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25-delta skew (risk reversal)

The implied volatility of the 25-delta call minus that of the 25-delta put, in vol points. Negative means puts are bid: the market pays more for downside protection than for upside. It is the standard gauge of options skew.

Bitcoin implied volatility →

A

ADL (auto-deleveraging)

When a liquidation cannot be closed at a price the insurance fund can absorb, the exchange closes part of the most profitable opposing positions against it instead. Traders with high profit and high leverage are first in the queue. It is rare, but it can shut a winning trade without warning.

Insurance fund and ADL explained →

ADL (auto-deleveraging): worked example and questions →

Altcoin season

A stretch when most large altcoins outperform bitcoin. It is usually measured as the share of the top coins that beat BTC over the last 90 days, with 75% or more read as altcoin season.

Altcoin season index →

Annualised funding (APR)

A funding rate converted to a yearly figure so it can be compared with other yields. Multiply the rate per 8 hours by three payments a day and 365 days; 0.01% per 8 hours is about 11% a year.

Funding fee calculator →

Annualised funding (APR): worked example and questions →

Average entry price

The size-weighted price of every fill that built a position. Adding to a loser lowers it for a long and raises it for a short, and it is the price your PnL and liquidation price are measured from.

Average entry calculator →

B

Bankruptcy price

The price at which a position's loss equals its whole margin, so its equity is zero. Liquidation fires earlier, at the liquidation price; if the forced close fills worse than the bankruptcy price, the insurance fund pays the gap, then ADL. Whether the fee to close is counted varies by exchange.

Liquidation price calculator → · Insurance fund and ADL explained →

Basis

The gap between a futures price and the spot price of the same asset, usually shown in basis points (1 bp is 0.01%). On a perpetual, funding keeps the gap small; on a dated future it shrinks to zero at expiry.

live BTC -5.0 bps perp vs spot on Binance

What is basis? →

Bitcoin dominance

Bitcoin's percentage share of total crypto market capitalisation, as reported by CoinGecko.

Bitcoin dominance →

C

CME gap

The historical gap between CME crypto futures' Friday close and Sunday open. CME crypto futures have traded 24/7 since 29 May 2026, so new weekend gaps no longer form.

Historical CME gaps →

Coin-margined contract

A futures or perp contract margined and settled in the coin itself, such as BTC, also called an inverse contract. Each contract is a fixed dollar amount and profit is paid in coin, so a long's collateral falls with price too. Contract size and coin list vary by exchange; USDT- or USDC-margined contracts settle in stablecoins.

Inverse (coin-margined) PnL calculator →

Coinbase premium

The gap between the bitcoin price on Coinbase in US dollars and on Binance in USDT, as a percentage of the Binance price. Coinbase is where much US buying happens, so a positive premium is read as strong US demand and a negative one as US selling.

What is the Coinbase premium? →

Contango and backwardation

Contango means futures trade above spot, the usual state when traders pay up for leveraged long exposure. Backwardation is the reverse, futures below spot, and tends to show up in fearful or short-heavy markets.

Futures curves and calendar spreads →

Correlation

How closely two coins' returns move together, from -1 (opposite) to +1 (in lockstep). Most large altcoins sit well above 0.5 against bitcoin, so holding several of them diversifies less than it seems.

Crypto correlation matrix →

COT report

The weekly Commitments of Traders report from the US CFTC, which splits open interest in regulated futures such as CME bitcoin by trader type. It shows how asset managers, leveraged funds and dealers are positioned, with a few days' delay.

CME COT report →

Cross margin

A margin mode where every position in the account shares one pool of collateral. A losing trade can draw on the whole balance before it is liquidated, which delays liquidation but puts the entire account at risk.

Liquidation price calculator →

Cross margin: worked example and questions →

Crypto Fear & Greed Index

Alternative.me's 0–100 crypto sentiment gauge, from extreme fear to extreme greed. Our page also shows our separate derivatives index, based on derivatives market data.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index and derivatives index →

CVD (cumulative volume delta)

A running total of taker buy volume minus taker sell volume. Rising CVD means aggressive buyers are hitting the ask more than sellers hit the bid; a price rise with falling CVD is a divergence worth a second look.

What is CVD? →

D

Delta neutral

A position whose value does not change with small price moves, for example long spot and short the same amount of perp. Funding traders use it to collect funding payments without betting on direction.

