Liquidation is an automatic procedure that occurs if reserved margin becomes insufficient to cover further losses for a trade. If liquidation occurs, a position will be automatically closed at market.
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In margin trading, liquidation is an automatic procedure that can occur if a trade is incurring loses and the trader's margin is no longer sufficient to cover further losses from the trade. If a position reaches its liquidation point, the trade will be immediately closed at market, i.e. liquidated.
Liquidation may occur at different margin thresholds, depending on the margin type used in a trade - Isolated or Cross
Below are detailed explanations for each type of Margin system.
For Isolated Margin positions, an Estimated Liquidation Price is automatically provided. This reflects the estimated price level at which a position will be liquidated, due to a trader’s margin no longer being sufficient to cover further losses if the market moves against the trade:
It is important to keep in mind that the EST. liq. price is an estimated value based on the available margin remaining in a trade. This means that the estimated liquidation price of an isolated-margin position can change. This can occur when:
Funding is charged for carrying a position into a new funding rollover
Adding/removing margin in a trade
Change in multiplier during extreme market volatility
If an isolated margin position reaches its liquidation point, the trade will be immediately closed market.
For Cross Margin positions, liquidation occurs if Cross Margin Level drops to or below 10%:
The Cross Margin Level indicators provide traders with an easy way to keep track of cross margin trades, without having to manually perform all of the related calculations. The gauges will fill up as more margin is pulled into a cross-margin trade. A green indicator reflects a sufficient level of available margin remaining, while a red indicator means that available margin is at a critical level and the position may be at risk of liquidation. Liquidation may occur if Cross Margin Level drops to 10% or below.
Essentially the Cross Margin Level indicators provide the following information in an easy to understand graphical format:
As more margin is pulled into a trade, the gauge will fill up accordingly
Liquidation occurs if cross margin level drops to or below 10%
If cross margin level is below 100%, it will not be possible to open new positions using the corresponding margin currency
As has already been mentioned, the estimated liquidation price for isolated-margin positions - is an estimated value calculated based on numerous factors, such as the margin reserved for the trade, trade commissions, and other factors.
However, as the price of any asset is constantly fluctuating, anytime that the price of an asset changes (i.e. anytime a trade is executed on the market by market participants), the liquidation price would also fluctuate, as the value of the reserved margin would also increase/decrease accordingly. This in turn would make it impossible to provide an estimated liquidation price for traders.
To solve this issue, Margex employs a unique Anti-liquidation protection system, which essentially locks in the estimated liquidation price for a position when opened, by means of a Multiplier value, while fully covering any related expenses, providing traders with a static liquidation level, even if the market value of the traders own margin is decreasing.
The Multiplier value is calculated as an average price of an asset over a set period of time.
At the same time, it is also important to note that during large market movements and extreme market volatility the Multiplier value may change accordingly. This will cause the EST. liq. price to also change directly in accordance with the price and value of the collateral currency (and accordingly - the margin reserved for the trade), instead of remaining static.
Alternatively, stablecoins (unlike BTC and other cryptocurrencies), generally are not strongly affected by high market volatility and can be used as an alternative collateral option to fully utilize all of the benefits of the Margex anti-liquidation system while minimizing the effects of high market volatility.
The Margex MP Shield Technology protects traders from possible unnatural price movements/spikes as a result of isolated instances of price manipulation on a single exchange (liquidity provider). It monitors the accuracy of the price feed submitted by the liquidity providers and negates any suspicious trading activities such as spoofing, bluffing and wash-trading.
One of the key mechanisms which makes it possible to provide additional protection for traders through the Margex MP Shield technology is Liquidity Aggregation.
At Margex, we aggregate liquidity from a pool of liquidity providers, (12 currently) and arbitrage between them to offer the best prices across the providers (exchanges/platforms) from which liquidity is aggregated.
Additionally, besides the Margex MP Shield, liquidity aggregation also allows us to provide:
One of the best order book depths on the market
Tight spreads
Minimal or complete absence of slippage
Near-instant order execution
One of the lowest trade fees on the market.
