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Every mechanic, in one index.

Filter the full educational catalog by format and topic. Search includes lesson summaries, market symbols, incident mechanics, and glossary definitions.

103 resources

Lesson / Perps 101

What are perpetual futures?

Learn how perpetual futures work, why they have no expiry date, and how funding, leverage, margin, and liquidation affect a position.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Comparison

Perpetual futures vs spot trading

Compare perpetual futures and spot markets across ownership, leverage, short selling, funding, liquidation, and holding costs.

9 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Core mechanic

How funding rates work

Understand positive and negative perpetual funding, who pays whom, and how to estimate the funding cost of a position.

9 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Risk mechanics

Leverage and margin explained

Learn how collateral, leverage, initial margin, maintenance margin, and position size interact in perpetual futures.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Risk mechanics

Liquidation price explained

Understand why leveraged perpetual positions are liquidated, what mark price does, and why estimates differ from venue calculations.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Market guide

How gold perpetuals work

Learn how gold perpetual contracts provide price exposure, what drives the market, and which funding, hours, and oracle risks to check.

9 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Market guide

Stock and index perpetuals

Understand equity and index perpetuals, including market hours, dividends, corporate actions, oracle pricing, and gap risk.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Market structure

Oracle-priced vs order-book markets

Compare oracle-based perpetual execution with central limit order books, including pricing, slippage, liquidity, and collateral models.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Novrinex guide

How Novrinex works

Understand the Novrinex exchange experience, from one account and execution gateway to the infrastructure being built for the future.

5 minUpdated 7 August 2026
Lesson / Security

What non-custodial trading means

Learn what non-custodial trading does and does not protect against, including wallet signing, delegated keys, smart contracts, and venue risk.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Developer guide

Build trading systems with Novrinex

Learn how to design, test, and operate bots, agents, and trading systems through the stable Novrinex API without depending on underlying execution infrastructure.

14 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Trading mechanics

Long vs short positions

Learn how long and short perpetual positions respond to price changes, funding, and liquidation risk.

8 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Order types

Market orders vs limit orders

Compare immediate market execution with price-controlled limit orders, including slippage, queueing, and fill risk.

8 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Order types

Stop-loss and take-profit orders

Understand trigger orders, planned exits, execution gaps, and why a stop price is not a guaranteed fill price.

9 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Order instructions

Reduce-only and post-only orders

Learn how reduce-only protects position direction and how post-only prevents an order from taking liquidity.

8 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Fees

Maker vs taker fees

Understand when an order adds or removes liquidity and how maker and taker fees affect break-even price.

8 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Market structure

How to read an order book

Learn bids, asks, spread, cumulative depth, and how a market order moves through price levels.

9 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Execution quality

Spread, depth, and slippage

Understand three measures of execution quality and why a large order can receive a worse average price.

9 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Pricing

Mark price vs index price

Learn the difference between reference indexes, venue mark prices, and the last traded price.

9 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Account mechanics

Realized vs unrealized P&L

Understand open-position estimates, closed-position results, average entry price, fees, and funding.

8 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Market data

Open interest and trading volume

Learn what volume and open interest measure, how they differ, and what they cannot tell you alone.

9 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Margin

Isolated vs cross margin

Compare position-specific collateral with account-wide shared margin and understand how risk can spread.

9 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Position management

How to close a perpetual position

Learn full and partial closes, opposite-side orders, reduce-only protection, and the difference between closing and liquidation.

8 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Platform and market risk

Bankruptcy price vs liquidation price

Understand why liquidation normally begins before account equity reaches zero and how bankruptcy price differs.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Platform and market risk

Insurance funds and auto-deleveraging

Learn what can happen when a liquidation closes worse than its bankruptcy boundary and venue loss resources are strained.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Platform and market risk

Oracle failure and stale prices

Understand stale updates, source divergence, confidence limits, and why an oracle price is not the same as executable liquidity.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Platform and market risk

Stablecoin and collateral depegs

See how collateral value can fall at the same time as a leveraged position and accelerate account stress.

