Futures trading offers some of the most powerful tools in crypto — and some of the highest risks. This guide breaks down everything you need to know before trading perpetual contracts on TradeZone.
What Are Perpetual Futures?
Unlike traditional futures contracts that expire on a set date, perpetual contracts have no expiry. They track the underlying spot price via a funding rate mechanism — traders holding long positions pay funding to shorts (or vice versa) every 8 hours, keeping the futures price anchored to spot.
Leverage: Power and Danger
TradeZone offers up to 125x leverage on BTC/USDT perpetuals. Here's what that means in practice:
- 10x leverage: A 10% price move in your direction = 100% profit. A 10% move against you = 100% loss (liquidation)
- 25x leverage: A 4% adverse move = liquidation
- 125x leverage: A 0.8% adverse move = liquidation
Most professional traders use 2–10x leverage. Anything above 20x is speculation, not trading.
Margin Types
Isolated Margin: Your risk is capped at the collateral you assign to a single position. If it's liquidated, only that collateral is lost.
Cross Margin: Your entire account balance backs all positions. More efficient capital use, but a liquidation event can wipe your entire balance.
Beginners should always use isolated margin.
Risk Management Rules for Futures
- Never risk more than 2% of your total capital on a single trade
- Always set a stop-loss before entering
- Use Take Profit to lock in gains automatically
- Avoid trading during high-impact news events without a clear plan
- Never add to a losing position
Trading Futures on TradeZone
Navigate to Trading → Futures from your dashboard. You'll find the TradingView chart, order panel, position manager, and live funding rate. Start with a small position and paper-trade your strategy in our Sandbox environment first.