Leverage and margin

Margin is your own money put into a position. Leverage multiplies that margin: $100 at 10x opens a $1,000 position. You gain and lose as if you held the $1,000, but what you risk is the margin.

Each market’s maximum

Every market has a maximum leverage set by Hyperliquid, or by whoever publishes the market in the case of HIP-3. The wheel on the order screen goes from 1x up to that maximum, one step at a time. It cannot go past it.

The wheel does not start at the maximum:

• On crypto it starts at 10x, or at the market’s maximum if that is lower.
• On stocks, indices and commodities it starts at 1x.
• If you already hold a position on that side, it starts at that position’s leverage, rounded up. Going below the open position’s leverage asks for more margin for that position, and Hyperliquid refuses it if there is none.

Isolated and cross margin

There are two ways a position can use your money:

• Isolated: the position only uses the margin you give it. If it is liquidated, you lose that margin and nothing more; the rest of your money is not touched. Its liquidation price depends on that position alone.
• Cross: the position uses all the free money in your account as collateral. It holds out longer before being liquidated, but a bad position can take money you never gave it, and its liquidation moves with everything else you have open.

Phone

Always isolated. There is nothing to choose and it cannot be changed: that way the liquidation price on the screen depends on that position alone and is a number the app can state honestly.

If you hold a cross position opened from the web or another app, the phone will not add to it (Your position uses cross margin: close it first), but it will close it with Close position.

Web

On the web, above the order form, there are two buttons: the margin mode (Cross or Isolated) and the leverage. Some markets only allow isolated, and the button shows as disabled. Hyperliquid does not let you switch modes with a position open on that market. See The web app.

How the liquidation price is worked out

Hyperliquid liquidates a position when what is left in it falls below the maintenance margin: half the margin the market would ask for at its maximum leverage. On a market with a 40x maximum, maintenance is 1.25% of the position’s size.

For an isolated position you open now, the formula is Hyperliquid’s:

liquidation = entry − side × available margin ÷ size ÷ (1 − m × side)

m                = 1 ÷ (2 × maximum leverage)
available margin = margin − size × entry × m
side             = 1 for a long, −1 for a short

The app runs that calculation on your order, fee included, since the fee comes out of the margin. If you already hold a position on that market, it works out the liquidation of the whole position left after the order, not of a fresh one. It is an estimate: the funding you pay comes out of the margin and moves it over time. When the margin covers the fall to zero, the screen says None.

Example: what changes when you raise leverage

An example with made-up figures: a market with a 40x maximum, an entry price of $100.00 and $100.00 of margin. The liquidation prices come from the same formula the app uses, without fees or funding.

Leverage	Position size	A 1% price move moves your margin	Long liquidation	Fall that triggers it	Short liquidation
1x	$100.00	1%	None	—	$197.53
2x	$200.00	2%	$50.63	49.4%	$148.15
5x	$500.00	5%	$81.01	19%	$118.52
10x	$1,000.00	10%	$91.14	8.9%	$108.64
20x	$2,000.00	20%	$96.20	3.8%	$103.70
40x	$4,000.00	40%	$98.73	1.3%	$101.23

What the table says:

• Size grows with leverage, margin does not. What you put in is the same on every row.
• Every point of price weighs more. At 10x, a 1% fall in the price is a 10% loss of your margin.
• The liquidation comes closer. At 1x long there is no liquidation; at 10x it comes with a fall of under 10%; at the maximum, with little more than 1%.
• Fees and funding grow with the size of the position, not with your margin. At 10x you pay ten times what you pay at 1x for the same margin.
• The minimum drops. What counts for Hyperliquid’s minimum is the size, so the higher the leverage, the less margin it takes.

Stop loss and liquidation

A stop loss only protects you if it fires before the liquidation. That is why the app will not save a stop beyond the liquidation price (A stop goes above your liquidation on a long) and, if raising the leverage moves the liquidation past your stop, the button turns into Check your stop loss. See Order types.

Danger

Leverage does not change what the price can do, only how much it affects you. At high leverage, an ordinary day’s move can liquidate the position and take the whole margin. Every does not warn you before a liquidation.