10 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Platform and market risk

Smart-contract, bridge, and sequencer risk

Map the technical systems between a wallet and a trade, including contracts, bridges, networks, and sequencers.

11 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Platform and market risk

Wallet signatures, approvals, and phishing

Recognize what a wallet prompt can authorize and reduce the risk of signing an unintended message or transaction.

11 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Lesson / Platform and market risk

Execution infrastructure and counterparty risk

Map the execution, custody, settlement, and infrastructure risks around a leveraged trade.

11 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Perpetual position simulator

Model hypothetical P&L, funding, return on collateral, and approximate liquidation distance before trading.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Leverage visualizer

Compare how one market move affects the same collateral at different leverage levels.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Funding calculator

Estimate a funding payment for a long or short position across multiple settlement intervals.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Liquidation distance meter

Explore how leverage and maintenance margin affect a rough liquidation-price estimate.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Position size calculator

Translate a maximum account risk and stop distance into position size.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Stop-loss calculator

Estimate a stop price from quantity and a maximum loss budget.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Fee and break-even calculator

Combine entry, exit, and funding costs into the move required to break even.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Risk and reward planner

Compare a trade thesis target with its invalidation point before entry.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Order book slippage sandbox

Walk an illustrative order through multiple price levels and see its average fill.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Spot hedge calculator

Estimate the short perpetual position needed to offset part of a spot holding.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Tool / Interactive lab

Funding annualization lab

Convert a periodic funding rate into daily, monthly, and simple annualized scenarios.

Self-pacedUpdated 28 July 2026
Market guide / Crypto

Bitcoin perpetual futures

How bitcoin moves, how BTC perpetuals follow the spot market, and how funding, leverage, liquidity, and liquidation alter the trade.

6 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Market guide / Crypto

Ethereum perpetual futures

How ETH moves, how network activity and staking affect the market, and how an ETH perpetual differs from owning or staking ether.

6 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Market guide / Commodity

Gold perpetual futures

How gold moves through real yields, the dollar, risk, and physical demand, with worked examples for trading a synthetic gold perpetual.

6 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Market guide / Equity index

Nasdaq-100 perpetual futures

How the Nasdaq-100 moves through rates, earnings, index concentration, and risk appetite, with worked perpetual-trading examples.

6 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Market guide / Commodity

Oil perpetual futures

How WTI moves through supply, demand, inventories, geopolitics, and the futures curve, with worked examples for a synthetic oil perpetual.

6 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Incident / Liquidity withdrawal

The 2010 Flash Crash

How a large automated futures sale met thinning liquidity and transmitted stress across linked equity markets.

10 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Incident / Forced liquidity demand

March 2020: the dash for cash

Why even deep markets became strained when investors raised cash and leveraged positions faced margin pressure.

8 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Incident / Liquidation feedback loop

The May 2021 crypto liquidation wave

How falling collateral values, leverage, and automated closures reinforced a rapid crypto market selloff.

8 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Incident / Expiry and physical constraint

When WTI crude oil traded below zero

How collapsing demand, scarce storage, contract expiry, and thinning liquidity pushed a major oil futures contract below zero.

10 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Incident / Concentrated leveraged unwind

The Archegos forced unwind

How concentrated synthetic exposure, leverage, and fragmented counterparty visibility produced a disorderly liquidation.

8 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Incident / Reflexive collateral failure

The Terra and UST collapse

How a confidence-dependent conversion mechanism turned a stablecoin depeg into a reflexive collapse.

8 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Incident / Reserve uncertainty and depeg

The March 2023 USDC depeg

How uncertainty around bank-held reserves moved a fiat-backed stablecoin and transmitted stress through onchain collateral.

8 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Incident / Policy discontinuity and price gap

The 2015 Swiss franc shock

How the removal of a central-bank exchange-rate floor produced a discontinuous repricing and losses beyond ordinary stop assumptions.

