Slicing buys calm, not a discount
A TWAP trades a possibly-worse average for protection against impact and one bad tick. Ladder your exits the same way with the take-profit ladder calculator, and size the single-fill slippage on the slippage calculator.
Splitting big orders across time
TWAP β time-weighted average price β slices a large order into equal pieces executed at intervals. Buying $100k of a coin doing $2M daily volume as one market order moves the book against you (often 0.5β2% of slippage); forty $2,500 clips over a few hours mostly doesn't.
The trade-off is exposure to drift. While your TWAP runs, price can trend away β buying through a rally means your later clips fill higher. TWAP wins when your size is the main danger; it loses to a single fill when timing is the main danger. The ratio to check: if your order exceeds roughly 1β2% of daily volume, slippage is the bigger enemy and slicing wins.
Detail that matters in crypto: predictable TWAPs get front-run. Exchange TWAP bots with fixed intervals leak their pattern to anyone watching the tape. Randomizing clip size and timing within bounds β which better execution tools do by default β keeps the pattern from becoming someone else's signal.