Trading
Perpetuals
Perpetual futures let you take leveraged long or short exposure to an asset without an expiry date. HoodPerp's perps settle on Lighter with USDG cross-margin.
Markets#
Markets cover tokenized equities and major crypto assets, quoted against USD (e.g. NVDA-USD, BTC-USD, ETH-USD). Each market has its own maximum leverage, derived from its minimum initial-margin requirement on Lighter.
Order types#
| Type | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Market | Fills immediately at the best available price. |
| Limit | Rests on the book until price reaches your level. |
| Reduce-only | Can only shrink or close a position — used by the Close button. |
Opening a position#
Pick a market, choose Long or Short, set leverage, and enter a size. The size slider is bounded by your buying power (available USDG margin × leverage). Submitting creates an order that appears under Open Orders and becomes a Position once filled.
Closing a position#
Use Close on any open position to submit a reduce-only order in the opposite direction — a long closes with a sell, a short with a buy — flattening your exposure.
Cross-margin
Positions share a single USDG collateral pool. Profits on one position can offset margin requirements on another, but a loss anywhere draws down the shared balance.