Funding arbitrage calculator →

E

Exchange concentration

How covered open interest or trading volume is distributed across exchanges, measured by venue shares and the sum of squared shares (HHI, on a 0–1 scale). It describes the included venues, not the entire market or liquidity quality.

Open interest concentration → · Exchange concentration explained →

F

Funding arbitrage

Holding opposite positions on two venues, or in spot and perp, to earn the difference in funding rates. The edge is the spread between rates; the risks are fees, basis moves and one leg being liquidated.

Funding arbitrage screener →

Funding cap

The largest funding rate a perp may charge per interval, with a matching floor for negative rates. Each exchange sets it per contract and can change it, often wider for small alts than for majors; some also shorten the funding interval while a rate stays capped.

Perps at their funding cap → · What is the funding rate? →

Funding interval

How often a perpetual settles funding. Most tracked Binance contracts settle every 4 hours, while major contracts such as BTC and ETH settle every 8 hours. Bybit has many 4- and 8-hour contracts; some markets on either venue settle hourly. Hyperliquid settles every hour, so rates are usually converted to an 8-hour equivalent before comparing.

Funding rates by coin →

Funding rate

A periodic payment between longs and shorts that keeps a perpetual's price close to spot. When it is positive, longs pay shorts; when negative, shorts pay longs. The exchange only passes the money between traders.

live BTC 0.0072% OI-weighted, per 8h · 7.9% APR

What is the funding rate? →

Futures term structure

The curve of dated futures prices or annualised basis across expiries for the same asset. This site's curves exclude contracts with less than two days remaining, where annualising a small premium amplifies noise.

Live futures curves → · Futures term structure explained →

G

Gamma exposure (GEX)

A model estimate of how options' delta exposure changes for a 1% underlying price move, expressed in USD and aggregated using open interest. Signed GEX here assumes dealers are long calls and short puts; their actual positions and hedge trades are not observed.

Bitcoin gamma exposure → · Gamma exposure and the dealer assumption →

Gamma squeeze

A price move amplified by option dealers' delta hedging: dealers assumed short gamma buy as price rises and sell as it falls, pushing further in the direction of the move.

Bitcoin gamma exposure → · What is a gamma squeeze? →

H

Hedge mode

A position mode that lets one account hold a long and a short on the same contract at once, each with its own size, margin and liquidation price. One-way mode, the usual default, nets them into a single position. Not every exchange, contract or margin mode offers hedge mode.

Liquidation price calculator →

HIP-3

Hyperliquid's standard that lets third parties deploy their own perpetual markets, each on a separate dex with its own oracle and open-interest caps. It is how stock, commodity and index perps trade around the clock on Hyperliquid.

live 170 markets on 4 HIP-3 dexes

What are HIP-3 stock perps? →

HLP (Hyperliquidity Provider)

Hyperliquid's community vault that makes markets and takes over liquidated positions. Depositors share its profit and loss, so it tends to earn in calm markets and can lose when one side runs hard.

HLP vault →

I

Implied volatility

Volatility inferred from option prices: the price of future uncertainty, rather than past movement.

Realized vs implied volatility →

Index price

A reference spot price built from several exchanges, used to calculate funding and, with the order book, the mark price. Averaging many venues makes it hard for one thin book to move it.

What is basis? →

Index price: worked example and questions →

Initial margin

The collateral needed to open a position, equal to its size divided by the leverage. At 10x, a $10,000 position needs $1,000 of initial margin.

Position size calculator →

Insurance fund

A pool each exchange keeps to cover liquidations that close at a worse price than the trader's margin can pay for. When it cannot cover a loss, auto-deleveraging takes over.

Insurance fund and ADL explained →

Isolated margin

A margin mode where each position has its own fixed collateral. If it is liquidated you lose that margin and nothing more, but the position is liquidated sooner than it would be on cross margin.

Liquidation price calculator →

Isolated margin: worked example and questions →

IV rank

Current implied volatility's position within the prior observed low-to-high range, scaled from 0 to 100. This site compares against 30 days of hourly history, rather than the common 52-week window; a constant range has no defined rank.

IV rank and percentile → · IV rank vs IV percentile →

K

Kimchi premium

The gap between the price of a coin on Korean won exchanges such as Upbit and its dollar price elsewhere, after converting currencies. A wide premium signals strong local retail demand that capital controls keep from being arbitraged away.

