FuturesHUB / Risk limits
Perpetual futures
Risk limits
A risk limit is a tier table. As notional grows, the venue demands more maintenance margin and allows less leverage. The change is how the book survives a large position.
The shape of a tier
Tier one covers notional up to some bound, with the lowest maintenance rate and the highest leverage cap. The next tier raises the maintenance rate and lowers the cap. Further tiers continue the step. The bounds and the rates are different for bitcoin and for a thin alt, and they change when the venue updates the table.
LiquidityFlow does not copy those tables onto this page, because a stale tier is worse than none. Open the live table for the contract. The practice sketch's 0.5% maintenance is a single assumed rate, not a tier.
Crossing a tier while you add
Adding size can move you across a bound in one fill. The whole position is then often maintained at the new, higher rate, which moves the liquidation price closer even on the contracts you already held. Preview the add. Read the new liquidation price before you confirm.
The leverage slider may also snap down. A position that was allowed at 20x in tier one may be forced toward a lower cap in tier three. If you do not have the extra margin, the venue rejects the order or reduces the allowed size.
Why the table exists
A single account with enormous notional at thin maintenance can bankrupt the insurance fund in one gap. Tiers make that account post more, and they cap the leverage, so the residual the fund might have to cover grows more slowly than the notional.
Your own planning should copy the idea. Decide a maximum notional in dollars from your risk limit, then visit the tier table to see whether that notional still fits the maintenance you used in the plan.
On the ticket
- Open the risk-limit table for the exact contract. Record the tier your intended notional falls into.
- Copy that tier's maintenance rate and max leverage next to the sketch, and note that the sketch itself used 0.5%.
- Preview an order that crosses a tier. Read the new liquidation price and the new leverage cap.
- If the tier is tighter than the plan, cut notional until the plan and the table agree.
Questions
Is the maximum leverage on the market page my leverage?
It is the cap in the loosest tier, often for a small notional. Your cap is the cap of the tier your notional sits in.
Do tiers change the funding rate?
Funding is a function of the premium. Tiers change margin and leverage. They are separate lines on the specification.