Liquidation Price Calculator
Calculate your liquidation price before opening a leveraged position. Know exactly how much room you have before getting liquidated.
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Understanding Liquidation in Perpetual Futures
What is Liquidation?
Liquidation occurs when your margin can no longer cover the losses on a leveraged position. The exchange forcibly closes your position to prevent your losses from exceeding your deposited margin. This protects the exchange and other traders from counterparty risk.
Unlike traditional margin calls where you might receive a warning and have time to add funds, crypto perpetual futures liquidations happen automatically and instantly when your margin ratio drops below the maintenance margin requirement.
How Liquidation Price is Calculated
For long positions:
Liq Price = Entry Price × (1 - Initial Margin % + Maintenance Margin %)For short positions:
Liq Price = Entry Price × (1 + Initial Margin % - Maintenance Margin %)Where Initial Margin % = 1 / Leverage. For example, with 10x leverage, your initial margin is 10%, and with a 0.5% maintenance margin, a long position liquidates when price drops 9.5% from entry.
The Hidden Costs of Liquidation
Getting liquidated is more expensive than just losing your margin:
- Liquidation fees: Most DEXes charge 0.5-2% of your position value as a liquidation fee
- Price slippage: Large positions may liquidate at worse prices than expected
- Cascading liquidations: Your liquidation can trigger others, worsening market conditions
- Opportunity cost: You're forced out at the worst possible time, often right before reversal
Strategies to Avoid Liquidation
Use lower leverage: Top traders on our leaderboard typically use 2-10x leverage, not the 50-100x that gets advertised. Lower leverage = more room for the trade to work.
Always use stop losses: Set your stop loss before your liquidation price. A 20% buffer is recommended - if your liq is at $38,000, set stop at $38,400.
Use isolated margin: While it reduces buffer, isolated margin protects your other funds. You can only lose what's assigned to that position.
Size positions properly: Use our Position Size Calculator to determine appropriate sizes based on your risk tolerance.
Set up alerts: Use our alert system to get notified when price approaches your liquidation zone, giving you time to act.
Isolated vs Cross Margin: Which to Use?
Isolated Margin
- + Limits loss to position margin only
- + Protects other account funds
- + Clear risk per trade
- - Tighter liquidation price
- - Need to manage margin per position
Best for: New traders, high-risk trades, multiple positions
Cross Margin
- + More room before liquidation
- + Automatic margin management
- + Hedging positions share margin
- - Entire account at risk
- - One bad trade can ruin account
Best for: Hedged positions, experienced traders, tight stops
Frequently Asked Questions
Liquidation price is calculated based on your entry price, leverage, and maintenance margin requirement. For long positions: Liq Price = Entry Price × (1 - 1/Leverage + Maintenance Margin). For shorts: Liq Price = Entry Price × (1 + 1/Leverage - Maintenance Margin). Higher leverage means your liquidation price is closer to your entry.
In isolated margin, only the margin assigned to a specific position can be liquidated. In cross margin, your entire account balance is used as margin, giving more buffer against liquidation but risking your whole account. Most DEXes default to cross margin.
Maintenance margin is the minimum margin required to keep a position open, typically 0.5-3% of position value. When your margin falls below this level, liquidation occurs. Higher maintenance margin requirements (common for altcoins) mean your liquidation price is closer to your entry.
Use lower leverage (reduces liquidation distance), set stop losses before liquidation price, use isolated margin to limit losses, add margin to positions under pressure, and never trade without knowing your liquidation price first.
When liquidated, your position is forcibly closed at the current market price. You lose your margin (or partial margin on some DEXes). Liquidation fees are also charged. Some DEXes use insurance funds to cover losses if liquidation price is worse than expected.