MarginX does not list actual stocks or cryptocurrencies on its exchange. 

However, MarginX is the world’s first multi-chain decentralized exchange infrastructure that facilitates the trading of both stock- and crypto-based perpetual contracts, offering users more trading options and strategies.

It closely replicates the market conditions of the stock and cryptocurrency markets through various mechanisms, and simultaneously allows users to trade perpetual contracts with 1–5x leverage.

These are the 5 key features of trading perpetual contracts on MarginX.

Leverage – Traders gain access to significant levels of leverage, which means that potential profits are much higher with less capital, though losses are equally magnified. It allows traders to handle their capital with more efficiency.

Direction – Traders can speculate on the performance of an asset by shorting or longing even if they do not own the actual asset.

Duration – Perpetual contracts do not have an expiration date and traders are able to hold for as long as they want, so long as they have sufficient margin.

Liquidity – All networks share the same order book depth on MarginX due to its multi-chain, cross-chain and para-chain infrastructure, which ensures a high liquidity of assets within MarginX. High liquidity is an important factor for smooth trading because it determines how fast and effectively contracts can be purchased or sold. High liquidity also tends to be associated with lower risk because of its tighter spread.

Funding Fee Opportunity – Traders of perpetual contracts can potentially earn more side profits through the funding rate, where longs or shorts provide funding to each other based on the deviation of the perpetual price against the index.

When you open a position for a perpetual contract, you enter an agreement to trade against the price movement of the underlying asset.

To go long

is to enter a perpetual contract, with the expectation that the price of the asset will increase in value — a bullish thesis.

When the market price reaches your target price, you then have the opportunity to close your position and sell the contract at a higher price than when you entered, thereby profiting from the upward price movement.

To go short

is to enter a perpetual contract, with the expectation that the price of the asset will decrease in value — a bearish thesis.

When the market price reaches your target price, you then have the opportunity to close your position and buy the contract at a lower price than when you entered, thereby profiting from the downward price movement.

No expiration date

Perpetual contracts do not have an expiration date which means you can hold your position for as long as you don’t get liquidated.

The funding rate balances the long and short positions between buyers and sellers by incentivising a market balance through periodic payments. 

Consider it a fee to maintain market equilibrium. 

When the perpetual price is higher than the spot price, the funding rate is positive. In that scenario, the longs pay the shorts a fee.

Positive Funding Rate = Longs pays Shorts

Negative Funding Rate = Shorts pay Longs

• No funding rate on weekends or holidays
• Settled 4 times during the trading day

The perpetual contract price is thus kept relatively close to the spot price because of the funding rate mechanism.

Funding payments

Funding settlements will be made from the begin block; the maximum number of position settlements for each block is 1,000. The chain will only execute funding settlements during the settlement period. 

If the funding rate is positive, payment will be made to the user account. If the funding rate is negative, payment will be deducted from the user’s margin account.

For a start, MarginX offers 3 underlying assets in the cryptocurrency category: BTC, ETH and FX.

The short answer is: YES!

Through governance, MarginX allows anyone to add any asset from any category they desire, including equities, cryptocurrencies, commodities, carbon credits, and any DeFi compatible asset. 

This means that every asset with a monetary value can be supported by MarginX.

Stay tuned to find out more.

On the MarginX desktop platform, click on ‘My Assets’ on the top right corner. You will be redirected to the positions page where you can view all your assets.

• Choose trading pair

At the top left hand corner of MarginX on desktop, click on the drop-down arrow to scroll the list of available assets and select your preferred trading pair.

• Open position

To start an open position, click ‘Open’ on the right. Decide if you want to open at the ‘limit’ price or the ‘market’ price.

For limit orders

Enter your order price and the number of assets you want to trade. You can enter it manually or utilize the percentage drag. The order will be filled when the market price matches your specified order price.

For market orders

Enter the number of assets you want to trade manually or utilize the percentage drag.

• Choose leverage

You can choose your leverage up to a maximum of 5x.

• Initiate position

To open a long position, click ‘Going Long’.

To open a short position, click ‘Going Short’.

• Confirmation

Double check and acknowledge the transaction details before clicking on ‘Confirming’ to approve the trade.

• Notification on f(x)Wallet

In your f(x)Wallet mobile app, you will be notified of the transaction. Tap sign and verify your identity to place the order.

• Pending Orders

You can view your pending orders by clicking on the ‘Open Orders’ tab at the bottom of MarginX. You can either wait for the transaction to be carried out or cancel the pending order.

For more details about each position, you can click on the transaction ID under ‘Tx Hash’ in the ‘Open Orders’ tab to access the transaction details on f(x)Explorer.

• Open Positions

For successful orders, you can view your positions by clicking on the ‘Positions’ tab. You can also easily add to your margin or close your position in this tab.

• Order History

To view all your order records, click on the ‘Order History’ tab. This includes open orders, filled orders, cancelled orders, capital fee collection records, and more.

For more details about each position, you can click on the transaction ID under ‘Tx Hash’ in the ‘Order History’ tab to access the transaction details on f(x)Explorer.

• Positions Tab

Under the Positions tab, click on ‘Add Margin’ for the position that you would like to add funds to.

• Amount

Enter the amount of USDT you would like to add, or drag the percentage bar to indicate how much percentage of your available balance you want to add.

• Notification on f(x)Wallet

In your f(x)Wallet app, you will be notified of the transaction. Tap sign and verify your identity to  place your order.

Liquidation happens when a trader is not able to meet the margin requirements for an open leveraged position (i.e. not having enough funds to keep the trade open).

When the margin rate falls under the maintenance margin rate, the user’s position will be liquidated.

All open orders are immediately cancelled, while the remaining positions and transaction fees will be assigned to the insurance clearance reserves.

• Monitor margin rate

You must closely monitor your contract margin rate in order to avoid liquidation. A portion, if not all, of your positions will be liquidated by the platform when your margin rate exceeds 100%.

• Maintain adequate amount of margin

By adding more margin into your position, the liquidation price will improve as your margin balance increases.

Please make sure that your derivatives account has sufficient margin balance in the event of a drastic market price fall.

• Do not exacerbate losing positions by adding to them

Before adding to further losses and if you have already decided that you want to preserve what’s left of your capital, it is important to rethink and reorganize your current strategy. 

Do not let emotions such as greed or fear get in the way of good judgement. Knowing when to cut your losses is key to being a successful trader.

• Smaller position size

When you trade with a modest position size, the size of the position represents a relatively small portion of your overall account balance. 

For margin traders, a small trading size aids in securing a sufficient maintenance margin, allowing them to manage risks when challenged with market volatility.

• Positions

Under the ‘Positions’ tab, click the ‘Close Position’ icon on the position you would like to close.

Limit Price

For limit orders, enter your closing price in USDT and the number of assets you want to close. The order will be filled when the market price matches your specified order price.

Market Price

For market orders, enter the number of assets you want to close. Remember to check through your transaction details and acknowledge it before clicking on the “Confirming” button to confirm your order.

• Notification on f(x)Wallet

You will be notified of the transaction. Tap sign and verify your identity to place your order.

There are two ways to disconnect, either from your desktop or your f(x)Wallet.

• Desktop

Click on the ‘Logout’ button next to your MarginX address at the top right hand corner of your screen.

• f(x)Wallet

In your phone app, tap on the MarginX Wallet Connect pop-out tab and tap on the red ‘Disconnect’ button at the bottom of the screen.