Get started with futures

Trade USDT-M and Coin-M futures on Trade Llama: what perpetual and quarterly contracts are, how to open a position, and the risks of leverage.

Futures let you trade on a coin's price going up or down without holding the coin itself, usually with leverage. On Trade Llama you trade them on the Futures page, which offers USDT-M perpetual contracts and Coin-M perpetual and quarterly contracts.

Risk warning: futures are high risk. Leverage magnifies losses as well as gains, and a position can be liquidated quickly, losing the margin behind it. Only trade with money you can afford to lose, and read the Risk disclosure first.

What's on offer

  • USDT-M perpetuals: margined and settled in USDT, so your profit and loss is in USDT.
  • Coin-M contracts: margined and settled in the coin itself, for example BTC. Your profit and loss is in that coin, so its value also moves with the coin's price.
  • Perpetual or quarterly: a perpetual contract has no expiry date; you hold it until you close it. A quarterly contract expires on a set date. Coin-M offers both.
  • Long or short: go long if you expect the price to rise, or short if you expect it to fall.
  • Funding: perpetual contracts generally use periodic funding payments between longs and shorts to keep the contract price close to the market price.

Browse contracts on the Futures tab on Markets.

Leverage in brief

Leverage lets you open a position bigger than the margin you put up. Example only: at 10x, 100 USDT of margin controls a position worth 1,000 USDT, so a small price move has a large effect on your margin, in either direction. If losses use up your margin, the position is liquidated. Margin, leverage and liquidation explains this in detail.

Open your first position

  1. Log in and make sure you have funds. If you need to, deposit them. If they're held in another of your accounts, move them with Transfer in Wallet.
  2. Open Futures and pick a contract, for example BTCUSDT.
  3. Check the leverage and margin settings in the order form. Lower leverage gives you more room before liquidation.
  4. Choose a market or limit order and enter the size.
  5. Check the estimated fee shown in the order form.
  6. Go long (buy) or short (sell) to place the order.
  7. Keep an eye on your position and margin, and close it when you want to take a profit or limit a loss.

Not available yet

Futures copy trading, futures grid bots and API trading aren't available yet. The futures copy trading page says the same.

Next steps

Before you place your first trade, read Margin, leverage and liquidation and Order types: market and limit.