If you're trading serious size and not on Hyperliquid yet, you're behind. This isn’t just another onchain exchange it’s a purpose-built trading machine for high-volume traders who care about execution, leverage and zero distractions.

This guide covers everything you need to know about trading perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid from fees and liquidation mechanics to TP/SL orders, ADL, funding and more.

Perpetual Assets: What's Tradable?

Hyperliquid supports over 130 perpetual markets, including majors like BTC, ETH, and SOL, mid-caps like AVAX and ARB and even some meme or experimental coins.

All perpetual contracts settle in USDC, and none of them expire. This means you can hold positions indefinitely, as long as you have sufficient margin and don't get liquidated.

Hyperliquid constantly expands its listings via community votes and governance proposals, which gives traders access to emerging assets before they hit CEXs.

Contract Specifications

Each perp contract is defined by:

• Settlement: All positions settle in USDC, reducing complexity across assets.

• Contract Multiplier: 1

• Tick Size: Usually 0.01 USDC, allows precise entries and exits

• Min Order Size: Depends on asset (e.g., 0.001 BTC or 1 SOL)

• Leverage: Up to 50x on select markets, configurable by the user

This standardization makes it easy for traders to calculate risk, plan size, and automate strategies.

Margin Tiers

Hyperliquid uses dynamic tiered margining to scale risk protection as your position size grows.

Notional Size Initial Margin Maintenance Margin $0 - $500,000 2% 1% $500K - $1,000,000 3% 1.5% $1M+ 5% 2.5%

As your exposure increases, so does the collateral required. This prevents mass liquidations and encourages responsible scaling.

Fees

Hyperliquid is one of the cheapest perps platforms on the market:

Order Type Fee Maker 0.01% Taker 0.035%

No gas fees. No hidden slippage. No approval confirmations after initial connection.

Low fees are a massive edge for scalpers and high-frequency traders who churn volume daily.

Builder Codes

Builder codes are Hyperliquid’s version of affiliate or strategy tracking.

• Traders can input a code to support their favorite builder.

• Builders earn a percentage of the trading fees paid by users.

• Traders pay nothing extra.

This creates aligned incentives: builders build tools or content, and earn from real trader usage.

🧠 Try Hyperliquid using builder code: TRENCHWIZARD

Order Book Infrastructure

Unlike competitors like dYdX (off-chain matching), Hyperliquid uses a fully onchain order book with:

• Sub-second finality

• Live bid/ask transparency

• Verifiable execution

Orders are processed on Hyperliquid’s custom Layer 1, giving it the speed of a CEX with the transparency of a DEX.

Order Types

Hyperliquid offers a full suite of order logic:

• Market Orders: Instantly fill at best available price

• Limit Orders: Set your own price and wait for fill

• Post-Only: Ensure maker fees, never cross spread

• Immediate or Cancel (IOC): Fill what you can, cancel the rest

• Reduce-Only: Never increase your exposure

These tools are essential for automated strategies and precision entries.

Take Profit / Stop Loss (TP/SL)

You can place TP/SL orders without any additional wallet signatures:

• Fully onchain

• Triggered when price hits a mark

• Executed through the order book instantly

This lets traders operate like CEX pros while keeping custody of their wallet.

Margining

By default, all positions are isolated margin, meaning:

• Only collateral for that trade is at risk

• No cross-margin contagion

• Easier to manage risk per strategy

This is ideal for traders running multiple simultaneous positions.

Liquidations

If your margin drops below maintenance, your position is at risk of liquidation:

• Positions are first closed via the order book

• If market can't fill it, Auto-Deleveraging kicks in

This process is smooth, fast, and designed to avoid cascading failures.

Entry Price & PnL

Your entry price is VWAP across fills. PnL is calculated as:

Unrealized PnL = (Mark Price - Entry Price) × Position Size

All profit and loss is denominated in USDC for simplicity. Realized PnL posts to your wallet after the position closes.

Funding Rates

Perpetuals require funding to anchor price to spot. Hyperliquid’s funding:

• Paid every hour

• Positive rate: longs pay shorts

• Negative rate: shorts pay longs

You can monitor the projected funding directly in the trading UI.

Trading UI

Hyperliquid’s frontend is:

• Sleek and fast

• Mobile responsive

• Offers deep analytics

• One-click TP/SL, entry, close

No approval spam, no laggy buttons. Feels like a power trader’s terminal.

Auto-Deleveraging (ADL)

If liquidation can’t be filled via order book, ADL auto-unwinds counterparties.

Priority is based on:

• Leverage used

• Unrealized profit

• Position age

You can monitor your ADL risk bar live.

Price Indices

Hyperliquid uses a blended price index from:

• Binance

• Coinbase

• Kraken

This ensures fair mark pricing and prevents manipulation.

Self-Trade Prevention

Hyperliquid ensures you never match your own orders, even in high-frequency scenarios. This is critical for:

• Bots

• MMs

• Power scalpers

Portfolio Graphs

• Track real-time unrealized and realized PnL

• Visualize position history

• Export data for journaling or tax

Everything is on-chain and queryable.

Hyperps

Hyperliquid rewards active traders with Hyperps (NFT badges):

• Based on volume, consistency, execution

• Tied to future airdrops or governance

• Showcased publicly

Market Making

If you run size and supply liquidity:

• Contact the team for custom maker fee rebates

• Integrate with APIs

• Stack builder codes + MM strategies

Final Thoughts

Hyperliquid isn’t a side-exchange. It’s built for serious traders:

• Sub-second execution

• Transparent onchain logic

• Minimal fees

• Deep pairs

• Smart order types

It’s everything CEX traders wish they had onchain. And it’s live now.

🔗 Trade now ( no KYC): https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/TRENCHWIZARD