Risk management on Hyperliquid

Quick steps

1. Set risk per trade. Pick a fixed percentage of account value you accept losing on one trade, for example 1%.
2. Choose the stop. Put the stop loss where the trade idea is invalid, not where it feels comfortable.
3. Size from the stop. Position size = money at risk ÷ stop distance (in % of price), then subtract expected fees and slippage.
4. Check the liquidation price. Make sure the liquidation price is well beyond your stop, using isolated margin if needed.
5. Place stop and target together. Submit TP/SL with the entry so the plan does not depend on you watching the screen.

Risk is not the same as leverage

On Hyperliquid, initial margin = position size × mark price ÷ leverage. Choosing 20x instead of 5x on the same $10,000 position locks $500 instead of $2,000 of margin, but the dollar loss if price falls 3% is $300 either way. What changes is how close your liquidation price is. The real decision is the position size; leverage is a setting that should leave plenty of room between your stop and liquidation.

Position sizing example

Account: $5,000. Risk per trade: 1% = $50. You want to go long a market at a hypothetical $100 with a stop at $95 (5% away).

• Raw size: $50 ÷ 5% = $1,000 notional (10 units).
• Fees at the base tier if both entry and stop are taker orders: 0.045% × $1,000 + 0.045% × $950 ≈ $0.88.
• Allow for stop slippage. Market stops on Hyperliquid can fill up to 10% from the trigger in the worst case; in liquid markets the typical slippage is far smaller, but budget something. Trimming the size to about $950 keeps total loss near $50.
• Leverage: 2x–3x is enough. At 3x isolated the liquidation price sits roughly 30% below entry, far beyond the stop.

The position size calculator does this arithmetic, and the PnL calculator shows the result at your target and stop.

Pick the margin mode on purpose

• Cross (default): all cross positions share the account balance. A losing trade can drain margin that other positions rely on, and in a backstop liquidation all cross positions and cross margin go to the liquidator.
• Isolated: each position has its own margin. The maximum loss is the margin you assigned, which makes risk easier to read.

Details: margin and leverage.

Rules that keep accounts alive

• Cap total exposure. Three longs on BTC, ETH and SOL are mostly one bet on crypto going up. Add them up.
• Count funding. Holding a long for a week at baseline funding (0.00125% per hour) costs about 0.21% of notional. On crowded trades it can be much more. See the funding calculator.
• Know the fee drag. A taker round trip at the base tier is 0.09% of notional. Ten round trips a day at 10x leverage costs about 9% of margin daily. Check with the fee calculator.
• Daily loss limit. Stop trading for the day after losing, say, 3% of the account. Most blown accounts come from a sequence of revenge trades, not one bad call.
• Keep funds you are not trading off the exchange. Smart-contract, bridge and operational risk are separate from market risk. See is Hyperliquid safe.

Keep a trade journal

Record entry, stop, target, size, fees, funding paid and the reason for each trade. After 30–50 trades you can see whether your average win really covers your average loss after costs. Hyperliquid's trade history and fills export make this easy, and the numbers usually tell a different story from memory.

Frequently asked questions