Understand a pool
Learn what a liquidity pool holds and how a trade changes its price.
A pool connects two tokens. Liquidity providers deposit assets into positions; traders pay a fee to exchange one asset for the other. The pool's available liquidity and current price determine how much a trade can receive.
Identify the market
Check both token mint addresses, their decimals, the pool address, and the network. A familiar ticker or logo does not prove token identity. Two pools for the same pair can have different liquidity, fees, and hooks.
Understand your trade
ExactIn starts from an input budget and a minimum acceptable output. ExactOut requests an output amount and caps the input. A quote reflects a moment in time. Your transaction's limits protect against a worse result; they do not reserve the quoted liquidity.
Price impact is the movement caused by your own trade. Slippage tolerance is the extra movement you permit between the quote and execution. A deeper pool can offer a better result even when its percentage fee is higher.
The protocol can expose partial consumption in some ExactIn operations. An application should clearly show the settled amounts and unspent input. Never interpret a submitted signature as a completed trade.
Two ways a market begins
A direct pool starts with a price and liquidity positions. A bonding curve starts with a configured price path and real inventory; when its conditions are met, it can graduate into a concentrated liquidity pool. Graduation changes the trading phase and needs a successful on-chain transaction.
Continue with liquidity choices, fees and costs, or the deeper launch explanation.