onboarding

CEX Trading — place your first real order in 5 minutes

Worked example: buy $25 of ETH on Coinbase, market order, with the quote-mode toggle

5 min · beginner

What you'll have when finished

  • Your first real spot trade executed on a connected CEX
  • Understand the BASE/QUOTE amount toggle and why QUOTE mode is the right starting default
  • Read the live conversion line before submitting (the safety net against typos)
  • Verify the fill in Open Orders + Trade History

Before you start

  • Start with $10-25. The goal of your first trade is learning the flow, not P&L.
  • Always trade in QUOTE mode for your first 10 trades. "Spend $25" is harder to misread than "buy 0.0109 ETH".
  • Market orders fill at the BEST AVAILABLE price, not the displayed price. Spread + slippage = small differences are normal.

Walkthrough

  1. Connect Coinbase first (one-time, if you haven't)

    Coinbase is the easiest first connection because the fee tier is reasonable and the API key setup is the most beginner-friendly. 1. Go to **Settings → Connections → Coinbase → Connect** 2. On Coinbase: Settings → API → Create Key. Permissions: **trade** ONLY. Never enable **transfer**. 3. Copy the API Key + Secret + Passphrase. Paste all three into haythix. 4. Save. Green check = connected. If you already have Coinbase USDC, you can skip ahead. If you don't, deposit $25 of USDC to your spot account first.

    Success criteria: Coinbase connected with green status · $25 USDC available in spot wallet

  2. Open CEX Trading and pick your pair

    Navigate to **CEX Trade → CEX Trading**. Top-right: the amber exchange selector should already show Coinbase. If you have multiple exchanges connected, click it and pick Coinbase. In the Place Order tab, find the pair field. Type **ETH** in the search. The dropdown narrows to pairs starting with ETH. Click **ETH/USDC**. The TradingView chart above updates to show ETH/USDC on Coinbase. You can ignore it for now — we're placing a market order, not chart-watching.

    Success criteria: Pair = ETH/USDC selected · Chart loaded

  3. Set side = Buy, type = Market

    Two toggles: **Green Buy button** (top-left) — you'll spend USDC to receive ETH. **Market** button (just below the pair) — fills NOW at the best available price. **Why market and not limit for your first trade?** Market fills immediately so you see the full flow end-to-end in seconds. Limit orders sit on the book and might not fill for hours — you'll learn limit later when patience pays off. The **Market Price** card below shows the current ETH/USDC rate, refreshed every 15s. Note this number — you'll compare it against your actual fill price.

    Success criteria: Side = Buy · Type = Market · Noted current market price

  4. The critical step — flip to QUOTE mode

    Below the Market Price card, find **"Enter amount in"** with two small buttons: **ETH** and **USDC**. Click **USDC**. Why this matters: in QUOTE mode you type the DOLLAR amount you want to spend. In BASE mode you type the ETH amount. For your first trade, dollars are much easier to reason about — "spend $25" is unambiguous; "buy 0.0109 ETH" requires mental math you can get wrong. After clicking USDC, the Amount field label changes to **"Amount (USDC)"**.

    Success criteria: Amount mode = USDC · Field label confirms "Amount (USDC)"

  5. Type 25 and READ THE LIVE CONVERSION

    Type **25** in the Amount field. Below the field, you'll see a green confirmation: ``` You will spend $25.00 USDC for 0.0109 ETH ``` **STOP. READ THIS LINE BEFORE SUBMITTING.** This is the safety net against the most common rookie error: typing 250 instead of 25, or 0.025 instead of 25. If the line says you're about to spend $250 and you only meant to spend $25, the green text shows you the mistake BEFORE you submit. For your first trade, the line should show approximately: - Spend: $25 USDC - Receive: about 0.01 ETH (depending on ETH price at the moment) If it says anything else, fix the amount before continuing.

    Success criteria: Amount = 25 · Live conversion line reads what you intend

  6. Submit + watch for the fill

    Click the green **Buy** button at the bottom of the order panel. What happens: 1. Request goes via CCXT to Coinbase 2. Coinbase fills the market order at the best available price 3. Returns an order ID + fill details 4. haythix displays a success card with the order ID and fill price Total round-trip: usually 100-500ms. **The fill price may differ slightly from the displayed Market Price** — that's spread + slippage, completely normal for market orders. For $25, the difference is typically a fraction of a cent. For larger orders, switch to Limit orders to lock in your price. If you see an error (insufficient balance, min notional, etc.) the panel shows the exact reason. Most common error: not enough USDC available. Solution: top up or reduce amount.

    Success criteria: Order submitted · Got success card with order ID · No error

  7. Verify in Open Orders + Trade History + All Balances

    Three places to confirm the trade worked end-to-end: **Open Orders tab** — if you placed a market order, this is EMPTY (market orders fill immediately, they don't sit on the book). That's correct, not a bug. **Trade History tab** — your fresh trade appears at the top with timestamp, side (BUY), pair (ETH/USDC), amount (~0.01 ETH), fill price, fee. **All Balances tab** — your USDC balance is now ~$25 lower, ETH is ~0.01 higher. Sanity-check the math. If all three tabs reflect the trade, you've completed your first end-to-end CEX trade on haythix. 🎉 If something looks wrong (e.g., USDC didn't decrease, no entry in Trade History), it usually means you're looking at a stale cache. Click the **Refresh button** (top-right) to re-pull.

    Success criteria: Trade visible in Trade History · Balance changes match expectation · No stale cache

What's next

Now that you've done one trade, the rest of the platform unlocks: - **Place a Limit order** — same form, just toggle Market → Limit and set a target price. Sit on the book. - **Try Smart Trade** — [Smart Trade](/smart-trade) adds TP + SL + trailing stop on top of the entry. The professional way to place trades you actually plan to manage. - **Compare exchanges** — connect Binance + Kraken too. Switch the exchange selector and notice fee differences. - **Automate** — once you're comfortable with manual trades, Grid Bot ([Grid Bot](/grid-bot)) and DCA Safety ([DCA Safety](/dca-safety)) automate the buying for you. The Place Order tab on this page handles 90% of one-shot trades. Smart Trade handles the other 10% where you want pre-set TP/SL bundled with entry.