Hyperliquid perpetual trading

The Perps asset list contains Hyperliquid perpetuals, including supported builder markets. A perpetual is a derivative, not ownership of the underlying asset. Research/chart availability and permission to trade are separate.

The current order ticket supports Hyperliquid's own markets, such as hyperliquid:BTC. Builder-deployed HIP-3 markets can appear in discovery and charts but keep a read-only ticket in this release.

Mobile chart sheets show the short contract ticker (such as BTC) and its market name. Names resolve from the selected venue market even when opening it directly or reloading.

Market names and logos

Desktop and mobile search, watchlists, hover previews, chart tabs, detail panels, inline quote cards and trade tickets resolve names and artwork against the exact venue market. Ticker labels, search details, notifications, tooltips and accessible labels use the short ticker without a derivative suffix. Names can resolve before selecting a chart and when reopening a saved market. Multiplier casing is retained. When a friendly name is unavailable, the short contract ticker remains; a display label never changes the instrument used by chart or order requests.

Hyperliquid's own perps prefer the venue's crypto artwork. HYPE is Hyperliquid Perpetual and uses Hyperliquid's logo. Multiplier markets such as kPEPE and kBONK can show the PEPE or BONK logo; the multiplier and its casing remain part of the contract ticker and exact market identity. A shared logo does not turn a perp into spot ownership or change its order terms.

Builder markets, including equity perps, can show Hyperliquid's artwork for that exact venue market. Different deployers remain separate even when their underlying names match. Supplied market artwork is retained; if neither it nor the venue's artwork loads, a placeholder remains instead of borrowing a same-named stock's logo. Artwork does not establish the market's asset category or trading availability. Check the full market name, venue and ticket availability rather than identifying a market by its image alone.

Perps network is separate from Astral Paper mode

In releases with the Paper simulator enabled, Paper mode shows Paper · Simulated money for BTC and ETH in the same Perps ticket used for Real money. Long/Short, size presets, leverage, protection and position controls are shared; the selected mode determines balances and execution. Paper orders reserve existing Paper USDC and never create a Hyperliquid trading key, require a wallet signature or submit a venue order. The simulator uses public mainnet prices, independently of the Real-money ticket's network. This applies to desktop/mobile, including compact chart controls.

If your release shows Perp paper trading is not available yet, the simulator has not been enabled there. A venue setup or real deposit does not enable Paper perps. Other markets show Paper perps: BTC and ETH and require choosing one of those two markets. Source implementation alone does not establish availability in your running release.

To use or manage a Hyperliquid account, explicitly select Real money in Settings → Wallets and confirm the mode change. The venue ticket then uses that account's configured Testnet or Mainnet network. Testnet uses test USDC that Astral sends, not Astral Paper cash or your Cash; mainnet uses real venue funds. Check the network label and Perps cash before an order. Mainnet perps cash does not fund testnet orders.

Switching to Paper clears the ticket's venue account and unsubmitted draft, then loads the Paper account. It does not cancel orders already admitted, close positions, stop deployed strategies or remove venue TP/SL. Return to Real money to inspect and manage that exposure. The server also rejects new setup, opening orders and manual margin adjustments from a stale Paper-mode tab; existing cancellation and protective exits remain supported.

While the workspace is loading or switching, venue controls stay hidden. If Trading mode unavailable appears, choose Retry trading mode. Loading a chart or retrying does not switch modes or authorize trading.

Trade simulated BTC or ETH perpetuals

1. Select Paper in Settings → Wallets and confirm the mode change. In Terminal, choose Perps → Bitcoin or Ethereum Perpetual → Trade.
2. Confirm Paper · Simulated money and Available Paper cash. Use the Paper deposit flow if you need simulated USDC. Real-wallet funds cannot fund this ticket.
3. Choose Long or Short, then Market or Limit from the ticket's top-right menu. Enter size in BTC or ETH units, or use the size presets. For a limit order enter Limit Price. New positions have a $10 minimum notional; coin quantities round down to the market's size step. Paper offers no real-money Transfer cash entry in this menu.
4. Set Leverage, from 1× to 5×, subject to the market's size-based leverage limit. Open Protections (optional) to enter Take-profit price and Stop-loss price. One net position per coin is supported: close it before reversing direction or changing leverage.
5. Inspect Size, Worst price / Limit, Estimated fill, Margin, Liquidation, Fees and Maximum reserved. Margin is position value divided by leverage. The order reserves a price cushion plus fees from unassigned Paper USDC; unused reservation is released on fill. Percentage presets allow for those costs, but the current preview and admission govern the amount. Cash allocated to strategies or other orders cannot be spent again. For example, a $1,000 position at 5× needs $200 initial margin plus simulated fees and the reservation cushion.
6. Choose Long BTC, Short BTC, Long ETH or Short ETH. This submits directly using the mode shown above. Follow Admitted → Simulating → Filled, Resting · Paper, or the rejection/expiry result. Open orders lists pending/resting orders; Recent activity shows completed outcomes. An admitted order is not a fill. An uncertain request can be retried with the same unchanged ticket; check its status before starting a different order with New order.

