Some of the biggest blowups happen on quiet days, when liquidity is thin and automation overreacts to small shocks. Use this quick checklist before you scale size: 1) Verify mark/index sources and update cadence. 2) Understand margin steps and maintenance rules. 3) Test liquidation behavior with small size. 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. 4) Confirm fee tiers and forced order costs. 5) Check risk limits, circuit breakers, and incident transparency. 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 25x position with a 0.06% taker fee can lose more than a full maintenance step from fees alone if forced to close during a fast move. When slippage rises, reduce order size before you reduce leverage. Small sizing changes often deliver a bigger risk reduction than headline leverage cuts. Margin modes change behavior. Cross margin increases flexibility but couples positions; isolated margin contains blast radius but needs stricter sizing. Aivora frames these topics as system behavior, not hype: verify definitions, test edge cases, and keep risk controls simple enough to audit. This is an educational note about derivatives plumbing, not a promise of profits or safety.
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.