Before opening a position, you will need to apply to trade perpetual futures and be approved.

1. Find a market

• You can access a perpetual contract from:
  • Portfolio (chart icon) through an announcement card
  • Explore (magnifying glass icon)
  • Perpetuals (swirl icon)
  • Perpetuals detail page of the asset you want to trade

2. Choose a direction

• Long (buy): If you think the price will go up
• Short (sell): If you think the price will go down

3. Enter your order details:

• Order type: Market or limit
• Position size: The amount you want to trade (in quantity or USD notional value)
• Price: If placing a limit order, enter the execution price
• Margin mode: Isolated or cross
• Leverage: Choose your leverage. The maximum available depends on the contract.
• Take profit / stop loss (optional): You can set the price at which you want to trigger an order to lock in profits or reduce losses. You can enter this as a specific price, a percentage above/below your entry price, or a dollar amount above/below your entry price. These can help manage risk.

4. Review and submit

• Before placing the order, carefully review the summary that includes the estimated costs and impact to your margin balance. For detailed information about margin requirements including margin tiers and any additional margin that may be required to maintain the position, select the question mark icon (?). After you ensure all the details are correct, swipe up to submit your order.

After your order is filled, you can track your position from the Perpetuals detail page or Perpetuals page.

Buying power is the amount of funds you have available in your Robinhood account to open and support positions. You do not need to explicitly fund a separate perpetuals account to trade. With Robinhood you have one buying power for trading all supported products, including perpetuals.

• Once you place an order, margin posted to the position may include money from your buying power. You can see a breakdown of the margin sources used when you are entering a trade. The sources of available margin can be your buying power or active margin. If money is posted to the position from your buying power, it will be removed from your buying power.
• If you increase margin on an isolated or cross position, this will be removed from your buying power.
• If you decrease margin from an isolated position or a cross position with no other cross positions open, that amount will be returned to your buying power after it settles, within 15 minutes.
• After you close and settle an isolated margin position, any profits and margin from that position will be returned to your buying power
• When you close and settle a cross margin position, any profits and margin from that position is returned to your buying power if no other cross margin positions are active. Otherwise, the settled profit and margin is added to your cross margin balance. When you have no remaining cross margin positions, margin is automatically returned to your buying power. No manual withdrawal is required.

When trading perpetual futures, you can choose between isolated or cross margin modes to determine how your margin is allocated per position.

Isolated margin assigns a fixed amount of margin to a single position. Only that amount is at risk—if the position is liquidated, losses are limited to the margin you allocated.

Cross margin shares margin across all open cross positions. Profits from one position can offset losses from another. This may help prevent liquidation by using funds from your cross margin account. However, it also means losses can impact all of your cross positions, and can lead to liquidation of all positions.

In the app, you can toggle between isolated and cross margin when placing orders. The default setting is Isolated 1x.

Take profit (TP) and stop loss (SL) orders are tools to help you lock in profits and manage risk by limiting losses. These orders are optional, and you can add one or both to an open position. Keep in mind, these include a 5% collar when placed as stop market orders. If the TP or SL order executes for the full quantity of the position, it will close that position.

How to place a TP/SL order

You can place these orders in 2 ways:

When opening a position

1. Select Add next to Take profit/stop loss.
2. Set your TP/SL in any of the following ways:

• Tap and drag the orders to the desired prices on the graph
• Enter a specific price manually
• Enter a % above/below your entry price
• Enter a dollar amount above/below your entry price

3. Select Save.

On an open position

1. Select your position on Perpetuals or the contract’s detail page.
2. Select the field under Take profit (TP) or Stop loss (SL). It may say Add if none were set, the price if one was set, or the number pending if multiple were set.
3. Set your TP/SL using a price, %, or dollar P&L value.
4. You will need to add take profit and stop loss orders separately.

TP/SL orders are activated when the pending order they’re attached to is filled. Once activated, they are triggered when the mark price reaches the level you set, which may differ from the market price.

How the % is calculated

When setting TP/SL orders, percentages are always based on your entry price, not the current market price. Dollar P&L values are calculated based on your position size and leverage.

For example:

• You hold a long position with 1x leverage, position size of 1 BTC, and an entry price of $50,000.
• You set a take profit at +$15,000 P&L. This is equivalent to a TP price of $65,000, or +30%.
• You set a stop loss at -$5,000 P&L. This is equivalent to an SL price of $45,000, or -10%.

All 3 input methods (price, %, and $ P&L) will always display their equivalents so you can confirm the order is set where you expect.

