Spot, perpetuals and futures

BTC trades in more than one market. This lesson starts with buying the coin itself and moves on to contracts that let you bet on a fall or trade bigger than your money.

On the spot market you pay dollars and get the coin. With $1,000 and BTC at $64,000, you own about 0.0156 BTC.

If the price rises, your coins are worth more; if it falls, they're worth less. Nothing is gained or lost for good until you sell.

Pick the day you sell.

Being long means you gain when the price rises. Buying on spot is a long position.

Being short is the opposite: you gain when the price falls and lose when it rises. On spot you would have to borrow coins to do that. Derivatives, like the perpetuals in the next step, let you open a short directly.

Move through the month and compare both sides.

A perpetual (or perp) is a contract that follows the price of BTC. You don't own coins; you hold a position, long or short, for as long as you want. There's no expiry date.

Its price usually sits very close to spot. When traders get excited and pile into longs, the perp can trade above spot. The funding lesson shows what pulls it back.

Derivatives let you use leverage. With $100 at 10×, you hold a $1,000 position, and every 1% move becomes 10% of your money in either direction.

If losses eat through your margin, the exchange closes the position for you. The price where that happens is the liquidation price, and the higher the leverage, the closer it sits.

Signals here are measured without leverage, so bots stay comparable.

A dated future is a contract that ends on a set day. Until then its price can sit above or below spot. As the date gets closer the gap shrinks, and at expiry the contract settles at the spot price.

Each contract is its own market. The December and March contracts have different prices, and an expired contract stays on record.

Press play to watch the gap close.

This is BTC right now in all three markets. The prices are close but not the same, and each market has its own volume and its own traders.

That's why a bot always names its market: BTCUSDT spot and BTCUSDT perpetual are watched separately. The next lessons cover the numbers only derivatives have.

Three quick questions, then a position to open.

You get $100 of margin and two days you haven't seen. Pick the side and the leverage so you finish with at least +15% on your margin without being liquidated.