Placing a trade

Buying takes a few seconds and several steps, because your funds have to cross to the venue before an order can fill. Here is what each part of the panel means and what happens after you confirm.

1
Open a market and pick a side
From the home page, open any market. The trade panel offers Yes and No with their current prices in cents. Selecting a side sets what you are buying.
2
Enter an amount
Type a dollar amount or use the quick-add buttons. The amount is capped at your available cash. The panel shows the shares that amount buys, calculated by walking the live order book rather than dividing by the quoted price, so it reflects what you would actually get.
3
Confirm
Confirm the ticket and leave the tab open. A progress overlay reports each step as it completes.
4
See the position
On success the panel shows the fill and your new position appears on the market page and in Profile.

#2x and 3x

On listed markets the panel offers a multiple. 1x is the spot path above. 2x/3x stays on Robinhood Chain: margin vs the vault, no share conversion. You get a success modal and a P&L card when it lands. Rules and fees: Leverage markets.

#What is happening while you wait

The overlay is a progress ring rather than a labelled checklist, so it shows movement without naming the stage. Internally a buy passes through four:

Stage	What is happening
`setup`	Validating the amount, deriving your proxy wallet, obtaining trading credentials, and setting the venue’s one-time approvals. Only slow the first time.
`debit`	Taking the `USDG` from your cash wallet, which involves signing on Robinhood Chain.
`convert`	Turning it into `pUSD` via Relay and waiting for it to land in your proxy wallet.
`fill`	Placing the market order and matching it against the book.

#How the order is placed

Orders are market orders of the fill-or-kill kind. A buy carries a maximum price and a sell carries a minimum, derived from an estimate of the current market price. That limit is a slippage guard: if the book has moved far enough that your order would fill much worse than quoted, it is rejected rather than filled at a bad price.

The consequence is that a rejected order in a fast-moving market is the guard doing its job. Your pUSD stays in the proxy and retrying re-quotes against the new book.

#Things that can stop a trade

Amount too small. Both the conversion and the venue have minimums. Increase the amount.
No fillable liquidity. Nothing is resting on the other side at an acceptable price. Try a smaller size or a more active market.
Price moved. The slippage guard rejected the fill. Retry.
Venue in maintenance. The app checks the order book’s health first and says so plainly rather than failing obscurely.

In each of these your money is safe. If the conversion already ran, it is sitting as pUSD in your proxy and a retry spends it rather than converting again.

#Cost, honestly

Buying pays the ask and selling receives the bid, so a position is worth slightly less than you paid the moment it opens. That is the spread, not a charge, and positions and P&L works through the arithmetic.