How long does it take to process a transaction on Bitstamp/BTC-e etc?

[Sinjin Jenson]

How long does it take to process a transaction on Bitstamp and/or other exchanges?

For example, if I place a buy order at the current ask price, how long does it take to go thru? What kind of factors are involved?

[CrashX]

BTC-e is done in seconds.

About the time it takes you to click Refresh. You also have instant access to your FIAT or BTC/Crypto

[Sinjin Jenson]

Presumably, if I placed a buy order at below the bid price, it would take longer -- perhaps the order would wait in the system until the bid price dropped below my reserve price? Or it if it never dropped, my order would sit there or time out?

Also, if I placed a large order, things could take longer?

(I'm trying to understand how an exchange works)

[Bambouca]

Its a simple System you just have to understand 2 Types of Orders.
1. the Limit Order: You put a buy order at a price where at the moment nobody wants to sell for and in the moment someone wants to sell for that price you buy.
2. a market Order: You put a buy order on the price someone want to sell, so you instantly buy from him.
with sell orders its the same thing.

A little example:
Person A wants to sell 1 BTC for a price of 500USD but in that moment the price is at 450 USD so noone buys it now. He put a Limit order at 500 USD and his coins are in the order book from that moment.
Person B later wants to buy 1 BTC. At this moment Person As order is the cheapest in the Order Book and B decides to buy for the 500USD. Then he makes a market Order and the trade is perfect. Person A gets 500USD and Person B gets 1BTC. If Person B wants to buy 2 BTC then he buys 1 BTC from Person A for the price of 500 and lets say the next in the order book sells 20BTC for 501 then he buys the other 1 BTC for 501.
 
I hope that helps you

[Sinjin Jenson]

Hey thanks for you reply. Indeed it is helpful, and although I'm new to bitcoin, perhaps my question goes a little beyond how do you buy/sell bitcoin.

At the moment I'm looking at Bitstamp, and the API in particular. I see that the API offers only the ability to place limit orders. Not only this, with Bitstamp, when you place an instant order, in effect what happens is that a limit order is placed with the reserve at the current bid/ask price depending on whether it is a buy/sell. This behaviour seems deliberate. The documentation states if the order cannot be met at the current price, it will be re-positioned ever 10 minutes. So it could typically take 10 minutes for an "instant order" to go thru?

So I am left wondering...

If I place a limit order to BUY at the current ASK price, and in the coming minutes, there is a price movement upward, then my order could not be met but just sit there? Right?

What happens is I place limit order to BUY at a price HIGHER than the ASK? Presumably, in this case, I pay just the ask price the moment the order is executed (and not my reserve price)?

[Sinjin Jenson]

Difficult to get my head around the perspective of a trader placing limit order vs that of some one placing instant buys. I get it now tho!

Thanks