Leverage & margin

Initial and maintenance margin, isolated vs cross, risk tiers and liquidation.

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#Initial margin

Opening a position locks initial margin:

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Initial margin = Notional / Leverage
Notional       = Size × Price

Higher leverage means less margin locked, and a liquidation price closer to your entry.

#Maintenance margin

To keep a position open, its equity must stay above maintenance margin. On Polymarket Perps the rate is flat per market:

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Maintenance margin rate = 0.5 / Max leverage
Maintenance margin      = Notional × Maintenance margin rate

For a market with 20× max leverage, the maintenance rate is 2.5%.

#Isolated vs cross

Mode	Margin backing a position	Use it when
Isolated	Only the margin assigned to that position.	You want a hard cap on what one position can lose.
Cross	Your shared available collateral.	You want positions to support each other.

#Risk tiers

Large positions are capped at lower leverage. Each instrument publishes risk tiers, notional thresholds above which the maximum leverage steps down. The leverage selector respects these tiers.

#Liquidation

If equity falls to maintenance margin, the position is liquidated by Polymarket and a liquidation fee applies. PerpsX shows each position's liquidation price and distance, and can warn you as a position approaches it.