Perpetual Contracts 101: Multi-Asset Trading, Leverage & Orders

Introduction

Perpetual contracts are the most-traded financial product in crypto, and the same instrument has now expanded to gold and forex on this platform. If you've never traded one before, the basics are surprisingly simple — but the mechanics behind them are different enough from spot trading that getting the model right before placing your first trade matters more than getting the trade right.

This guide is the foundation. We'll start from "what is a perpetual," walk through the multi-asset offering and the leverage limits (up to 50x on crypto, up to 200x on gold), and finish with how a real perpetual trade actually unfolds on screen — from order entry to close. For deep dives on the supporting concepts, this article links to the other guides in the series.

1. What Is a Perpetual Contract?

A perpetual contract is a derivative that lets you take a leveraged long or short position on an asset, without ever owning the asset itself, and without an expiry date.

Unpack each piece:

• Derivative. You're trading an agreement that tracks the price of the underlying — bitcoin, gold, a forex pair — not buying the underlying.
• Leveraged. You post a small fraction of the position's value as margin (collateral), and the platform extends the rest. A move in the underlying price translates into a much larger move on your collateral. (See the Margin & Liquidation guide for how this works in detail.)
• Long or short. You can profit from prices going up (long) or down (short) with the same instrument. On spot, shorting is much harder; on perpetuals, it's symmetric to going long.
• No expiry. Unlike traditional futures, perpetuals don't have a settlement date. You can hold a position open for as long as you maintain enough margin.

The trick that makes "no expiry" work is the funding rate. Every hour, on the hour, longs and shorts exchange a small payment based on whether the perpetual is trading above or below spot. Positive funding pushes longs to close (and shorts to open), pulling the contract price back toward spot. Negative funding does the opposite. This rebalancing flow is what keeps the perpetual anchored to the underlying without needing an expiry to force convergence. (See the Fee Overview guide for funding rate detail.)

2. Perpetuals vs Spot vs Traditional Futures

A quick mental model:

• Spot trading is buying and holding the actual asset. You own the BTC, the gold, the currency. There's no leverage by default and no expiry — you can hold forever, but you can also only profit from prices going up.
• Traditional futures are leveraged contracts on an underlying asset, but they have a fixed settlement date. At expiry, the contract is closed, often physically or cash-settled at a known price. Traders need to actively roll positions to maintain exposure.
• Perpetual contracts combine the leverage and short-side flexibility of futures with the "hold-as-long-as-you-want" flexibility of spot — at the cost of paying or receiving funding every hour, on the hour.

For active traders, the appeal of perpetuals is straightforward: maximum capital efficiency, two-way directional exposure, and no roll mechanics to manage. The cost is the obligation to manage margin and funding actively — neither of which you have to think about on spot.

3. Multi-Asset Trading: One Account, Many Markets

Perpetuals on this platform aren't limited to crypto. The same account, same interface, same risk tools work across three asset classes:

• Crypto perpetuals — major coins (BTC, ETH and others) and a wide range of altcoins. The most volatile of the three categories, with the deepest 24/7 liquidity.
• Gold perpetuals — exposure to spot gold (XAU) without holding physical or paying storage. Lower volatility than crypto but with deep institutional liquidity, especially during overlapping European/US sessions.
• Forex perpetuals — major currency pairs. The lowest volatility of the three, but also the lowest spreads and trading fees, making them efficient for size-driven strategies.

Trading across all three from one account means one collateral pool, one risk view, and one set of order types — instead of fragmenting your capital and your attention across separate brokers for each asset class.

4. Leverage: Why Crypto Caps at 50x and Gold Goes to 200x

Leverage limits aren't arbitrary. They reflect each asset's volatility profile and the liquidity available to handle large liquidations cleanly. This platform sets typical maximums at:

• Crypto: up to 50x
• Gold: up to 200x
• Forex: also high, asset-specific

The reason gold and forex can offer higher leverage than crypto is straightforward: they move less, per unit of time, than crypto does. A typical daily range on BTC is in the low single-digit percentages; a typical daily range on a major currency pair is well under 1%. With a less volatile underlying, a given amount of margin protects against far more "normal market noise" — so the platform can prudently allow more leverage without putting your account in immediate liquidation territory.

Two important nuances:

• The maximum is not the recommendation. Just because you can use 50x on crypto or 200x on gold doesn't mean you should. Higher leverage means a smaller buffer between your entry and your liquidation price. A leveraged position close to its liquidation price has very little room for the normal back-and-forth of price discovery before it gets closed out.
• The max leverage you see at the top of a contract is for small positions. As your position size grows, leverage automatically steps down through the floating leverage tier system. Always check the tier table before scaling into a large trade. (See the Margin & Liquidation guide for tier mechanics.)

5. The Order Types You'll Actually Use

You don't need every order type to start. The four that handle 95% of real trading are:

• Market Order — fills now at the best available price. Use it when getting in or out now matters more than the exact price.
• Limit Order — fills only at your specified price or better. Use it for precise entries and to avoid slippage on large orders.
• Stop-Loss — triggers automatically when price hits your "I'm wrong" level, closing the position. This is the single most important risk tool you have on a leveraged trade.
• Take-Profit — triggers automatically when price hits your target, locking in the gain.