Kimchi premium →

L

Leverage

Position size divided by the margin behind it. It multiplies gains and losses alike, and it sets how far price can move against you before liquidation: roughly 1 divided by the leverage, less the maintenance margin.

live BTC 40x maximum leverage on Hyperliquid

How leverage works →

Liquidation

The forced close of a leveraged position whose margin has fallen below the maintenance level. A long liquidation is a forced sell and a short liquidation a forced buy, which is why clusters of them can speed up a move.

live $254.91M all coins, last 24 hours · longs $203.74M, shorts $51.16M

What are liquidations? →

Liquidation cascade

A chain reaction where forced position closes move price into the next cluster of liquidations. It can run down through longs or up through shorts.

What is a liquidation cascade? →

Liquidation heatmap

A chart that estimates where leveraged positions would be liquidated, from open interest changes and typical leverage. Bright bands are price levels where many estimated liquidations sit; they are models, not order books.

What is a liquidation heatmap? →

Liquidation price

The mark price at which a position's margin drops to the maintenance level and the exchange closes it. It depends on entry price, leverage, margin mode and the venue's maintenance margin tiers.

How leverage works →

Long position (going long)

A trade that profits when price rises and loses when it falls. On a perpetual future a long pays funding while the rate is positive and receives it while the rate is negative. With leverage it is liquidated, by a forced sell, if the mark price falls to its liquidation price.

Long/short ratio →

Long/short ratio

The number of accounts with a net long position divided by those with a net short one. It counts people, not money: every contract still has one buyer and one seller.

What is the long/short ratio? →

M

Maintenance margin

The minimum margin a position must keep to stay open, a small percentage of its size that rises in tiers for bigger positions. Drop below it and the position is liquidated.

Liquidation price calculator →

Maintenance margin: worked example and questions →

Maker and taker

A maker adds a resting limit order to the book; a taker trades against one immediately. Exchanges charge takers more and sometimes pay makers a rebate, since resting orders are what make the market liquid.

Exchanges we track →

Mark price

The price an exchange uses to value positions and trigger liquidations, built from the index or oracle price plus a damped premium from the order book. Using it instead of the last trade stops a single wick from liquidating everyone.

live HYPE -1.9 bps mark 70.120 vs oracle 70.133 on Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid markets →

Mark price: worked example and questions →

Max pain

For one options expiry, the settlement price at which all open calls and puts would pay out the least in total. It shows where open interest is concentrated, not where the price will go, and spot often settles far from it. Liquidation max pain instead identifies the band with the most modelled liquidation exposure on each side of price.

Options and liquidation max pain explained →

O

OI cap

A limit on the total open interest a market can hold. Hyperliquid's HIP-3 deployers set one per market; at the cap, only orders that reduce open interest are accepted.

live io:ANTH 73% of its $275.00M cap, the fullest HIP-3 market

Hyperliquid stock perps →

OI-to-market-cap ratio

A coin's open interest divided by its market capitalisation, as a percentage: open futures positions relative to the coin's market value.

Open interest to market cap ratio →

Open interest

The total value of futures positions that are still open. It rises when new positions are opened and falls when they are closed or liquidated; read with price, it tells you whether a move is being built or unwound.

live BTC $21.20B summed over tracked perps for the coin, excluding MEXC (see data accuracy)

What is open interest? →

Option greeks

Model sensitivities of an option's value to the underlying price (delta and gamma), implied volatility (vega) and time (theta). This site's chain uses Black-76 estimates, which can differ from exchange greeks because inputs and conventions differ.

Bitcoin options chain → · Option greeks explained →

Oracle price

The external reference price an on-chain exchange pulls in, usually a median of several centralised exchanges. On Hyperliquid it anchors funding and the mark price; for HIP-3 markets the deployer runs it.

Hyperliquid stock perps →

Order-book depth

How much resting size sits in the book within a set distance of the mid price, for example within 1%. More depth means a large order moves the price less.

Order book depth →

P

Perp DEX

A decentralised exchange for perpetual futures, with collateral held by a protocol.

What is a perp DEX? →

Perpetual futures (perps)

Futures contracts with no expiry date. Funding payments, not settlement, keep their price near spot, which lets traders hold leveraged positions for as long as their margin lasts.

live Binance largest venue by open interest: $25.10B, 49% of tracked perp OI, excluding MEXC (see data accuracy)

What are perpetual futures? →

PnL (profit and loss)

Unrealised PnL is what an open position would make if it were closed at the mark price now. Realised PnL is what closed trades actually made, after fees and funding.