Long vs short positions

TP/SL orders need to match the direction of your position. Orders must be at least 1% apart from each other to prevent both orders triggering simultaneously in volatile markets.

Long

• Take profit prices are set above your entry price
• Stop loss prices are set below

Short

• Take profit prices are set below your entry price
• Stop loss prices are set above

• Opening a new position: If you don’t have an open position in that contract, an order will open a new position.
• Same direction: If your new order matches your current position—like adding to a long—it will increase the position size.
• Opposite direction: If your new order is in the opposite direction—like a short while holding a long—it will reduce your position. If the size of the new order is larger than the current position, it will flip to the opposite side.

Effect on margin

• Active positions affect your available margin because they settle profit and loss every 15 minutes. If you have a loss, margin will be used to cover the loss. Fees will also be covered by margin if there is a loss or insufficient gains during the settlement window.
• Limit or unfilled orders require margin to be posted when they are placed before they are filled.
• Closing or flipping a cross margin position with no other live cross margin position returns margin back to your available balance after settlement.

Because trading perpetuals involves significant risk of losses and liquidations, it's important to continually monitor your position and use tools to manage risk as needed or close your position. Keep an eye on the following:

Position health

Your margin balance is a key indicator of position health. If your margin falls too low, your position may be partially or fully liquidated.

Isolated margin ratio (IMR) and maintenance margin ratio (MMR) have visual indicators next to the % on the position details to help you track the health of your position.

IMR

• Green dot: IMR is low, and the position is not currently considered at risk of liquidation.
• Yellow dot: IMR is between 80% and 100%, and the position is nearing liquidation risk.
• Red dot: IMR has reached 100% and is at high risk of liquidation. The position is not liquidated at this point. A position is only liquidated if the MMR exceeds 100%.

MMR

• Green dot: MMR is low and not currently considered at risk of liquidation.
• Yellow dot: MMR is between 80% and 100% and the position has higher liquidation risk.
• Red dot: MMR has reached 100% and your position will be partially or fully liquidated.

The liquidation price on the position details will also indicate when a position nears a liquidation state.

• Underlined yellow price: the position has more liquidation risk
• Underlined red price: the position will be imminently partially or fully liquidated.

Once the liquidation price changes to one of the colors mentioned, you can tap on the price for more information and to take action quickly.

Market conditions

Price changes can significantly impact your position, especially when using leverage. You should always monitor the current market price, the mark price (used for liquidations), and your entry price vs the current price.

Performance

• On the position detail, Total P&L shows the profits or losses on the position.
• The main P&L number on the Perpetuals page shows the total P&L from trading all perpetuals since you onboarded. It includes a breakdown of open and closed P&L.

Funding payments

• Charged or received every 8 hours (00:00 UTC, 08:00 UTC, and 16:00 UTC).
• If the funding rate is positive, longs pay shorts. If negative, shorts pay longs.
• You will not pay/receive funding if you close your position before the period ends.
• Track the next funding time using the Next funding countdown on the contract’s detail page.

Take profit and stop loss orders

• You can enter TP/SL orders from the Perpetuals page or while managing a position on the perpetual detail page. You can also enter TP/SL orders when opening a new position.
• At this time, you can only add a TP/SL from the Perpetuals page or the perpetuals detail page if you have not already added one for the position.
• It is important to recognize that at this time, TP/SL orders correspond to a specific order quantity. They do not dynamically adjust to the size of your position.
• At this time, TP/SL’s can only be added if you are increasing the size of your position.
• If a TP triggers, the corresponding SL will cancel (and vice versa).
• You can cancel TP/SL’s once they are entered on the Perpetuals page or on the Perpetuals detail page.

Time in force (TIF)

When placing a limit order, choose when you want the order to expire.

Good til canceled (GTC): Orders stay pending until they execute or are canceled. Good for day (GFD): Orders expire at 12:00 AM ET 06:00 CET(UTC+1), or 07:00 CEST (UTC+2), subject to local daylight saving schedules.

If you are having trouble, go to Help → Contact us in the app to report order issues. Provide as much detail as possible, like the contract, order type, error message, and timestamp.

When you open a position, you will incur fees based on the notional value of the position.

• Venue maker-taker fees: fees charged by our partner venue to execute trades
• Robinhood maker-taker fees: fees charged by Robinhood to execute trades

Perpetual futures are complex derivative products, and trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for all investors, particularly for perpetuals referencing assets which experience volatile price movements. Further, leveraged trading is risky as it can amplify the speed of your losses and increases the chance of you losing all of your initial investment. Please carefully consider if investing in such financial instruments is appropriate for you in light of your specific experience, risk tolerance, and financial situation. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply.