Know exactly where the exchange takes your position away — before you open it, not after.
For an isolated position, liquidation sits roughly where your margin is exhausted down to the exchange's maintenance requirement:
This is an estimate. Real exchanges use tiered maintenance margins that rise with position size, and funding payments shift your margin over time — so your true liquidation price is usually slightly worse than this number. Always confirm on the exchange's order ticket before entering.
| Leverage | Approx. distance to liquidation* | Reality check |
|---|---|---|
| 2x | ≈ 49.5% | Survives almost any normal move |
| 5x | ≈ 19.5% | Survives most weeks, not most crashes |
| 10x | ≈ 9.5% | A bad day can take it |
| 25x | ≈ 3.5% | A bad hour can take it |
| 50x | ≈ 1.5% | Normal noise can take it |
| 100x | ≈ 0.5% | The spread can nearly take it |
*Using 0.5% maintenance margin, isolated, before fees and funding.
Placing your stop-loss below your liquidation price — then the exchange closes you (with a liquidation fee) before your stop ever triggers. Your stop must sit well inside your liquidation distance. Confusing margin mode: cross margin uses your whole wallet as collateral, moving liquidation further away but risking the entire balance. Ignoring funding: on a long-held position, paid funding quietly eats the margin that was keeping liquidation at bay — estimate it with the funding cost calculator.