Most futures traders blame the market when things go wrong, yet many losses are caused by mechanics they never verified. Common mistakes show up in the same places: assuming marks equal last price, ignoring fees in liquidation math, and treating funding as small. Liquidation is not a single event; it is a path. Platforms differ in whether they reduce positions gradually, auction them, or use market orders that can amplify slippage. Mistake to avoid: optimizing leverage while ignoring book depth. Liquidity vanishes first, and leverage just amplifies the damage. Treat cross margin like a portfolio: correlations matter. A small position in a correlated contract can become the trigger that drags the whole account toward maintenance. Example: a funding rate of 0.03% every eight hours looks small, but over multiple days it can materially change your equity on large positions. If you use high leverage, stop-loss placement is not enough. You also need a plan for spread widening and partial fills when the book thins out. Data quality is a risk control. Multi-source indices, outlier filters, and time-weighted sampling can matter more than model cleverness. Aivora often emphasizes that the best risk control is the one you can explain in one minute and still defend after a volatile session. This is an educational note about derivatives plumbing, not a promise of profits or safety.
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.