Markets, prices, margin & liquidation
This guide explains the mechanics that affect every MNX trader: what each market type represents, which price controls risk, how much collateral a position needs, what happens during liquidation, and how price bands and funding work. Exact limits vary by market and are returned by GET /v0/markets.
Market types
| Type | What it represents | Funding and settlement |
|---|---|---|
| Perpetual | A continuously traded market that follows an external asset, such as a stock, index, cryptocurrency, metal, or currency pair. | Does not expire. Periodic funding payments help keep its traded price near the external reference. |
| Numeric future | A numeric rather than YES/NO outcome. OPENAI and ANTHROPIC, for example, are priced in billions of U.S. dollars of company market capitalization. | Has no periodic funding payment and settles under its published contract specification. |
| Binary future | A YES/NO outcome priced between 0 and 1, representing the market-implied probability of YES. | Has no periodic funding payment and settles to 0 or 1. |
Oracle price and mark price
MNX publishes two prices because risk checks and a trader's displayed profit and loss (P&L) need different kinds of stability.
| Price | What it controls | How it is formed |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle | Margin checks, liquidation eligibility, and the tradable price band. | Perpetuals aggregate external reference data. Numeric and binary futures use an 8-hour EMA of MNX's internal order-book mid price (falling back to the last trade without a two-sided quote) because no continuously observable external price exists before settlement. |
| Mark | Unrealized P&L display and conditional-order triggers. | Combines available internal market prices and falls back to the oracle when the order book is too thin. |
Oracle updates are rate-limited, and stale data is not used indefinitely. If a reference stops updating, affected settlement and liquidation paths pause at their respective freshness limits rather than continuing on a stale price.
Margin and leverage
MNX uses isolated margin: each market position has its own collateral. The main quantities are:
- Notional is the total value of the position: size × price.
- Opening margin is the collateral reserved when the position opens. At 5x leverage, a 1,000 USDM position requires about 200 USDM of opening margin, before any applicable fees.
- Equity is the position's margin plus unrealized P&L and any pending funding.
- Margin ratio is equity divided by notional at the oracle price. Each market defines an initial and maintenance margin requirement; maximum leverage follows from the initial requirement.
Orders that would open or increase a position below its margin requirement are rejected before matching and checked again when a batch clears. Reducing an existing position remains allowed. Current margin requirements and leverage limits are available from GET /v0/markets.
Liquidation
A position becomes eligible for liquidation when its margin ratio falls below the market's maintenance requirement plus the 0.5-percentage-point liquidation buffer. Pending funding is applied before this check.
- Book liquidation: MNX cancels the position's open orders and submits a reduce-only market order, which can shrink or close the position but cannot reverse it. Large positions may be closed in several pieces to reduce market impact.
- Backstop: if too little equity remains for a book liquidation, the backstop takes over the remaining position and the trader's position closes.
- Auto-deleveraging: if the position is insolvent, positions on the profitable opposite side may be reduced to keep the exchange solvent. More profitable, more leveraged positions are considered first.
A fully collateralized 1x binary short is the exception: it posts its maximum possible loss up front and is not liquidated.
Price bands and order execution
Every market has a configured band around its oracle price. A batch can clear only inside that band; a limit order outside it remains open until it becomes eligible. Bands vary by contract—for example, CRWV and SPCX currently use ±5%, while OPENAI and ANTHROPIC use ±20%. Binary-market bands also vary by contract.
MNX matches orders in frequent batch auctions at one clearing price. Eligible orders on each side are allocated proportionally by their remaining size rather than queue position. Each market also defines its own tick size (the smallest price increment), quantity step, and minimum and maximum order sizes. See Placing orders for the order lifecycle and GET /v0/markets for current values.
Funding
Funding applies only to perpetuals. When a perpetual trades above its reference, longs pay shorts; when it trades below its reference, shorts pay longs. The trade page shows the current rate and next funding time.
Stock-perpetual funding runs during the regular U.S. equity session (9:30–16:00 New York time on trading days) and pauses outside it. Markets with around-the-clock references, such as currencies and metals, fund continuously. Numeric and binary futures have no periodic funding payment.
Stock-perpetual holders should also read the corporate-actions policy.