Positions and liquidation

What a position is, how its profit is worked out, and when it gets liquidated.

A position

• Margin is the USDC you put in. Leverage is 1x to 1000x. Size is margin × leverage: 10 USDC at 1000x is a 10,000 USDC position.
• The smallest position is 10,000 USDC in size: 10 USDC at 1000x, 100 USDC at 100x, or 10,000 USDC at 1x.
• On each market, an order that would put one side (longs or shorts) more than 10,000,000 USDC ahead of the other is refused. The order panel shows how much still fits. Closing is never limited.
• Markets: BTC and ETH, long or short.
• Every position stands alone (isolated margin). You can’t add margin to an open position; open another one instead.

Prices

Your entry is the oracle price in the block that includes your order, which is at most half a second after you send it (longer if prices are stale; see Oracle). Closing works the same way.

Profit and loss

long  PnL = size × (price − entry) / entry
short PnL = size × (entry − price) / entry

A 1% move on a 10,000 USDC position is 100 USDC. Losses never go beyond your margin. Gains are paid after the fee on wins described in Fees. The PnL in the positions table is before that fee, so closing a winner pays less than it shows.

Liquidation

A position is liquidated when its loss reaches its margin:

long  liquidation price = entry × (1 − 1 / leverage)
short liquidation price = entry × (1 + 1 / leverage)

• Liquidations are checked at the start of every block, at that block’s new price, before any other transaction in it.
• A liquidated position loses its whole margin. You never lose more than that. Like every loss, it’s split between the pool, the $LONG buyback, and the team; see The pool and payout queue.

Closing

When you close, your margin comes back right away. A profit is paid from the pool; if the pool is short, the rest waits in the payout queue.