Why don't I immediately receive contracts when I submit a limit buy/sell order?

Mettle Market is a market, and markets function based on an agreement between buyers and sellers.

When you place a limit order, you're signaling your willingness to buy or sell outcome shares at a specific price—but no trade happens until someone on the other side agrees to your terms.

In other words, placing a limit buy or sell order is not an instant purchase or sale. It’s an offer to trade, waiting for a matching counterparty. For example, if you submit a limit buy order for YES shares at $0.40, those shares won’t be created and sent to you until someone else is willing to sell YES shares to you at that price.

This is because Mettle Market operates on the principle of matching opposing intent—a buyer must be matched with a seller for a transaction to occur. Only once a match is found will contracts (outcome tokens) be created and transferred accordingly. Until then, your order remains open in the order book.