Perpetual futures, or perps, are contracts that track the price of a crypto asset without you owning the asset itself. You take a position on which way the price will move. If it moves your way, you profit. If it moves against you, you lose. Unlike traditional futures, perps have no expiration date, so you can hold a position as long as your collateral holds up.
On fomo you can go long if you think the price will go up, or short if you think it will go down. That is the main difference from spot trading, where you only profit when a token's price goes up. You can also use leverage on perps, which lets you put up a smaller amount of USDC to control a larger position. Leverage works in both directions, amplifying what you make and what you lose by the same factor.
Every perps position on fomo is backed by USDC, and you have two separate cash pools on fomo. Your token cash balance holds USDC on Solana for spot trading, deposits, and withdrawals. Your perps cash balance holds USDC dedicated to perpetual futures. To trade perps, you move USDC from your token cash balance into your perps cash balance, and that becomes the collateral behind your positions.
There is real risk you should understand before you start. Higher leverage means a smaller move against you can wipe out your margin, and once your position is liquidated, those funds are gone for good. Holding a position also costs money over time through funding rate payments, which the funding rates article covers. Perps are not for everyone, and they carry significantly more risk than holding tokens through spot.
Perpetuals ("Perps") are provided by third-party protocols and are not available to U.S. Persons (citizens, residents, or anyone located in the U.S.). Do not attempt to access perps from within the United States.
For purposes of these Terms, a "U.S. Person" means: (i) any natural person resident in the United States; (ii) any citizen or permanent resident of the United States, including any such person temporarily located outside the United States; (iii) any entity organized or incorporated under the laws of the United States or any state thereof; (iv) any estate of which any executor or administrator is a U.S. Person; (v) any trust of which any trustee is a U.S. Person; (vi) any agency or branch of a non-U.S. entity located in the United States; (vii) any discretionary or non-discretionary account held by a dealer or fiduciary organized, incorporated, or (if an individual) resident in the United States; or (viii) any entity organized or incorporated outside the United States that is formed by a U.S. Person principally for the purpose of investing in unregistered securities or derivative instruments. "United States" means the United States of America, its territories and possessions, any state of the United States, and the District of Columbia.
Representations and Warranties. By accessing or using Perps functionality, you represent and warrant that: (a) you are not a U.S. Person; (b) you are not accessing Perps from within the United States; (c) you are not accessing Perps on behalf of, or for the benefit of, any U.S. Person; (d) you will not use any technology, mechanism, or technique (including a VPN, proxy, or similar tool) to circumvent or attempt to circumvent geographic restrictions on Perps; and (e) you understand that these representations are material and that Fomo is relying on them in providing you access to Perps functionality.