For details on each — including the differences between stop-market and stop-limit, and how to use OCO (One-Cancels-the-Other) brackets — see the Order Types guide. The single most important habit to internalize: never open a perpetual position without a pre-defined stop-loss. The plan, not your hand on the mouse, should close losing trades.

6. A First Perpetual Trade, Step by Step

Here's what placing one actually looks like, top to bottom:

1. Choose the contract. BTC-USDC perpetual, for example. Confirm whether you're trading the USDT-margined or coin-margined version — they behave differently with respect to PnL and collateral.
2. Pick your margin mode. MC Markets uses Cross Margin mode by default — all available account funds act as collateral, maximizing capital efficiency. (See the Margin & Liquidation guide.)

Cross Margin is the default, sharing margin across all cross-margin positions for maximum capital efficiency.

Initial Margin and Leverage: Initial margin = position_size x mark_price / leverage. It's locked for the position; for cross-margin, it cannot be withdrawn. Unrealized PnL from cross-margin positions auto-contributes as new initial margin.

1. Set your leverage. Start lower than the maximum. Many experienced traders use 3x–10x on directional crypto trades — far below the cap — precisely because that gives them room to be wrong without immediate liquidation.
2. Size the position by risk, not by leverage. Decide first how many dollars you're willing to lose on this trade. Then size the position so that your stop-loss being hit equals exactly that dollar loss. Leverage is a consequence of position size and stop distance, not a target.
3. Place the entry order. Limit if you have a level; market if timing matters more than price. Set slippage tolerance appropriately (defaults: 8% spot, 10% derivatives).
4. Place stop-loss and take-profit immediately. Before you go anywhere. An open position without a stop is the single most common way unfunded losses turn into account-ending losses.
5. Monitor — don't manage. Resist the urge to move your stop wider when price approaches it. The plan was the plan; let it execute.
6. Close on plan, or by your rules. Either price hits your take-profit, your stop, or you make a deliberate decision to exit based on a rule you defined before the trade.

If this sequence feels mechanical and unexciting, that's the point. Profitable perpetual trading is mostly the same handful of steps repeated correctly thousands of times.

7. Common Beginner Mistakes

Five patterns that account for most early account blow-ups:

• Maxing leverage to "make more." Higher leverage doesn't earn more — it just narrows your buffer. Same trade, lower leverage = same dollar PnL but much wider safety margin.
• Trading without a stop-loss. Hope is not a strategy. The market doesn't care about your average price.
• Adding to losing positions. Doubling down to "average down" turns a small loss into a large one. Add to winners; cut losers.
• Ignoring funding rates. Holding a long through persistently positive funding can cost more than the price move itself. Always check before holding overnight.
• Confusing PnL with ROI. A 10x leveraged trade that's "down 10%" on margin is only down 1% on price. Conversely, a "+50% ROI" headline often hides a small underlying move. Know which number you're looking at. (See the PnL Calculation guide.)

Liquidation Mechanics

When the margin ratio falls below 100%, the system will first issue a Margin Call, alerting the user to deposit additional funds or reduce their position in a timely manner to avoid reaching the liquidation threshold. If the margin ratio continues to fall below 50%, a liquidation will be triggered and the system will initiate the close-out process. All liquidation triggers are based on Mark Price to prevent erroneous liquidations from price manipulation.

Order Flow: Opening Positions — Select the asset, order type (market/limit), quantity, and leverage. Preview estimated execution price and impact cost before submission. Position Management — View active positions in the list, including unrealized PnL and margin status. Adjust stop-loss/take-profit or cancel pending limits anytime. Closing Positions — Click 'Close' for immediate closure, or rely on preset stops for automated risk control.

8. Quick Recap

Risk Monitoring and Alerts: Real-time position monitoring with alerts when nearing liquidation, allowing time to add margin or close manually.

The four ideas worth taking with you:

• A perpetual is a leveraged, no-expiry contract that tracks an underlying asset. Funding rates settled every hour, on the hour, keep its price anchored to spot.
• Multi-asset support means one account, one collateral pool, three markets — crypto, gold, and forex — each with risk parameters tuned to its own volatility.
• Leverage limits reflect underlying volatility. Crypto up to 50x, gold up to 200x. The maximum is not the recommendation; size by risk, not by leverage.
• The four orders that handle 95% of trading are Market, Limit, Stop-Loss, and Take-Profit. Open every perpetual position with a pre-defined stop-loss, every time.

Risk Disclosure

Perpetual contracts and other leveraged products carry substantial risk and can result in losses exceeding your initial deposit. Leverage limits, available markets, and platform parameters described in this guide reflect current settings and may be updated; always consult the official documentation before trading. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Trade only with capital you can afford to lose, and consult a qualified financial advisor if you are unsure whether leveraged products are appropriate for your situation.