Perpetual futures, also called perps, let you trade the price movement of assets such as crypto, commodities, stocks, and indices without owning the underlying asset.

Perps in Phantom are powered by Hyperliquid. You can trade them in the Phantom mobile app and in Phantom Terminal. Positions, balances, and order history automatically appear on both when you’re signed in to the same Phantom account.

How perp trading works #

When you open a position, you enter a contract with another trader who takes the opposite side. One trader goes long and the other goes short.

Your position gains value when the price moves in your favor: up for a long, down for a short. You realize that profit when you close the position or a take-profit order fills.

Your position loses value when the price moves against you. You realize that loss when you close the position, a stop-loss order fills, or the position is liquidated.

While the position remains open, its unrealized profit or loss changes with the market. Fees and funding payments also affect your final result.

You never own the underlying asset. Instead, your profit or loss is settled in USDC.

Perps vs spot trading #

Spot trading means buying and selling the actual token. When you buy a Solana token in Phantom, you hold that token in your wallet.

Perp trading means taking a long or short position in a perpetual futures contract. You do not own the underlying token, stock, or commodity. Perps have no expiration date, and profit or loss is settled in USDC.

Supported markets #

Phantom supports crypto perps, including markets for major assets such as BTC, ETH, and SOL, as well as meme and DeFi tokens. It also supports equity and other traditional-asset perps, including stocks, indices, commodities, and foreign exchange markets. Available markets and leverage limits vary.

Perps balance #

Your perps balance is held on Hyperliquid and is tied to the Ethereum address in your Phantom account. It is denominated in USDC and is used to open and manage positions.

You don’t need to fund your perps balance in advance. Phantom can open a position directly using your Cash account, SOL, or another supported token on Solana. Phantom converts those funds into USDC and credits them into your perps balance first, then commits them as margin for the position.

When you close a position, funds return to your perps balance. They stay there until you open another position or withdraw them back to your wallet.

If you’ve previously traded on Hyperliquid, your existing balances and positions automatically appear in Phantom.

For instructions, see:

• Trade perps in Phantom on mobile
• Trade tokens and perps in Phantom Terminal

Where your funds go when you close a position #

When you close a position, or when a take-profit, stop-loss, or liquidation closes it for you, the result is settled in USDC and returned to your perps balance. You do not receive the asset you traded, because perps are cash-settled and you never own the underlying asset.

Any remaining funds stay in your perps balance until you use them for another trade or withdraw them. They will not appear in your Solana wallet or Cash account until you withdraw. Liquidation can consume all the margin committed to a position, leaving nothing to return.

The value shown on an open position is your market exposure, including leverage, not cash you can spend. Only the margin you committed is at risk, and only available funds can be withdrawn. Margin committed to positions or reserved for pending orders may not be available to withdraw. This is why a position or portfolio figure can look larger than the amount you are able to send.

Network fees #

Although your perps balance is denominated in USDC on Hyperliquid, your funds begin and end in your Phantom wallet.

Whenever funds move between Phantom and Hyperliquid, the transfer happens as an onchain transaction, so you’ll need a small amount of the network’s native token (such as SOL) to pay network fees.

Funding and withdrawals also convert between your chosen asset and USDC, so the amount received is slightly less than the amount transferred.

Long vs short #

Choose a direction based on how you expect the market to move.

• Long: You profit if the price rises.
• Short: You profit if the price falls.

Market orders vs limit orders #

When trading perps in Phantom on mobile, you can choose between market and limit orders:

• Market order: Trades at the best available price. Your entry price can differ from the price shown before you confirm.
• Limit order: Lets you specify the price at which you want to trade. The order can remain pending, and your position opens only when the order fills.

Limit orders are currently available only in the Phantom mobile app.

For example, you can place a limit order to go long below the current market price. The pending order appears under Active Orders on the asset page and under Orders in Perps.

For instructions, see Place a limit order.

Leverage and margin #

Margin is the USDC you commit as collateral.