8 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Incident / Short squeeze and market suspension

The 2022 LME nickel disruption

How concentrated short exposure, geopolitical stress, margin pressure, and fragmented visibility contributed to a disorderly nickel market.

8 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Incident / Counterparty and custody failure

The collapse of FTX

How commingled customer assets, affiliated-party exposure, illiquid collateral, and a withdrawal run became an exchange failure.

8 minUpdated 26 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Ask

The lowest displayed price at which a seller is willing to sell.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Auto-deleveraging

A venue process that reduces selected opposing positions when liquidation and insurance resources cannot absorb a shortfall.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Average entry price

The quantity-weighted reference price assigned to the open portion of a position after one or more fills.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Bankruptcy price

A simplified venue-specific price where the collateral allocated to a position would be exhausted.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Basis

The difference between a derivative price and its underlying spot or index reference.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Bid

The highest displayed price at which a buyer is willing to buy.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Bridge

Infrastructure that transfers or represents assets and messages between blockchain networks.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Collateral

Assets assigned to support a margined position or trading account.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Cross margin

A margin mode where eligible account collateral is shared across positions.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Depeg

A sustained or temporary deviation from the reference value an asset is intended to track.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Funding rate

A periodic rate used to calculate payments between long and short perpetual traders.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Funding interval

The venue-defined period associated with one funding calculation or assessment.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Index price

A reference price derived from one or more external markets or data sources.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Initial margin

The minimum margin required to open a leveraged position.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Insurance fund

A venue-controlled pool intended to absorb certain liquidation shortfalls under published rules.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Isolated margin

A margin mode that assigns a defined amount of collateral to one position.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Leverage

The ratio between position exposure and the collateral supporting it.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Limit order

An instruction to trade at a specified price or better.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Liquidation

A venue-controlled position closure after equity falls below its margin requirement.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Liquidation price

A dynamic venue estimate of the price at which current account conditions would trigger liquidation.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Long

A position that generally gains when the contract price rises.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Maker

A trader whose resting order adds liquidity before it is matched.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Maintenance margin

The minimum venue-defined margin resource required to keep eligible exposure open.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Mark price

A fair-price estimate commonly used for P&L and liquidation calculations.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Market order

An instruction to trade immediately against available liquidity.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Notional

The total market value represented by a position.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Open interest

The total outstanding contract exposure that has not been closed.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Oracle

A system that delivers external data, such as asset prices, to a protocol.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Partial fill

Execution of only part of an order’s requested quantity.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Perpetual future

A margined derivative contract that tracks an underlying market without a fixed expiry.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Post-only

An order instruction that prevents immediate execution so the order only adds liquidity.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Price impact

The change in available execution prices caused by consuming liquidity with an order.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Realized P&L

Profit or loss recorded after some or all of a position is closed.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Reduce-only

An order instruction that can reduce an existing position but cannot increase or reverse it.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Return on margin

Unrealized P&L divided by the initial margin basis at entry. It is not the percentage move in the underlying market.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Short

A position that generally gains when the contract price falls.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Sequencer

Infrastructure that orders and submits transactions for some blockchain scaling networks.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Slippage

The difference between the expected execution price and the average price actually received.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Spread

The difference between the best displayed bid and ask.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Stop-loss

An order intended to reduce or close a position after a trigger condition is reached.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Stop-limit order

An instruction that becomes a limit order after its stop condition is reached and therefore may not fill.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Stop-market order

An instruction that seeks immediate execution after its stop condition is reached and therefore may fill beyond the trigger price.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Taker

A trader whose order immediately removes available liquidity.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Take-profit

An instruction intended to reduce or close exposure after a favorable trigger or target is reached.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Token approval

An onchain authorization allowing a specified contract to transfer tokens up to an allowance.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Unrealized P&L

The current estimated profit or loss on an open position.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026
Glossary / Definition

Unsettled P&L

Profit or loss recorded in account equity but not yet converted into withdrawable USDC.

1 minUpdated 28 July 2026