Perpetual futures, long and short

A bet on the price, settled in USDC

A perpetual future (a perp) is a contract that tracks the price of a coin without you owning the coin. You put up USDC as margin, open a position of a certain size, and your account is credited or debited as the price moves. It never expires; you close it when you want.

Buying 0.01 BTC perp at $80,000 is a $800 position. If BTC goes to $84,000 (+5%), the position is worth $840 and you have made $40. You never held any bitcoin.

Long means you gain when the price rises

Going long is buying. A long position earns when the price goes up and loses when it goes down. It is the natural trade for someone who expects a coin to rise.

Short means you gain when the price falls

Going short is selling first. A short position earns when the price goes down and loses when it goes up. Traders use it to profit from falls or to protect coins they hold elsewhere. On Hyperliquid shorting is as simple as longing: pick Short instead of Long.

Mark price, entry price and open profit

Your entry price is where you got in. The mark price is Hyperliquid's fair current price (close to the last trade, smoothed so a single odd trade cannot liquidate anyone). Open profit / loss is (mark − entry) × size for a long, the reverse for a short, and it changes every second until you close.

The minimum order on Hyperliquid is $10. Sizes are in coin units with a fixed number of decimals per market; Orbafin rounds for you.