Quote from bone:
At least the way TT works in that scenario is that it will try to get filled at the best price between 2.80 and 2.85 if you had set your limit for 2.8 and specified a pay-up amount of 0.05. If there are no orders there to fill your trade, your order rests at 2.85. So, if there was an order at 2.83 as the best price it would have filled you there. If there is nothing to cross in your specified range, it becomes a resting order working at the extreme end of the range ( 2.85 ).
You obviously need to look at the order books during these market periods and make a reasonable and attainable decision on the pay-up tic limit range. You will not get filled if there is nothing there for the exchange to match it to. But at least it did not reach away a full point to satisfy a market order, either. TT can include implied pricing functionality - which tells you where you can get filled in order to satisfy a working exchange spread order. That can be very helpful with Nat Gas.