Opening and Closing Positions

Content Out of Date

This content is not maintained and refers to an out-of-date version of Perpetual Protocol.

For the latest documentation, see https://docs.perp.com

Open long and short positions expose you to price movements of the given asset. Depending on the price movement, when you close your position, you will receive more (profit) or less (loss) in return.

You can keep your position open for as long as you want, but keep in mind that you may pay funding payments while doing so.

Long Position

When you open a long position, you are trading quote tokens (e.g. USD) for base tokens (e.g. ETH, BTC, etc.).

Funding

• When the rate is negative: you will earn funding

• When the rate is positive: you will pay funding

Short Position

When you open a short position, you are trading base tokens (e.g. ETH, BTC, etc.) for quote tokens (e.g. USD).

Funding

• When the rate is negative: you will pay funding

• When the rate is positive: you will earn funding

Partial Close

To change or scale the size of a position, open a reverse trade.

For example, if you have a 5 ETH long position, you can reduce 50% by opening a 2.5 ETH short.

Full Close

To fully close out a position, open a trade in the opposite direction with equal size.

For example, if you have a 5 ETH long position, you can fully close it out and realize any PnL by opening a 5 ETH short.

How to Open a Position

To open a position, select "Long" or "Short".

Enter the amount in the base token (e.g., ETH) or quote token (USD), then click on "Confirm Long" or "Confirm Short".

Confirm the transaction in your wallet and once executed, your position will be shown in the positions tab and on the trading chart.

How to Close a Position

To fully close a position, select "Short" (or "Long" if you're already Short) and enter the exact same quantity as your position size.

Alternatively, you can fully close out the position by clicking on the "x" displayed on the trading chart or the "Close Position" button in the positions tab. Then click on the "Confirm Close" button and sign the transaction in your wallet.

To partially close, enter a position in the opposite direction using a quantity that is any desired fraction of the original position. Confirm the trade and then sign the transaction in your wallet: