How to start trading on BULK

1. Create an account

1. Every wallet that connects to BULK becomes a master account backed by a Solana keypair. You can later create up to 64 sub-accounts under it, each with its own balances, positions and risk. source ↗
2. BULK is self-custodial: assets are held in a Solana program in a per-user account, and no operator or validator can move them without a transaction from you. source ↗

2. Deposit collateral

1. Deposits are made by sending tokens to the BULK program on Solana. Your balance is credited only after Solana finalizes the transaction, which takes about 12 seconds. source ↗
2. Contracts are USDC-margined and settle in USDC. source ↗
3. Moving tokens between your master account and sub-accounts is gasless and free, with no minimum for these internal transfers. source ↗

3. Open your first position

1. Basic orders are Market and Limit, with time-in-force options GTC, IOC and Post-Only (ALO). Any order can be marked Reduce-Only. source ↗
2. Cross margin is the default. Max leverage is up to 100x and is set per instrument. source ↗
3. There is no isolated-mode toggle. To isolate risk, flag an order as isolated so it goes into a separate per-instrument account, or fund a sub-account with only the amount you are willing to risk. source ↗
4. Stop, take-profit, range (one-cancels-other), trailing and on-fill orders are available. They trigger on the mark price, not the last trade, and stop and take-profit orders are always reduce-only. source ↗
5. For accounts under $1M of 14-day volume the taker fee is 3.5 bps. The base maker fee for that tier is 0 bps in the first 30-day phase and 2.0 bps in Phase 2. source ↗

4. Know how liquidation works

1. Maintenance margin is not a fixed tier: it changes with your portfolio leverage, the estimated cost of closing each position and the market regime, so it can rise when markets turn volatile. source ↗
2. Liquidation starts when equity, valued at an estimated closing price, falls below maintenance margin while mark-price PnL is negative. All your open orders are cancelled first, then positions are reduced until margin is restored. source ↗
3. Mark price is used for PnL, liquidation and triggers. It is the median of a premium-adjusted Pyth oracle price, a depth-weighted book price and a smoothed book price. source ↗
4. If a liquidation leaves bad debt or cannot be fully executed, auto-deleveraging can reduce profitable opposing positions, ranked by profit and leverage. source ↗

5. Withdraw

1. Withdrawals are requested through the BULK network and settled on Solana after the validators agree and jointly sign. No single validator can release funds alone. source ↗
2. Before a withdrawal, the network checks that your available balance covers it after open positions and margin requirements. source ↗
3. Transfers out of an account are capped at equity minus 1.05 times maintenance margin, so they cannot push the account into liquidation. source ↗

6. Common mistakes

1. Funding is settled every hour at the top of the hour and paid directly between longs and shorts from your margin balance. source ↗
2. For a temporary launch period of 90 to 120 days, orders that can take liquidity wait 25 milliseconds before they become eligible for execution; maker-only orders are not delayed. source ↗
3. A sub-account copies the master's leverage settings only when it is created; later changes on the master do not carry over. source ↗

Before you trade

Perpetual futures use leverage: a small price move against you can liquidate your collateral. Start with a small amount and low leverage, and read the venue’s current fee and margin pages, which can change after this guide was checked.