How perps differ from owning the asset
- Long or short. You profit when the price moves in the direction you picked, up or down.
- No expiry. Unlike traditional futures, perps never expire. Hold a position for minutes or months.
- Multiplier. You can use leverage to open a position larger than your collateral.
- Funding. To keep the perp price close to the asset’s price, longs and shorts pay each other funding every hour.
- Liquidation. If losses use up your collateral, the position is liquidated.
Example: You open a 5x long on AAPL. If AAPL rises 10%, your return is about +50% on your collateral (before fees and funding). If it falls 10%, you lose about 50%.
Perps vs. buying the asset
Key terms
- Collateral: the USDC you put behind a trade. See Leverage.
- Multiplier: how many times your collateral your position is worth.
- Notional: the total size of the position (collateral × multiplier).
- Mark price: the reference price used to calculate PnL and liquidations.
- Funding rate: the periodic payment between longs and shorts. See Funding rates.
- Liquidation price: the price at which your position is closed because your collateral has run out. See Liquidations.
Next steps
Place your first trade
From sign-up to your first trade in five minutes.
Order types
Market, limit, trigger, and TWAP orders.