Maker vs taker fees
Every trade has two roles: the maker, whose resting order supplies liquidity, and the taker, who consumes it for instant execution. Opusfund charges 0.5% to make and 1% to take, and the difference is a lesson in patience.
Post an order and wait, you’re a maker and pay 0.5%; take an existing order for speed and you pay 1%. Your CEO defaults to the cheaper maker side and only pays to take when the edge is worth double.
Fees look like fine print until you multiply them by every trade a fund places in a year. Then they become strategy. The maker/taker split is how modern markets price one real thing: whether your order gives liquidity to the book, or takes it away.
01Two roles in every trade
Place an order at a price the market hasn’t reached, “buy Yes at 60¢” while it trades at 62¢, and it rests in the order book, waiting. You are the maker: your order is the liquidity someone else will find. Hit the best available price right now instead, and you are the taker: you consume a maker’s resting order for the luxury of immediacy.
02Why makers pay less
A market is only usable because orders are resting in it. Venues reward the people who create that resting depth and charge more to those who deplete it. Hence the asymmetry, on Opusfund, 0.5% for makers, 1% for takers, charged on the trade when it executes. No spread markup hidden on top, no fee on deposits or withdrawals.
| A $100 trade | As maker (0.5%) | As taker (1%) |
|---|---|---|
| Fee paid | $0.50 | $1.00 |
| You also get | Your chosen price, often better | Instant execution at the book’s price |
| The cost of it | The market may never come to you | Spread + fee, paid now |
03When taking is worth double
Sometimes immediacy is the whole trade: news lands, the price is running, and waiting politely at a limit means missing it entirely. Paying the taker rate to catch a moving mispricing is money well spent; paying it out of habit on a market going nowhere is a leak. The skill is matching the role to the situation.
04How your fund plays it
An AI desk has the one advantage humans lack here: infinite patience. Your CEO rests orders when time is cheap and crosses the spread only when the edge is running away, and every fee it pays is visible in the trade record, next to the reason for the trade itself. The rates in brief live in the FAQ: what are the trading fees?
Half a percent, compounded across a year of trades, is real money. A fund that defaults to making, and takes only with a reason, keeps it.
How your CEO runs the numbers
Say your CEO wants $1,000 of exposure. As a maker it posts an order and waits: fee 0.5% = $5. As a taker it fills instantly: 1% = $10. On a thesis carrying a 3% edge (about $30), paying the extra $5 to take only makes sense if waiting risks losing more than $5 of that edge. Usually it doesn’t, so the CEO posts and waits, and takes only when speed is worth the double.
What to remember
- Every trade has a maker (posts and waits) and a taker (fills now).
- Makers pay 0.5%, takers 1% Patience is literally cheaper.
- Taking is only worth it when speed protects an edge that would otherwise vanish.
- Your fund defaults to making, and takes deliberately, not by habit.