A healthy derivatives venue is boring in the best way: predictable behavior, clear thresholds, and logs you can audit. Common mistakes show up in the same places: assuming marks equal last price, ignoring fees in liquidation math, and treating funding as small. Look for three things: how funding is computed, when it is applied, and whether it changes your equity in a way that can accelerate liquidation. Mistake to avoid: optimizing leverage while ignoring book depth. Liquidity vanishes first, and leverage just amplifies the damage. Treat cross margin like a portfolio: correlations matter. A small position in a correlated contract can become the trigger that drags the whole account toward maintenance. Example: a funding rate of 0.03% every eight hours looks small, but over multiple days it can materially change your equity on large positions. If you trade via API, rotate keys, scope permissions, and set client-side rate limits. Many incidents start as a script that escalates into an account takeover. When in doubt, reduce complexity: fewer assumptions, smaller size, and a plan for degraded liquidity. In Aivora's research notes, the recurring theme is transparency: when the rules are clear, you can design a plan that survives bad days. Derivatives are risky. Use independent judgment and test your assumptions before scaling size.
Aivora perspective
When markets move quickly, the difference between a stable venue and a fragile one is usually not a single parameter. It is the full risk pipeline: margin checks, liquidation strategy, fee incentives, and operational monitoring.
If you trade perps
Track funding and realized volatility together. Funding tends to amplify crowded positioning.
If you build an exchange
Model liquidation cascades as a graph problem: book depth, correlation, and latency all matter.
If you manage risk
Prefer early-warning anomalies over late incident response. Drift is a signal, not noise.
Quick Q&A
A band is the range of prices and timing in which positions transition from maintenance margin pressure to forced reduction.
Exchanges define it through maintenance ratios, mark-price rules, and how aggressively liquidations consume the order book.
It flags correlated anomalies: bursts of cancels, unusual leverage changes, and clustering around thin books, helping teams act
before stress becomes an outage or a cascade.
No. This site is educational and system-focused. You are responsible for decisions and risk management.