Market orders use a 1% default slippage bound and expire after 10 seconds. They fill completely against an observed executable order book or are rejected. Limits fill only when observed bid/ask depth crosses the limit, expire after 24 hours and do not assume maker priority or candle-touch fills. Orders do not receive partial fills in this model; you can close part of a position. Up to 100 open orders are supported per account. A fill that exceeds its reserved cash or crosses its attached protection is rejected instead of silently spending more.

Manage Paper positions and orders

• Under Positions, enter Close quantity (part or all of the position), choose Close, and confirm the market close. This submits a reduce-only market order; check Open orders and Recent activity for its result.
• Choose the position's TP/SL control, enter Take-profit price and/or Stop-loss price, then Save. Clear one price and save to keep only the other, or choose Remove to remove both. Triggers use the mark price and close the whole position, subject to executable depth. A triggered exit waits when depth is insufficient. Protection runs on the server while the browser is closed.
• Choose the position's Margin control, enter a positive Margin amount (USDC), then Add to reserve more Paper cash or Remove to release margin. At most six decimal places and 1,000,000 USDC per change are accepted. Removal must leave enough equity for current leverage and loss. No external transfer occurs.
• Choose Cancel beside an open order. Cancellation releases its reservation. If it already filled, manage the resulting position instead. Cancellation remains possible while prices are stale.
• Paper positions also appear in Positions & Orders; manage them in the Perps ticket. Settings → Wallets shows reserved perp margin and the open-position count. Reserved margin is already part of Paper cash: portfolio equity adds unrealized P&L, not the full leveraged notional or a second copy of margin. Close positions and cancel orders before resetting or disabling the Paper wallet.

Switching workspace mode discards unsubmitted ticket drafts but does not cancel admitted Paper orders or stop Paper protection, funding or liquidation. Return to Paper to manage them. The first release is manual trading; it does not add Paper perpetual strategy deployment or agent/MCP order submission. Perp results appear in this ticket's history, not the separate manual spot performance summary.

Simulated fees, funding, liquidation and recovery

• Each fill charges simulated fees of 0.045% venue + 0.1% Astral. No fee is paid to a venue or deducted from real funds. Entry fees reduce Paper cash; close fees are part of realized cash change.
• Hourly funding uses the public settled rate and the last recorded mark before settlement. Positive funding rates debit longs and credit shorts; negative rates reverse that. Funding changes Paper cash and isolated margin together. Missing settled hours pause account replay until available, then apply once in order. A funding debit cannot consume another position's margin or strategy cash; exhausting isolated margin triggers liquidation.
• Liquidation is checked before ordinary orders and TP/SL on each recorded observation. It uses current mark equity and the market's maintenance tiers. The model closes against observed depth where possible; if liquidation cannot fill within 1% of the mark, it uses a disclosed synthetic close 1% adversely from that mark. Losses beyond isolated collateral are recorded as a simulated deficit absorbed, never taken from other holdings. This is a simulation rule, not a guarantee of real-venue liquidation behavior.
• Prices older than 10 seconds prevent new orders. Market data is stale or Catching up with recorded prices… means to wait and use Refresh account. Position values are unavailable while stale or catching up. The worker replays saved observations after a restart without charging twice. It cannot reconstruct an unobserved market interval: gaps longer than 15 seconds are flagged on positions and execution resumes at the next recorded quote, without inventing intervening fills. TP/SL may therefore execute beyond its trigger or miss a move that reversed during a gap.
• Recent activity shows recent fills, funding, protective exits, liquidation and data gaps. P&L is calculated from simulated entry/exit prices, fees and funding. Sampled public depth is not a live liquidity or execution guarantee.

