Initial margin is the USDC required to open a trade. It is the collateral you lock up when you open a position, and it comes out of your available perps cash balance. The amount depends on your position size and your leverage choice. A 1,000 USDC position at 10x leverage requires 100 USDC of initial margin. A 1,000 USDC position at 5x leverage requires 200 USDC. The higher your leverage, the less initial margin you put up to open the same position size.
Maintenance margin is the floor that keeps your position open. It is the minimum collateral the position must hold to stay alive. Maintenance margin sits below initial margin. As long as the margin in your position (your locked collateral plus any unrealized profit or loss) stays above the maintenance margin, the position keeps running. The moment it drops below, your position is liquidated automatically.
Your leverage choice sets the gap between these two. Higher leverage means a smaller initial margin, which puts your position closer to the maintenance margin floor right out of the gate. That means a smaller adverse move is enough to push you below the floor and trigger liquidation. Lower leverage puts up more initial margin, which gives the position more room above the maintenance margin and makes liquidation harder to reach. The article on liquidation walks through what happens when that floor is crossed, and the article on adjusting margin on an open position walks through how to add or remove collateral to shift this relationship after the trade is already running.
Every position on fomo uses isolated margin. That means each position has its own dedicated collateral. If one position takes a loss, only that position's allocated margin is at risk. Your other positions and the rest of your perps cash balance are protected. Even a full liquidation on one position only costs you that position's margin. The rest of your account is untouched.
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.
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