Leverage multiplies your market exposure, allowing you to control a larger position with less capital.

For example:

• Margin: 100 USDC
• Leverage: 5×
• Position size: 500 USDC

For a long position, if the market rises 1%, your gain is approximately 5 USDC before fees and funding.

If the market falls far enough against your position, it may be liquidated.

Phantom uses isolated margin, meaning only the funds committed to that position are at risk.

Maximum leverage varies by market. Equity perps generally support lower leverage than crypto perps.

Liquidation #

Liquidation happens when your position no longer meets its maintenance margin requirement.

The position is automatically closed to limit losses to the collateral committed to that position.

Higher leverage brings the liquidation price closer to your entry price.

Liquidation uses the mark price, a fair-value estimate that draws on oracle and market data. It can differ from the last traded price or the price shown on a chart. For HIP-3 markets, oracle inputs depend on the deployer. This is why a position can be liquidated even when your chart does not show the same price movement.

Funding rate #

The funding rate helps keep perp prices aligned with spot prices.

It is a small hourly payment exchanged between traders.

• Positive funding rate: Long positions pay short positions.
• Negative funding rate: Short positions pay long positions.

Funding payments are reflected directly in your P&L rather than appearing as separate transactions.

Take-profit and stop-loss #

Take-profit (TP) and stop-loss (SL) are types of orders that automatically close your position when a price you choose is reached. The trigger price is not a guaranteed fill price, and execution depends on market conditions and available liquidity.

• Take-profit: Aims to close a position at a profit.
• Stop-loss: Aims to limit losses.

When you set take-profit or stop-loss orders using percentage values, the percentage refers to your position's profit or loss, rather than the percentage change in the asset's price. Phantom shows the corresponding take-profit and stop-loss prices on the review screen.

When the closing order fills, any remaining funds return to your perps balance.

Position metrics #

An open position shows its profit or loss and key prices below the chart. The chart marks the entry price, liquidation price, and any take-profit or stop-loss prices.

Equity and other traditional-asset perps #

Equity perps track stocks and equity indices without giving you ownership of shares. Phantom also offers perps on other traditional assets, such as commodities and foreign exchange. These are different asset classes, even when grouped together in the app.

How equity perps work #

Equity perps in Phantom are powered by Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 framework, which lets third-party deployers create perpetual futures markets. Instead of trading shares through a broker, you trade a synthetic contract that tracks the underlying asset’s price using oracle feeds.

Phantom doesn’t issue or manage these contracts.

Deployer #

Each deployer designs its own pricing logic, oracle feeds, and contract rules. Phantom does not control these deployer-specific settings.

Today, Phantom supports equity perps deployed by trade.xyz.

Before trading, review the deployer's documentation so you understand how the market works. To learn more, see Overview of trade.xyz perps.

Pricing #

Equity perps track the underlying asset using live market data while traditional markets are open. When markets are closed, prices reflect expected movement, deployer pricing models, liquidity, and market demand.

Because equity perps are synthetic markets that can trade 24/7, the perp price may differ from the price you see on traditional exchanges or charting platforms.

When the equity market is open #

During regular US equity market hours, including any pre-market or after-hours sessions supported by the deployer, equity perps track the underlying asset's price using real-time data from the deployer's oracle feeds.

Prices may still differ slightly from traditional exchange prices because of the following factors:

• Liquidity in the perp market
• Funding rate imbalances
• Oracle update timing

When the equity market is closed #

When the underlying equity market is closed, such as overnight, on weekends, or on US market holidays, there is no live stock price for the perp to track.

During these periods, the perp price may be influenced by the following factors:

• News events that may affect the next market open
• Pricing models used by the deployer and liquidity providers
• Supply and demand within the perp market

Deployers may apply guardrails to help limit extreme deviations from the last known equity price while still allowing the market to respond to expectations.

Risks #

Before trading perps, understand these key risks.

See also #

• Trade perps in Phantom
• Trade spot and perp markets in Phantom Terminal