Glossary: perpetual trading words, in plain English

What do perpetual, long and short mean?

• Perpetual (perp) — A contract that tracks the price of an asset, with no expiry date. Your position stays open until you close it. Stock perpetuals
• Hyperliquid — The exchange where your account, your money and your positions live. StratiDex places your orders there from Telegram, on an account in your name.
• HIP-3 — Markets deployed on Hyperliquid by third parties: stocks, gold, oil, indices, currencies, pre-IPO. HIP-3 explained
• Ticker — The short name of a market: BTC, NVDA, GOLD. It is what you type in 🔍 Search. In 📈 Trade, tabs also sort the markets: stocks, commodities, indices, forex, pre-IPO. Markets
• Pre-IPO — A company not yet listed on a stock exchange, such as OpenAI or Anthropic, that you trade as a perpetual. Pre-IPO
• Long (buy) — A position that gains when the price rises. It is the Buy button.
• Short (sell) — A position that gains when the price falls. It is the Sell button; you do not need to own the asset.
• Funding — A small periodic payment between buyers and sellers that keeps the contract price close to the asset price. Depending on the market's direction, your position pays it or receives it.

What do leverage, stake and ticket mean?

• Ticket — The screen where you prepare an order: the stake, the leverage, then ✅ Confirm. It shows the position size and an approximate liquidation price (≈) before you confirm. Place an order
• Stake — The money you commit to a position, before leverage. An order starts at $11.
• Position — Your stake multiplied by the leverage. Your gains, your losses and the fees are calculated on this amount.
• Leverage — It multiplies the size of your position, not your stake. The higher it is, the closer the liquidation price.
• Max leverage — The leverage cap of a market, set by Hyperliquid or by the deployer. The market screen shows it, and the last leverage button on the ticket is always that maximum.
• Entry price — The price at which your position opened. Your result is counted from it.
• Slippage — The gap between the expected price and the price you got. The result screen shows it when there is any.
• Spread — The difference between a market's buy price and sell price. You pay it when you enter; on a thin market, the ticket warns you.

What do margin, liquidation and stop loss mean?

• Margin used — The part of your money that backs your open positions. It frees up when you close.
• Available — The free money in your trading account. It funds a new stake, and it is what you can withdraw.
• Cross margin — Your whole account backs the position. StratiDex uses it when the market allows it.
• Isolated margin — Only the margin shown backs the position. StratiDex uses it when the market requires it, and the ticket tells you so.
• Liquidation, liquidation price — If the price reaches this level, Hyperliquid closes the position and you lose what backs it: your stake in isolated margin, your available balance in cross margin. The ticket gives an approximate value (≈); your position screen shows Hyperliquid's own. Risks
• Liquidation alert — A message when your position gets close to its liquidation price, so you can close it, reduce it or, in cross margin, add money in time. Alerts
• Stop loss — An order that closes your position at the price you choose, to stop a loss. Hyperliquid holds it itself. Protect a position
• Take profit — An order that closes your position at the price you choose, to lock in a gain. Hyperliquid holds it too.
• Trailing stop — A stop that follows your gain and never moves back. It keeps 75, 50 or 25% of your gain, your choice; 🔒 Freeze this stop leaves it where it is. Protect a position

What do unrealised PnL and return mean?

• Capital — All the money in your account: what sits on Earn, plus your trading account, that is the margin used and what is available.
• Unrealised result (PnL) — What your position is making or losing right now. It becomes real when you close it.
• Return — Your result measured against your stake, as a percentage.
• Add, reduce — Add increases your position. Reduce takes part of it off: the rest keeps running, at the same entry price.
• Performance — Your record over the period you pick: net result, winning trades, average win and average loss. Fees are already counted in it. Performance
• Price alert, My list — 🔔 Alert sends you a message when a market reaches your price. ⭐ Watch keeps a market in ⭐ My list, with its live price. Alerts

What do copy-wallet, Earn and private key mean?

• Copy-wallet — You paste the address of a Hyperliquid trader and choose how much of your money follows it. Every opening, increase, reduction and closing is replayed on your account, at your size. Pause or stop whenever you want. Copy a wallet
• Earn, APY — Earn lends your idle USDC to Hyperliquid traders: ~5% APY, a yearly rate that moves with demand. No lock-up, from $1. Earn
• USDC — A digital dollar: the currency of your account. You deposit, trade and withdraw in USDC.
• Arbitrum One — The network you use to send USDC to your account. Another network can lose the funds. Deposit
• Deposit minimum — Hyperliquid's bridge credits a deposit from $5. Below that, the funds wait on your Arbitrum address: send a little more, and everything moves across.
• Private key — The key to your account: whoever holds it can move everything. Export it from ⚙️ Settings → 🔑 Export my key, or 👛 My funds → 🔑 My key. Export my key
• Trading key (API wallet) — The key that places your orders from the bot. It opens and closes positions, but it cannot withdraw your money. Security
• Share card — A market or a trade sent into any conversation with @stratidex_bot. Whoever receives it opens that market in the bot; for a trade, the same ticket opens, at their own size. Share a trade
• Invite link — Your personal link, in Menu → 🤝 Referrals. You receive 30% of our fees on the trades of every friend who joins through it, on one level. Invite a friend