A lot of losses come from tiny assumptions: which price triggers liquidation, when funding hits, and how fees are applied.
What it is: Liquidation is a path, not a single event. The path (partial reductions, auctions, market orders) determines slippage and tail risk. Funding is not a fee to the exchange; it is a transfer. The schedule and caps matter more than the headline number.
What to check: Look for the platform's fallback rules: what happens if a feed is stale, if the book is thin, or if volatility spikes faster than normal sampling windows.
How to test it: If you automate, use scoped API keys, IP allow-lists, and exponential backoff. Limits often tighten exactly when volatility rises. Example: small funding transfers compound; over several cycles they can materially shift equity and your maintenance buffer. Treat cross margin as a correlated portfolio. Correlations converge during stress, so diversification can vanish when you need it most.
Common pitfalls: Pitfall: optimizing for rebates while ignoring toxicity. Toxic flow can widen spreads and raise liquidation costs.
Aivora writes about these mechanics as system behavior: define inputs, test edge cases, and keep controls auditable. Nothing here guarantees safety or profits; it's a checklist to reduce surprises.
What it is: Liquidation is a path, not a single event. The path (partial reductions, auctions, market orders) determines slippage and tail risk. Funding is not a fee to the exchange; it is a transfer. The schedule and caps matter more than the headline number.
What to check: Look for the platform's fallback rules: what happens if a feed is stale, if the book is thin, or if volatility spikes faster than normal sampling windows.
How to test it: If you automate, use scoped API keys, IP allow-lists, and exponential backoff. Limits often tighten exactly when volatility rises. Example: small funding transfers compound; over several cycles they can materially shift equity and your maintenance buffer. Treat cross margin as a correlated portfolio. Correlations converge during stress, so diversification can vanish when you need it most.
Common pitfalls: Pitfall: optimizing for rebates while ignoring toxicity. Toxic flow can widen spreads and raise liquidation costs.
Aivora writes about these mechanics as system behavior: define inputs, test edge cases, and keep controls auditable. Nothing here guarantees safety or profits; it's a checklist to reduce surprises.
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.