Time In Force

When placing an order, traders can select a time-in-force (TIF) strategy that determines how the order interacts with the order book and how long it remains active. Katana Perps supports four TIF options.

Good-Till-Cancelled (GTC)

A GTC order rests on the order book until it is either filled or explicitly canceled by the trader. There is no time limit — the order remains active indefinitely until one of those two conditions is met.

GTC is the default time-in-force setting. It is the most commonly used option for standard limit orders where the trader wants to place a passive order at a specific price and wait for the market to come to them.

Good-Til-Crossing (GTX)

A GTX order — also known as a post-only order — is designed to only add liquidity to the order book. If any part of a GTX order would immediately cross the spread and match against a resting order, the entire order is canceled without generating any fills.

GTX orders are primarily used by traders and market makers who want to guarantee they pay maker fees (which are lower than taker fees) and avoid inadvertently taking liquidity. This is especially useful for strategies built around earning the maker-taker fee spread.

Immediate-Or-Cancel (IOC)

An IOC order only takes liquidity from the order book and never becomes a resting order. When submitted, any portion of the order that can be immediately filled against resting orders is executed. The remaining unfilled portion is canceled.

IOC orders are useful when a trader wants to fill as much of their order as possible at the current market price, without leaving a residual order on the book that might get filled at a less favorable time.

Fill-Or-Kill (FOK)

A FOK order is similar to IOC in that it only takes liquidity, but with a stricter requirement: the entire specified quantity must be filled immediately, or the order is rejected entirely with no fills. There is no partial execution.

FOK orders are used in situations where partial fills are unacceptable — for example, when executing a hedging strategy that requires a precise position size.

FOK orders must specify the CN self-trade prevention policy to be accepted by the matching engine. See the Katana Perps API documentation for details.