Trading basics

Learn what perpetual futures are, how leverage works, and what risks to understand before trading.

What are perpetual futures (perps)?

Perpetual futures (“perps”) are leveraged contracts that let you trade on an asset’s price—without owning the asset itself. Unlike traditional futures, perps don’t expire, so you can keep a position open as long as you maintain enough margin.

Why trade perps instead of spot?

1) Trade up or down

With spot, you generally profit only if the price goes up. With perps, you can:

• Go long if you think price will rise

• Go short if you think price will fall

Example: If you believe BTC will drop, you can open a short on BTC-PERP and potentially benefit if the price declines.

2) Use leverage to get more exposure with less upfront capital

Leverage lets you control a larger position with a smaller amount of collateral.

Example: If BTC is 90,000 USDC, buying 1 BTC on spot costs 90,000 USDC. With 10× leverage on BTC-PERP, you can open a similar-sized position with about 9,000 USDC in collateral (plus fees and depending on margin requirements).

Raydium Perpetual Futures

Multi-asset collateral, USDC-settled P&L

Raydium Perps supports depositing USDC, native SOL, and USDT as collateral.

Profit and loss (P&L) is still calculated and settled in USDC, meaning your P&L is denominated in USDC even if your collateral is in SOL or USDT.

Cross-margin only

Raydium Perps uses cross-margin, so your collateral is shared across all open positions and contributes to a single account-wide margin ratio.

If you want separate margin “accounts,” you’ll need to use a different wallet.

Leverage options

Raydium Perps supports leverage up to 100×, depending on the market.

One-way mode (one position per market)

Raydium Perp uses one-way mode:

• you can’t hold both a long and a short on the same market at the same time

• placing an opposite-side order will reduce or flip your position

Risks of trading with leverage

Leverage can magnify both gains and losses. Before trading perps, make sure you’re comfortable with these risks:

Losses can exceed your initial margin on a position

A small move against you can lead to a large loss relative to your collateral—especially at higher leverage.

Liquidation risk

If your margin ratio falls below required levels, your position may be liquidated to help prevent further losses. Liquidations can happen quickly in fast markets, even with small price moves at high leverage.

Volatility and slippage

Crypto markets can move rapidly. In volatile conditions, orders may fill at worse prices than expected (slippage), which can increase losses and raise liquidation risk.