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2. Exchanges and instruments
Spot and derivatives
In ordinary unleveraged spot trading, you buy an asset with your own funds. With 100 USDT in an account, you cannot buy 1 000 USDT of assets without additional financing. Holding the asset still involves market risk, custody risk, account restrictions and venue risk. The absence of leverage does not make a purchase risk-free.
A future provides price exposure through a contract. A dated contract has an established expiry; a perpetual contract has no fixed maturity date and usually uses funding to keep its price close to the underlying market. These are different structures: settlement rules must be checked for every symbol.
A cryptocurrency perpetual on a centralised venue and a physically deliverable COMEX future differ in specifications, clearing, trading arrangements and legal framework. The word "future" does not make them interchangeable. In particular, a token linked to the price of gold does not become a GC or MGC contract.
What to check in the terminal
Before calculating, write down the venue, full symbol, contract type, collateral and settlement currencies, price increment, quantity increment and minimum notional. For derivatives, add the margin mode, risk limits, liquidation price and the price type that triggers the stop.
Check whether the account uses one-way position mode or hedge mode. In one mode, an opposite order reduces the existing position; in another, it may open a separate position. Reduce-only, where available, restricts an order to reducing a position. The exchange determines its behaviour and compatibility with conditional orders.
Protect the account with a unique password, two-factor authentication, a verified website address and limited API permissions. Never share a seed phrase or backup codes. Support staff should not require a transfer to a "verification wallet" or remote control of your computer.
| Instrument | What you acquire | Additional checks |
|---|---|---|
| Spot without borrowing | A quantity of the asset | Custody, withdrawals, fees |
| Crypto perpetual | Contractual price exposure | Funding, margin, liquidation |
| Dated future | A contract for a specific month | Multiplier, expiry, delivery |
| CFD | A contract with a provider | Counterparty terms, swap, lot size |
The cost of a trade
Maker and taker describe an order's role at execution; they are not synonyms for limit and market. A limit order that immediately crosses the spread can be a taker. Post-only, where supported, helps avoid that execution, but the order may be rejected or cancelled.
Funding follows the rules of the particular perpetual and can be either a cost or a receipt. Its rate, interval and payment time can change. Do not automatically apply an "every eight hours" rule to all contracts and venues.
Example. An entry worth 100 USDT and an exit worth 102 USDT. A hypothetical taker fee of 0.05% on each side gives 0.05 + 0.051 = 0.101 USDT. The gain from the price change is 2 USDT; after these fees it is 1.899 USDT. Funding and slippage are not yet included. This fee is illustrative, not a current tariff.
Exercise. Why can you not use one contract's formula for another simply because both names contain BTC? Answer: the multiplier, quantity unit and settlement currency differ; linear and inverse contracts have different profit-and-loss formulas.