Open and prepare the account

The following sections describe the Real money venue ticket, not the Paper simulator.

1. In Settings → Wallets, select Real money and confirm the mode change. In Terminal, choose Perps, select a market and open Trade or the chart's trade controls.
2. If asked for residence, enter your actual Country code and Region code. Eligibility also checks the connection location. The current form says perps are offered outside the United States and Ontario.
3. Perps trade from their own balance, Perps cash, separate from your Cash. An eligible account with no perps funds still shows the normal trade ticket. Its single top-right menu contains the supported order types and Transfer cash, with the current perps balance alongside that entry. Clicking or tapping the amount opens Transfer cash when perps cash is zero or below the draft's margin requirement. With enough balance, the amount stays editable. An unavailable balance is not treated as zero. The displayed Long/Short action also opens funding for an insufficient balance instead of placing an order. Move money in as described in Transfer cash between Cash and perps; there is no separate setup button to press first.
4. When the first perps cash arrives, Astral sets up trading by itself: Setting up perps… appears, then Perps ready. Setup creates a trading key that can place and cancel orders but never withdraw, and approves Astral's 0.1% fee; it moves no funds and needs no wallet prompt. Hyperliquid accepts the key only once the account has funds, which is why setup waits for them. If a Close-only notice appears, perps are not available where you are, or new positions are paused while the account is reviewed: setup then only helps close or protect existing positions.
5. If Setup failed appears, follow the message before choosing Finish setup again. For EVM wallet permissions that predate perps, open Settings → Wallets and choose Update permissions under Wallets by network. If Hyperliquid still needs funds, wait for the transfer to arrive. If the wallet or Hyperliquid did not confirm, retry to continue the same setup.
6. Check the ticket's network label and Perps cash. When it says Testnet, orders use test funds.

Transfer cash between Cash and perps

Perps cash is the USDC in your Hyperliquid account, on your EVM wallet's address. Perps can trade only from it, and your Cash total does not include it. In Real money, the Cash menu shows Tokens cash and separate withdrawable Perps cash on mainnet; Settings → Wallets also shows them separately. Choose Swap in that menu (or More on mobile Profile) for mainnet transfers, or Transfer cash in the Perps ticket for that ticket's network. A transfer never opens a position.

The Cash-menu dialog always moves real mainnet funds. If your trading ticket uses testnet, its warning explains that mainnet cash cannot fund testnet orders; use the ticket's test-funds path below instead. Paper mode does not offer this real-money shortcut. Opening the dialog performs balance and eligibility reads only. Unavailable is not a zero balance; use Refresh balances in the menu or Retry transfers after a dialog load failure. Moving in remains subject to eligibility and enabled routes; moving cash back can remain available when new perps funding is restricted.

Mainnet (real funds):

From the Cash menu (or mobile Profile More):

1. Choose Swap to open Transfer cash. Choose Tokens → Perps or Perps → Tokens.
2. Enter an amount or use 10%, 25%, 50% or Max, just like Withdraw. For Tokens → Perps, Available balance and percentage sizing use overall verified available Cash, matching the header. The funding coordinator prepares cash from supported networks before the perps deposit, so an empty Arbitrum balance alone is not a reason to transfer there manually. For Perps → Tokens, the source is withdrawable perps USDC. Moving in needs at least $5. Limits, supported routes and costs can reduce the amount that can be approved.
3. Choose Review. The amount form is replaced by Review transfer, which shows the amount, source, destination and quoted costs. Back returns to the amount. Changing direction clears the amount and previous review. Review does not sign or send funds.
4. Choose Confirm and approve the wallet when asked. The existing owner-signature and funding permissions still apply. If a Cash-funding confirmation is uncertain, retry the same review; it retains the original operation rather than starting another deposit.
5. Check Transfer status. Done closes the dialog; an in-progress status does not prove funds have arrived. An expired direct quote offers Get a new quote before another confirmation. Unfinished durable funding remains recoverable in Cash.

Incoming transfers check eligibility before showing the amount. A missing residence or required province automatically opens Confirm residence. Enter your actual two-letter Country code and applicable Region code, then choose Continue. The dialog shows Checking eligibility while it rechecks your residence and connection; it opens the amount form only after those checks pass. Opening the dialog or switching to Perps → Tokens saves no residence data.

