2026-09-05

The price on the chart is not the price that liquidates you

Three prices run at the same time on a perpetual, and they do different jobs. The one you watch is the one that matters least. Knowing which is which is the cheapest thing you will ever learn about leverage.

Last price — what you see

The most recent trade on the venue. It paints the candles, it moves the ticker, and it is the easiest of the three to push around for a few seconds: one large order into a thin book and it prints somewhere it has no business printing.

Index price — what it is worth

A basket of spot prices from several large markets. It exists so that the contract stays tied to the underlying asset instead of to one venue's order book. One exchange having a bad minute barely moves it.

Mark price — what settles you

Your unrealised PnL and your liquidation are both computed on the mark price, which is the index adjusted for the funding basis. Not on the last trade. That is deliberate: if liquidations ran on last price, a single distorted print would cascade through every leveraged position on the book at once.

What this means in practice

• The chart can spike through your liquidation price without liquidating you — if the mark did not follow, nothing happened.
• And the reverse. A calm-looking chart does not mean a calm mark.
• The liquidation price shown on your open position is the number to watch. It is the only one on the screen that is about you.
• A wide gap between last and mark is information, not noise: it says funding is about to move, and which side is going to pay.

How it works here

OFFCODE perpetuals execute on our futures venue. Mark and index are computed by that venue and shown per instrument in the terminal — we display them, we do not set them. The maximum leverage and the exact liquidation mechanics are per market, not per platform: the terminal shows the ceiling for whichever pair is open, and that is the final word.

When a position liquidates, it closes at the venue's price, not at yours, and it can take the entire margin with it. Position size is the only protection that works before the fact.

Measured on 2026-09-05 against the live API. Nothing here is investment advice — read the Risk Disclosure.

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