Order Book

The order book is a list of the currently open buy and sell orders for an asset, organized by price.

The system that matches buy orders with sell orders, called the matching engine, uses the order book to execute trades for participants of the exchange. The order matching system is the core of all electronic exchanges and determines the efficiency and robustness of the exchange. Order books generally contain the same information, but the layout can vary depending on the platform itself.

Historically, electronic exchanges have utilized centralized systems to match buy and sell orders with each other. This method remains the most robust way to facilitate electronic exchange.