We couldn’t verify your connection’s location offers Check again; Perps aren’t available in your location reports a confirmed restriction. An account pause has its own message. These checks do not block selecting Perps → Tokens where offered. Missing residence setup is not a restricted-account decision. An active staff override that the server admits is respected for a jurisdiction pause, while an unrelated account-review pause still blocks new funding. The amount step shows a short info or error card only when needed.

Cash transfers are unavailable here means the combined funding capability is disabled in that environment or for that account. Retry re-reads availability without moving funds. Overall Cash stays visible, but incoming entry and Review remain disabled; there is no Arbitrum-only fallback. Minimum transfer: $5 appears when the available Cash is below the deposit minimum. Moving perps cash back can remain available. A quote still verifies supported sources, costs and current balances; displaying overall Cash alone does not authorize a transfer.

From a mainnet Perps ticket, the compact funding form opens in a dialog:

1. Open the ticket's top-right order menu and choose Transfer cash, whose entry includes the perps balance. Clicking or tapping the amount, or using a configured trade's Long/Short action, also opens funding when perps cash is zero or cannot cover the draft's margin. Before a preview is ready, the amount interaction compares estimated position value divided by leverage with the displayed balance; the preview and server still govern final requirements. The dialog shows Perps cash, and Cash too when it can fund perps from all of Cash. Opening it places no order. If you need to fund Cash first, choose Add money to open the deposit flow, then close that flow to return to Transfer cash.
2. Choose Cash → Perps or Perps → Cash, then a quick amount ($50, $100, $500 or $1,000) or type one. Moving in needs at least $5.
3. For Cash → Perps, choose Review transfer where offered. Check the funding cost, then choose Confirm transfer and approve the wallet signature. Otherwise the sheet shows your available Arbitrum USDC. Choose Preview, review the terms, and confirm. To fund from another network, open Settings → Wallets, select Arbitrum under Wallets by network, and choose Get USDC where that route is offered. Money usually arrives within a few minutes. An unfinished transfer can appear under Cash funding recovery. Move stablecoins between networks
4. Perps → Cash: choose Preview, check the amount, and approve the withdrawal with your wallet. Hyperliquid takes its flat withdrawal fee of about 1 USDC out of the amount, and the rest arrives in your Arbitrum USDC (part of Cash) in about 4 minutes. Only perps cash that is not committed as margin to an open position can move out; close or reduce positions first to free more.

Close Transfer cash to return to the ticket. Its side, order type, size, leverage and protection draft are preserved while funding opens and closes. Funding does not automatically submit that draft: wait for credited perps cash and any automatic setup, review the trade again, then choose its Long/Short action. These ticket controls and funding behavior are shared by desktop and mobile. Eligibility and account restrictions still apply; switching trading mode or market discards the draft.

After funding from the Cash menu, open the Perps ticket; its normal trading setup finishes automatically once the first perps cash is available. The transfer dialog itself does not set up trading.

To withdraw from Astral entirely, move perps cash back to Cash, then use Withdraw. Perps → Cash and withdrawals always need your own wallet's approval; Astral's trading key cannot move money out.

Testnet (test funds):

1. Choose Transfer cash from the ticket's top-right menu, or press the amount or configured Long/Short action with insufficient perps cash. Choose an amount (up to $1,000 at a time, and up to the daily allowance shown), then Add $… test funds. Astral's test wallet sends test USDC to your Hyperliquid testnet account. Your Cash is not used; this dialog offers no real-money Add money action.
2. Wait for Test funds added. The first transfer also activates the account, and setup then finishes by itself. If the sheet says test funds are still on their way, check perps cash before adding more.
3. Test funds stay in perps; they can't move to Cash. If Test funds are not available right now appears, the release has not enabled them.

Open a position

1. Choose Long or Short.
2. Choose an available order type from the top-right menu: Market, Limit, Stop Market or Stop Limit where offered. For Limit or Stop Limit, enter Limit Price. Stop entries also require the displayed Trigger price; they are separate from a position's take-profit and stop-loss protection. Paper offers only Market and Limit.
3. Enter size in the displayed coin units or use the size presets; inspect the corresponding notional value. Pressing the amount with zero perps cash or insufficient margin opens Transfer cash. Close funding to return to the preserved draft. With the amount focused, Enter also opens funding for this shortfall; closing the dialog does not automatically reopen it.
4. Set Leverage within the market/account's permitted range. The preview identifies isolated margin.
5. Add optional Take-profit price and Stop-loss price when offered.
6. Inspect Size, Worst price / Limit, Margin, Liquidation and Fees. The current implementation shows the Hyperliquid fee plus a 0.1% Astral fee; the live preview governs the submitted terms.
7. Use the displayed Long/Short action to submit and inspect Admitted → Sent → Filled or the actual rejection/open status. With insufficient perps cash, this opens Transfer cash first without placing an order; return after funding and setup, review the preserved draft and submit explicitly. A marketable limit can fill immediately.

