Perpetuals basics

A perpetual (perp) is a contract that tracks the price of a coin. You never own the coin. You hold a position that gains or loses as the price moves. A perp has no expiry date. It stays open until you close it or it is liquidated.

Every perp on Prow is named <coin>-PERP, for example BTC-PERP.

Long and short

• Long profits when the price goes up.
• Short profits when the price goes down.

You pick the side in the order ticket on Trade: Long or Short. A short does not need the coin. You can short BTC with only USDC or USDT in your account.

Mark price and last price

The last price is the price of the most recent trade on the order book. It can jump on a single large order.

The mark price is a fair price the venue computes from the order book and outside price feeds (the index, shown as Index price in the Info tab on Trade). It moves more smoothly. Trade shows the mark next to the price, as Mark.

Prow uses the mark price for:

• unrealized PnL and ROE,
• liquidation,
• stop, take profit and stop loss triggers.

Funding

A perp has no expiry, so a small payment keeps its price close to the index. This payment is called funding. It goes between traders. Prow and the venue do not keep it.

• Positive rate: longs pay shorts.
• Negative rate: shorts pay longs.

Hyperliquid and Lighter pay funding every hour. On Aster the interval is 1 to 8 hours, set per market. Trade always shows the rate per hour as Funding 1h, so you can compare venues, with a countdown to the next payment where the venue pays hourly.

You pay or receive funding on the position value, not on your margin. Open a position to see the funding paid or received since it opened. Every payment is also listed in History, under Funding.

Entry price, PnL and ROE

• Entry is the average price you opened at. If you add to a position, the entry becomes the average of all fills.
• PnL (unrealized PnL, also written uPnL) is what you would make or lose if you closed now at the mark price. It is not final until you close.
• ROE (return on equity) is PnL divided by the margin you put in. At 10× leverage, a 1% price move is about 10% ROE.
• Realized PnL is the result after you close, minus fees and funding.

Liquidation

If losses eat most of your margin, the venue closes the position for you. This is liquidation. The price where it happens is the Liq. price. Prow shows how far away it is, for example "9.0% away".