How to start trading on Polymarket Perps

1. Create an account

1. Perps uses your Polymarket account. Sign up on Polymarket with Google, with an email and a 6-digit code, or with a crypto wallet such as MetaMask, Rabby or Phantom (sign one message to connect and another to enable trading). source ↗
2. Never share your 6-digit login code, even with Polymarket staff; support cannot recover funds lost through a shared code. source ↗
3. Placing orders is not allowed from the United States, Canada, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk or Luhansk. source ↗

2. Deposit collateral

1. First add funds to your Polymarket balance: click Deposit, choose a method such as Transfer Crypto, pick the token and network, and send at least the minimum to the deposit address shown. Funds sent to the wrong chain or address cannot be reversed. source ↗
2. Perps collateral is pUSD. You then deposit pUSD from your Polymarket wallet into the Perps account; the minimum Perps deposit is 10 pUSD, and crediting can take a moment after the chain transaction settles. source ↗
3. Deposits and withdrawals settle on Polygon, while order matching, margin and funding run off-chain. source ↗

3. Open your first position

1. Limit and market-style orders are supported with GTC, IOC and FOK time-in-force. GTC orders can be post-only, and closing orders can be reduce-only. source ↗
2. The web app opens new positions in isolated margin by default; cross margin is opt-in and some markets are isolated-only. Max leverage is up to 20x for crypto, SP500, oil, gold and silver, and up to 10x for other real-world assets. source ↗
3. Initial margin is notional divided by your leverage setting, and larger positions must use lower leverage. An order can be rejected even if your balance looks fine, because the check counts your position plus all resting orders. source ↗
4. New accounts pay 0.0400% taker and 0.0125% maker. Fee tiers follow trailing 30-day volume and are re-evaluated every UTC day. source ↗

4. Know how liquidation works

1. Liquidation starts when equity falls below maintenance margin, which is a flat 0.5 / max leverage per market (2.5% on a 20x market). Between maintenance and initial margin you are in margin call and can only reduce exposure or add collateral. source ↗
2. During liquidation new orders are blocked (the whole account for cross, one market for isolated) and positions are closed with reduce-only IOC market orders. Liquidation fills pay an extra liquidation fee on top of the normal fee. source ↗
3. Mark price, not the last trade, drives margin, PnL and liquidation. It is the median of a smoothed order-book mid, local bid/ask/last trade and external mark feeds, updated every 200 milliseconds. source ↗
4. If the breach is severe and the insurance fund cannot safely absorb the position, auto-deleveraging closes it against opposite-side traders, starting with the most profitable and most leveraged. source ↗

5. Withdraw

1. Withdrawals move available pUSD from the Perps account back to your wallet. source ↗
2. With open positions you must leave the larger of your reserved margin and 10% of total position notional at mark price, so a $100 position at 20x keeps $10 locked, not $5. source ↗
3. To send funds out of Polymarket, go to Portfolio, click Withdraw, enter the recipient address, pick the token, amount and network, and confirm. source ↗

6. Common mistakes

1. Perps trade 24/7 even when the underlying market is closed. Outside regular hours only the price feeds change; funding, margin and liquidation rules stay the same. source ↗
2. Funding settles every hour, capped at 4% per hour. Non-crypto markets use half the crypto funding scale, and longs pay shorts when the rate is positive. source ↗
3. Self-trade prevention is always on: if your order would match your own resting order, the resting order is cancelled. 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.