During early access a new position is limited to $1,000 of position value on each order, whatever the leverage: the size times the price, not the margin. A larger order is refused with New positions are limited to $1,000 each for now. A running strategy's entry is sized down to $1,000 instead. Closing or reducing a position is never limited.

Manage a position

The ticket's Positions section shows existing positions. Close quantity defaults to the whole position; reduce it for a partial close, choose Close, then confirm the market close. Inspect the outcome before submitting another close. Use TP/SL to edit protection, Save to apply changes, or Remove to remove it. Perp protection closes the whole position at market when triggered and is placed on the venue after the position opens. It does not implement staged partial take-profits.

Open orders shows nonterminal orders. An open order and an open position are separate records. A Close-only notice means new positions are restricted, while closing or protecting existing positions can remain available. Near liquidation requires reviewing margin and exposure, not treating the chart price as a guaranteed exit.

If Perps unavailable or a residence restriction appears, report that condition accurately. A paid plan or a visible market chart does not override venue availability. See Orders and Balances.

Cancel a resting order

1. In the Perps ticket's Open orders, find the intended market, side and size, then choose that order's Cancel. This sends the cancellation request; do not assume another confirmation appears.
2. Wait through Cancelling…, then check the refreshed orders and result. Order cancelled confirms cancellation; Already filled means the venue filled it before cancellation, so inspect the resulting position instead. Cancelling an order does not close an existing position.
3. If Cancel not confirmed appears, check open orders before trying again. Cancel not sent reports a request error. A request still being sent can remain pending.

TP/SL protection orders use Positions → TP/SL → Save / Remove, not an ordinary order's Cancel action.

Add or remove isolated margin

1. Under Positions, choose the intended position's Margin control.
2. Enter a positive Margin amount (USDC), using at most six decimal places. A request is capped at 1,000,000 USDC; available funds and venue requirements can impose lower limits.
3. Choose Add or Remove to submit that adjustment directly. Adding margin moves the liquidation price farther away; removing it brings it closer. This changes margin on the venue account, not the workspace's Paper cash or an external-wallet withdrawal.
4. Wait for Margin added or Margin removed and inspect the refreshed position. If Margin not changed or an unconfirmed result appears, read the error and check the position's actual margin before trying again; an uncertain request is not proof it failed.

Cancellation and margin management can remain available in Close-only mode. They do not establish permission to open another position. These controls share the desktop/mobile Perps ticket; check its Testnet / Mainnet label before acting.

Strategies on perps

A strategy can trade a Hyperliquid perp, such as hyperliquid:ETH, but only in a narrow form for now.

• Backtests simulate long and short positions at 1x cross margin, with fees on every fill (your commission plus Astral's 0.1% builder fee), hourly funding (a short receives positive funding and pays negative funding) and liquidation. Perp candle history starts on 1 October 2026 (a test runs across the few minutes the exchange itself paused), and perp bar sizes are 1m, 5m, 15m, 1h and 1d (no 30m or 4h yet).
• Shorts work in backtests only. For a perp you name, ask for a short entry with a matching cover (close) rule. A ranked collection of more than one perp (top_n above 1) is unavailable for long and short entries. See Strategy reference for the rule limits.
• Leverage is not a strategy setting; backtests run at 1x. Manual Paper and Real perp orders have their own leverage control, described above.
• Deploying a perp strategy is in limited testing: staff accounts on the Hyperliquid testnet only, long-only at 1x, market orders, one coin per strategy and one strategy per coin. It is done from the app's deploy dialog, which checks your location; the agent and MCP cannot deploy it.
• While a strategy trades a coin, manual orders that add to that coin's position are refused. You can still close the position from the position card; the close is recorded against the strategy.
• Take-profit and stop-loss set as a price or relative to the entry price rest on Hyperliquid itself. Trailing stops and stops based on indicators are not supported for live perp strategies yet.