Perps Trading
Trade perpetual futures on Ritdex — crypto, stocks, commodities, metals and FX with leverage, powered by Hyperliquid's on-chain order book. Order types, margin modes, funding, liquidation and the Ritchi-Signal overlay explained.
Perpetual futures ("perps") are Ritdex's core product. You trade with leverage on hundreds of markets — powered directly by Hyperliquid's on-chain central limit order book (CLOB), settled in your own wallet.
What is a perpetual future?
A perp is a futures contract with no expiry date — you can hold a position as long as you keep enough margin. A funding rate (paid peer-to-peer between longs and shorts) keeps the perp price tracking the underlying asset. You can go long (profit if price rises) or short (profit if it falls), and apply leverage to control a larger position than your margin alone.
Ritdex runs no matching engine. Every order, fill, margin change, and liquidation happens on Hyperliquid — Ritdex adds the interface, signals, and automation on top. See Hyperliquid Features.
Trade everything, from one balance
Because Ritdex uses Hyperliquid's builder-code markets, a single USDC balance trades far more than crypto:
| Market | Examples |
|---|---|
| Crypto | BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE and hundreds more |
| Stocks / equities | Tokenized equity perps |
| Commodities & metals | Gold, silver and more |
| FX | Major currency pairs |
| Indices & Pre-IPO | Index perps and pre-listing markets |
Placing a trade
- Pick a market from the token selector (search by ticker).
- Choose margin mode & leverage — Cross or Isolated, then your leverage for that market.
- Pick an order type — Market to fill now, or Limit to set your price — and enter size.
- Buy / Long or Sell / Short.
- Manage the position — set take-profit / stop-loss, add or reduce, and close whenever you like.
Order types
- Market — fills immediately at the best available price.
- Limit — fills only at your chosen price or better.
- Stop / TP-SL — triggers a market or limit order once price hits a level, for take-profit and stop-loss.
- TWAP — slices a large order into smaller pieces executed over time to reduce impact.
Margin: Cross vs Isolated
Margin and PnL are shared across all open positions on the account. Efficient use of capital, but a liquidation can affect every position at once.
A fixed amount of margin is allocated to a single position. Margin and PnL are not shared — only that position is at risk if it's liquidated.
Cross shares margin across all your positions — capital-efficient, but a liquidation can affect the whole account. Isolated locks a fixed amount of margin to a single position, so only that position is at risk. Choose per trade based on how much you want each position ring-fenced.
Leverage & liquidation
- Leverage is set per market, within Hyperliquid's risk parameters (higher-liquidity markets allow higher leverage).
- Your liquidation price is shown before you confirm — the price at which your margin would no longer cover the position.
- With Isolated margin, a liquidation is contained to that one position; with Cross, it can draw on your whole account's margin.
Leverage amplifies both gains and losses. Trade sizes you can afford to lose, keep a margin buffer above your liquidation price, and use stop-losses.
Funding rate
Funding is a small payment exchanged between traders (not a Ritdex or Hyperliquid fee) roughly every hour, keeping the perp price tied to the underlying. When funding is positive, longs pay shorts; when negative, shorts pay longs. The live rate and countdown show in the market header.
Ritchi-Signal on the chart
Ritdex's built-in TradingView chart can overlay the Ritchi-Signal BUY/SELL indicator right on the price chart, so you can read momentum without leaving the trade screen. Prefer hands-off? Auto-Trading Bots execute directly off these signals for you.
Non-custodial & fees
Perps trading is non-custodial — your margin lives in your own Hyperliquid account and Ritdex's trade-only agent can place orders but never withdraw (see Wallet & Security). The only Ritdex charge is the small builder fee (0.025% / 0.045%) attached to each fill — full breakdown on the Fees page.