PnL calculator →

Predicted funding

The funding rate the exchange expects to charge at the next settlement, calculated from the premium so far in the current interval. It moves until settlement, so treat it as a running estimate.

Funding rates by coin →

Premium index

How far a perpetual trades above or below its index or oracle price, sampled through the funding interval. It is the main input to the funding rate: a positive premium pushes funding up.

live HYPE +2.0 bps Hyperliquid premium, this funding hour

Hyperliquid funding rates →

Premium index: worked example and questions →

Price/OI state

An hourly classification combining price direction with the change in price-adjusted open interest for one recorded contract. It describes exposure building or unwinding, not which side initiated trades or what price will do next.

Hourly price and OI states → · Price and OI states explained →

Put/call ratio

Open interest (or volume) in put options divided by that in call options. Above 1 more puts are open than calls, which often means hedging or bearish positioning; below 1 calls dominate.

Put/call ratio: OI vs volume →

Q

Quarterly futures

Dated futures that expire and settle on a fixed day, often the last Friday of a quarter. With no funding, their premium over spot is the basis, which converges to zero at expiry.

What is basis? →

R

Realised volatility

Historical price variation, measured here as the sample standard deviation of daily log returns annualised with √365.

Realized vs implied volatility →

Reduce-only order

An order flag that lets the order only shrink or close an existing position, never open or add to one. If the position is already smaller than the order, the exchange shrinks or rejects it, and how resting reduce-only orders are adjusted after a partial close differs by venue.

Partial take-profit calculator →

S

Short position (going short)

A trade that profits when price falls and loses when it rises. Shorting spot means borrowing the coin to sell it, but a perpetual future is a synthetic contract, so a short simply sells it against margin and borrows nothing. A short receives funding while the rate is positive and pays it while the rate is negative. With leverage it is liquidated, by a forced buy, if the mark price rises to its liquidation price.

Live liquidations → · Short and long squeezes explained →

Short squeeze

A fast rise driven by short sellers being forced to buy back, through stop orders or liquidations. Deeply negative funding and rising open interest are common warning signs.

Short and long squeezes explained →

Slippage

The difference between the price you expected and the average price you got. It grows with order size and shrinks with order-book depth, and it is often a bigger cost than the fee on thin markets.

Order book depth →

Socialized loss

Covering a liquidation shortfall the insurance fund cannot pay by cutting every profitable trader's gains by the same share, rather than closing specific positions. Most large exchanges now use ADL instead; some venues have used socialized losses, also called clawbacks, in the past.

Exchange insurance funds → · Insurance fund and ADL explained →

Spot/perp volume ratio

24-hour perpetual futures quote volume divided by spot quote volume on the same exchanges. 5x means five dollars of perp trading per dollar of spot trading.

Spot vs perpetual futures volume →

Stablecoin dominance

USDT and USDC's combined percentage share of total crypto market capitalisation, as reported by CoinGecko; other stablecoins are excluded.

Bitcoin and stablecoin dominance →

Stop hunt

Price trading through a cluster of stop-loss orders, sometimes followed by a reversal. The move alone does not establish intent or manipulation; triggered market stops can accelerate ordinary order flow.

What is a stop hunt? →

T

Taker buy and sell volume

Trade volume split by the side of the aggressive order: a taker buy lifts the ask, a taker sell hits the bid. The net of the two is the building block of CVD; their quotient is the taker buy/sell ratio.

What is the taker buy/sell ratio? →

V

Volatility

How much an asset's price swings, usually the standard deviation of returns, annualised. Higher volatility means wider liquidation risk for the same leverage.

Crypto volatility →

Volume spike

One minute with trading volume at least 4× the median minute volume of the past hour (60 closed minutes). Spikes often mark news, liquidation cascades or the start of a large move, so they are an early signal to look closer.

What is a volume spike? →

W

Whale

A trader or wallet large enough to move a market or be watched for it. On Hyperliquid every position is public, so the biggest accounts and their liquidation prices can be tracked.

How to track crypto whales →

Whale vs retail delta

The share of top traders' position that is long minus the share of all accounts that are long, in percentage points. Retail accounts usually lean long, so the delta is read against its own history rather than against zero.

Whale vs retail delta by coin →