Enter your entry, your leverage and the exchange's maintenance margin rate to estimate where a USDT-margined futures position is liquidated. Add your stop and it tells you whether the stop is hit first, and how much room there is between them. It runs in your browser, and nothing is stored or sent.
- Liquidation price
- 67.0017a 33% fall from entry
- Rough estimate
- 33.33% 100% / leverage, before maintenance margin
- Leverage on the position
- 3x position value / margin backing it
- Margin per unit
- 33.3333
- The stop is reached first. Liquidation sits 2.99832 beyond the stop, 0.1 times the stop distance of 30. A gap through the stop, or a stop on the last price while liquidation follows the mark price, can still let liquidation come first when this room is thin.
An estimate for one position on a linear contract margined in the quote currency, such as a USDT-margined perpetual. It leaves out fees, funding and liquidation fees, and assumes one maintenance rate, where exchanges raise the rate as the position grows. Most exchanges trigger liquidation from the mark price, not the last trade. The estimated liquidation price on your order ticket is the figure to use, and it moves as price, funding and margin change.
The formula
The exchange closes the position when the margin left equals the maintenance margin, a small share of the position's value. On isolated margin, with m the maintenance rate:
- Long: entry x (1 - 1/leverage) / (1 - m)
- Short: entry x (1 + 1/leverage) / (1 + m)
A long at 100 with 3x leverage and 0.5% maintenance: 100 x (1 - 1/3) is 66.67, and 66.67 / 0.995 is about 67.0, a 33% fall. A short on the same terms liquidates at about 132.7. Those are the numbers the calculator starts on.
On cross margin the leverage setting stops mattering. What backs the position is the balance it can draw on, so the calculator divides that balance by the position size to get the margin behind each unit and uses it in place of entry / leverage. 1,000 backing 30 units at 100 is 33.33 a unit, the same as 3x, and liquidates at the same 67.0. With 2,000 behind it the same long liquidates at about 33.5.
Leverage and distance to liquidation
For a position entered at 100, with 0.5% maintenance at every row. Real rates rise with position size, so at high leverage the real distance is shorter still.
| Leverage | Long liquidates at | Short liquidates at |
|---|---|---|
| 2x | 50.25 (49.7%) | 149.25 (49.3%) |
| 3x | 67.00 (33.0%) | 132.67 (32.7%) |
| 5x | 80.40 (19.6%) | 119.40 (19.4%) |
| 10x | 90.45 (9.5%) | 109.45 (9.5%) |
| 20x | 95.48 (4.5%) | 104.48 (4.5%) |
| 50x | 98.49 (1.5%) | 101.49 (1.5%) |
| 100x | 99.50 (0.5%) | 100.50 (0.5%) |
At 20x a 4.5% move against you ends the trade, and crypto moves that far in a day often. Our trading manual keeps leverage at 3x or less for that reason, and the calculator flags anything above it.
Your stop has to come first
A stop is the loss you planned, placed where the trade idea is wrong. Liquidation can take the whole margin, usually adds a liquidation fee, and can fill at a worse price than shown. A stop beyond the liquidation price never fires, because the exchange closes the trade first.
With the long above and its stop at 70, the stop is hit first, but only 3 before liquidation. A fast drop through 70, or a stop that watches the last price while liquidation follows the mark price, can let liquidation come first. At 2x the same long liquidates near 50, well clear of the stop. Size the trade from its stop with the position size calculator, then pick a leverage setting that leaves this room.
What the estimate leaves out
It assumes one position on a linear contract margined in the quote currency, such as a USDT-margined perpetual. Coin-margined (inverse) contracts use a different sum. It leaves out the closing fee some exchanges reserve, funding you pay while the position is open, and the step-ups in maintenance rate for larger positions. Most exchanges trigger liquidation from the mark price, an index across several exchanges, rather than the last trade, so one wick on a thin order book is less likely to reach it.
Questions
Why does my exchange show a different liquidation price?
Exchanges add things this estimate leaves out: the fee to close the position, funding already paid, maintenance rates that step up with position size, and on cross margin the profit or loss of your other positions. The figure on the order ticket is the one to use.
Is cross margin safer than isolated?
Cross margin puts liquidation farther away, because the whole balance backs the position. The cost is that one losing trade can drain that whole balance, and losses on your other positions pull this one's liquidation price closer. Isolated margin caps the loss at the margin you assigned.
Can a long at 1x leverage be liquidated?
Not on a linear contract: the margin covers a fall all the way to zero, so there is no liquidation price above zero. A short at 1x still has one, at roughly double the entry, because price can rise without limit.
What maintenance margin rate should I use?
Your exchange's margin tier table for that coin. The rate is lowest for small positions in the largest coins and rises with position size and for smaller coins. 0.5% is only the example the calculator starts on.
How do I move my liquidation price further away?
Lower the leverage setting or add margin, so more margin backs each unit, or close part of the position and leave its margin in place. Moving the stop to make room does not fix it; it moves the stop to where the trade idea is no longer tested.