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Margin is the collateral required to open and maintain leveraged positions. It ensures traders have enough collateral to cover potential losses and gives the system a buffer to close positions before they become insolvent. There are two thresholds. Initial margin (IM) is the collateral required to open or increase a position. Maintenance margin (MM) is the minimum collateral required to keep a position open. When equity drops below maintenance margin, the position is liquidated.

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Equity

Equity is the real-time value of an account, incorporating all open positions at current Mark Price.

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Unrealized PnL

Because equity depends on Mark Price, equity follows live mark updates. See Mark Price.

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Margin Requirements

Initial margin is set by your configured leverage:
Leverage tiers cap the leverage available as your position grows — larger positions must run at lower leverage and therefore post proportionally more initial margin. The cap is enforced against your worst-case position notional (position plus resting orders on the heavier side): an order that would grow it into a tier whose max_leverage is below your configured leverage is rejected with invalid_leverage, and you must lower your leverage setting first. Your configured leverage applies to your entire notional, not bracket by bracket. Fetch each market’s tier schedule from Market Data. Maintenance margin uses a flat per-market rate, independent of position size, tier, and your leverage setting:
MaxLeverage is the market’s maximum leverage, so on a 20x market MMR = 2.5% for every position. MM equals half the initial margin of a position opened at max leverage; at lower leverage your IM is higher but MM stays the same, so the gap between entry requirement and liquidation grows. Margin requirements are static across sessions.

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Margin States

An account is always in one of three states.

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Margin Checks

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Pre-Trade

Before any order executes, the system verifies the account can afford it:
  1. Compute the new position after the order fills.
  2. Calculate required initial margin using the market’s leverage tiers.
  3. Reject the order if equity is below required initial margin.
This prevents accounts from entering a margin-call state through new trades.

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Continuous Monitoring

The system continuously evaluates accounts:
  • If equity falls below maintenance margin, liquidation begins.
  • If equity is between maintenance margin and initial margin, the account may enter reduce-only mode.

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Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposits increase equity. A deposit during margin call can restore the account to healthy status immediately. Withdrawals require the account to remain above required initial margin after the withdrawal. You cannot withdraw yourself into a margin call.

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Adjusting Isolated Margin

For each position, initial_margin reports the collateral currently backing the position. For cross positions, it is the required initial margin based on position size, Mark Price, the applicable risk tier, and configured leverage. For isolated positions, it is the position’s current equity:
The isolated value is a point-in-time snapshot that changes with Mark Price and funding. The legacy initial_margin name is retained for API compatibility; margin would describe this value more accurately. A positive margin adjustment moves free account collateral into the isolated allocation. A negative adjustment releases value back to free collateral and may include unrealized profit, so the signed allocation itself can reach zero or become negative. The request is accepted only when the resulting position equity remains at or above current required initial margin. Both additions and removals are blocked while the account is in cross liquidation or the target position is in isolated liquidation. An isolated liquidation on a different instrument does not block the request. Cancel-only mode does not gate margin adjustments.