Glossary
Definitions to understand the terms around trading perpetuals on BSX
Account Equity: Total value of the traders portfolio - it’s the netted amount that the trader and calculated by taking the current spot balance and unrealized PnL. Account equity has to stay above the portfolio maintenance margin so the trader is not liquidated
Free Collateral: Free Collateral is the amount available to be used as collateral on new orders. Note, free collateral also goes up / down based on limit orders that are placed / cancelled
Mark Perp Index Price: Price of perpetual contracts across other exchanges. We use the Mark Price to determine a users unrealized PnL and their liquidation price
Index Price: Price of spot across other exchanges. The index price is used in funding rate calculations
Mid-point Price: Price that is halfway between the highest bid and the lowest ask. The mid-point price is also used in funding rate calculations
Last Price: The last price the asset was traded at in the market
Initial Margin: The amount of notional required to open a position. Initial margin is the inverse of the max leverage on an asset so if an asset can be 10x and the IMR is 10%, the initial margin needed to open the position is 10% * Notional Size of the trade
Initial Margin Ratio: The % amount of the notional size of the position needed to open the position. Initial margin is the inverse of the max leverage on an asset so if an asset can be 10x levered then the IMR for opening a position on that asset will be 10%
Portfolio Initial Margin: The total notional of a traders portfolio that is allocated towards initial margin across all your positions. Your portfolio initial margin determines how much free collateral a trader has
Maintenance Margin: The notional amount needed to keep a position open.
Maintenance Margin Ratio: This is 2/3 the IMR for that specific market. This calculates the maintenance margin for the specific position you are taking. Note that portfolio maintenance margin will differ from a specific positions maintenance margin
Portfolio Maintenance Margin: This is the total notional amount needed to keep your portfolio from being liquidated. If a traders account equity falls below the portfolio maintenance margin then the trader will be liquidated
Margin Usage: This is the amount of margin allocated to positions compared to the total equity of the account
Account Leverage: This is the total notional of an account over the equity. It represents the amount of leverage the user has on his portfolio
Unrealized / Estimated Portfolio PnL: PnL calculated from mark price and is applied to the total portfolio
Unrealized / Estimated Position PnL: PnL calculated from mark price and is applied to a specific positions PnL
Leverage: The amount of leverage the user is taking on a position. Leverage is calculated on the account equity basis so lets say your equity is 1,000 and you take a tx leverage position. The notional size of your position will be 2,000
Liquidation Price: Liquidation price is the price that the position will be liquidated. It is calculated from the mark price. Note, liquidation price is given on a position by position basis, not a portfolio basis
Total Notional: Total notional is the USD value of a position
Oracle: The oracle is a third party solution used to bring in prices to help calculate the following:
Unrealized PnL
Funding Rate
Liquidation Price
Funding Rate: The funding rate works to tether the price of the perpetual contract on the exchanges orderbook to the actual price of the underlying asset. The funding rate can be both positive (this is where longs pay shorts) and be negative (this is where shorts pay longs). The funding rate on BSX is paid out at the end of every hour
Predicted Funding: This is the predicted funding rate that will be paid out in the next hour. It is the 1 hour rate annualized
Open Interest: This is the total notional of all opened contracts in that specific market. Open interest can reveal general sentiment on the specific market.
24 Hour Volume: This is the total volume transacted in the market over the last 24 hours
Maker Fee: This is the fee the maker pays once the order they place on the book gets taken. Maker fees can also sometimes be negative (this is a rebate). Note, the maker fee is only paid when the order that the maker places on the book is taken
Taker Fee: This is the fee the taker pays when they place a market order. Takers will always pay fees when transacting because they are taking liquidity off of the book
Cross Margin: Portfolio margin is when risk and collateral is shared across multiple positions. Note in portfolio margin a trader is responsible for monitoring their risk measures because it is not isolated by position. One position with high leverage can cause significant impact to a portfolios risk score
Bankruptcy / Zero Price: The price at which the margin ratio becomes 0
Last updated