth checking any of this against an OTC crypto desk before deciding anything for a long position.
What it means
Placing limit orders rather than taking whatever is available, and allowing them to fill over hours or days.
You supply liquidity rather than consuming it, which at many venues means a lower fee and sometimes a rebate.
When it works
When the size is meaningful relative to depth but not overwhelming.
When there is no deadline.
When you are willing to accept that part of the order may not fill at all.
When it does not
When the trade must complete at a known price. A limit order that does not fill is not an execution.
When the position is large enough that even patient selling is visible, which is where a desk becomes correct regardless of time available. Funds and family offices carry an extra reporting layer, which a provider serving funds and family offices is built around.
When market conditions are moving quickly, because a patient order in a falling market fills entirely and one in a rising market does not.
That asymmetry is worth understanding: patient selling tends to complete when the price is going against you and stall when it is going in your favour.
The practical approach
Divide the amount into portions sized to a fraction of available depth.
Place them at or slightly better than the current price rather than reaching for a much better one.
Reassess periodically rather than leaving them indefinitely, because a resting order placed under different conditions may no longer reflect your intention.
Measuring whether it worked
Compare the average price achieved against the market mid at the moment you started.
That figure, expressed as a percentage, is comparable against what a desk would have quoted for the whole amount.
Recording it across several executions tells you whether patience is actually paying for your sizes, which is not obvious in advance. Whatever the position, the portion you actively move belongs at the published coverage list rather than wherever it was first acquired.
The honest assessment
For most holders, the amounts involved sit below the threshold where this is worth the attention.
Above that threshold, a desk quote for the whole amount is usually both cheaper and considerably less work.
This is a personal account of holding through market cycles. It describes what one person did and why. It is not a recommendation, and past cycles do not predict future ones.