Hypertake is an independent web interface for Hyperliquid's HIP-4 prediction markets (outcomes) and perpetual futures. You connect your own wallet; every order is placed, matched and settled on Hyperliquid, and your money stays in your own Hyperliquid account. Hypertake is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hyperliquid. Markdown of this page: https://hypertake.net/docs/perps/leverage-and-margin.md. Full documentation index: https://hypertake.net/llms.txt
Perps · Concepts
Leverage and margin
How perps leverage and margin work on Hyperliquid: per-market maximums, cross versus isolated, and changing either later
Leverage is your position's value divided by the money you put behind it (your margin). $100 of margin at 10× is a $1,000 position. Each Hyperliquid market sets its own maximum leverage, and you choose whether your margin is isolated (only that money backs the position) or cross (your whole available balance does).
How Hypertake asks for it
The order form follows the order a trader decides in. First the Leverage slider, from 1× to the market's maximum. Then Your money: the dollars of your own you put in. Under it, the form reads back what that makes: "Trades like $1,000 · 0.0125 BTC". You never type a position size and work backwards to the margin; the form does that arithmetic.
A market you haven't traded starts isolated. On desktop, the leverage and margin mode you choose are remembered per market in this browser. The minimum applies to the position, not your money: at 10× you can open a $10 position with $1.
Maximum leverage is per market
Hyperliquid sets a maximum for every market, and Hypertake reads it live: BTC's is 40× at the time of writing; many smaller markets allow far less. Large positions can be capped lower still by Hyperliquid's margin tiers: on mainnet, a BTC position above 150M USDC of notional is limited to 20×. The slider always stops at the market's current maximum, so it's the number to trust.
Cross or isolated
In the order form this is Order settings → What backs it. The choice decides two things: how far away your liquidation is, and how much you can lose.
| Isolated: "Only what you put in" | Cross: "All your balance backs it" | |
|---|---|---|
| What backs the position | Only the margin you put in | Your whole available balance |
| Most you can lose | That margin | Up to your available balance |
| Liquidation price | Set by the leverage alone, the same for $10 or $1,000 | Further away, and moves with the size of the order and your balance |
| Margin of its own | Yes: you can add or remove margin later | No: the balance is shared |
| Where it's the default | New markets on Hypertake | Hyperliquid's own default |
ExampleDana's $1,000 BTC long, isolated and cross
- BTC is at 80,000 and Dana has $500 available. She wants a $1,000 long (0.0125 BTC).
- Isolated, $100 at 10×: liquidation at about 72,911, 8.9% below the price. If it's hit, she loses the $100; the other $400 is untouched.
- Cross, the same $1,000 position: her whole $500 backs it, so liquidation is about 40,506, 49.4% below. But if BTC does fall that far, she can lose the whole $500.
- Figures from Hypertake's estimate with BTC's 40× maximum (maintenance margin 1.25%), before fees.
FlowIsolated: $100 at risk, liquidation 8.9% away · Cross: $500 at risk, liquidation 49.4% away
Isolated-only markets
Some markets don't allow cross margin. Hyperliquid marks them isolated-only (or "strict isolated", where margin can't be removed once added either), and Hypertake disables Cross for them. Builder-deployed markets can be among them: on Hyperliquid, validators allow cross margin only on assets that meet their eligibility standards (HIP-3).
Initial and maintenance margin
- Initial margin
- What opening needs:
position size × mark price ÷ leverage(Hyperliquid: margining). - Maintenance margin
- The least a position must keep: half the initial margin at the market's maximum leverage. For a 40× market that's 1.25% of the position's value; for a 3× market, 16.7%.
- Available
- What you can put into a new order on this side, as Hyperliquid reports it for your account. Max in the form fills in all of it, less room for Hyperliquid's trading fee.
Changing leverage or margin on an open position
With a position open, its margin mode is fixed until you close it. Its leverage isn't: drag the slider in the order form and press Change to 20× (or let it apply with your next order), or use the position's Leverage tab. What a change does depends on the mode, and Hypertake says which before you press:
- Cross: raising leverage frees part of your balance to trade with; lowering it ties more up. The liquidation price doesn't move.
- Isolated, lowering: the position needs more margin, so Hypertake adds the shortfall from your balance first (the button says "Add $X and set 5×"). The liquidation moves further away.
- Isolated, raising: nothing moves now. Hyperliquid keeps at least 10% of the position's value as margin, so no money comes out; it only means less margin for anything you add later.
Isolated positions also let you add or remove margin directly. You can remove only down to the larger of the initial margin and 10% of the position's value, which is Hyperliquid's rule. See Managing a position.
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