1. Intro to Trading Perps on Zeta
Everything you need to get started.
Perps — like all derivatives — derive their value from underlying assets and can be used for a variety of purposes, including leverage, speculation, arbitrage, and hedging. All perpetual futures on Zeta are collateralized in USDC.
Trading perps on Zeta enables you to profit from price action to the upside or downside. That is, you can go long or short an asset with perps to manage risk or make directional bets.
Trading perps on Zeta gives you access to up to 10x leverage, so depositing 100 USDC affords you up to 1000 USDC in buying power. Perps are uniquely conducive to leverage and allow you to risk a small amount of capital while standing to gain a large amount of capital.
If you’re nervous to dive in, dip your feet in instead — deposit $5 at dex.zeta.markets and you will instantly have $50 of buying power.
Longing a perp entails buying a perp with the expectation of it increasing in price. If the perp’s underlying asset increases in price, so too does the perp, as the price of the perp closely tracks the price of its underlying asset. If you anticipated $SOL increasing in price and wanted to profit from price action to the upside, you would go long (buy) the $SOL perp. If the price of $SOL increases after your position is established, so too does the value of your position.
Shorting a perp entails selling a perp with the expectation of it decreasing in price. If the perp’s underlying asset decreases in price, so too does the price of the perp, as the price of the perp closely tracks the price of its underlying asset. If you anticipated $SOL decreasing in price and wanted to profit from price action to the downside, you would go short (sell) the $SOL perp. If the price of $SOL decreases after your position is established, the value of your position increases.
Not necessarily. Per the aforementioned example, if you wanted to place a $1,000 trade in the spot market, you would be required to risk $1,000 of your capital.
Alternatively, you could trade a perp and risk a fraction of your capital while maintaining the same degree of upside exposure. The same goes for risk management. Rather than allocating a large chunk of your capital towards protecting your portfolio, you could use perps to protect your portfolio with significantly less collateral.
Last modified 2mo ago