The short answer
Perpetual futures are the contracts you trade on Upcomers Perpetuals. Like a CFD, a perp lets you go long or short with leverage without owning the asset, and it never expires.
The differences are in the plumbing: perps are priced off a real order book, the market runs 24/7, and instead of a daily swap charge, longs and shorts exchange a small hourly funding payment that can go in your favor.
Coming from CFDs?
On CFDs | On perpetuals |
Prices come from a broker feed, with a spread built in | Prices and depth come from Hyperliquid's live order book, with no markup and no widened spread from us |
Swap charged once a day, tripled on Wednesday | Funding exchanged every hour, positive or negative, so you sometimes receive it |
Markets close for the weekend, Sunday opens with gaps | Everything trades 24/7, including stock and gold perps, with no weekend gaps |
Size measured in lots | Size measured in units of the asset (0.5 BTC) or in USD value |
Leverage fixed per asset class | You choose your leverage per symbol, up to that symbol's cap |
Cost is the spread plus a commission per lot | Cost is a maker or taker fee, a small percentage of the trade value |
Minimum size is a fraction of a lot | Minimum order value is $10 on every market |
What stays the same
You still trade on margin, and balance, equity and floating P&L mean exactly what they meant before. Stop loss and take profit work as expected.
More importantly, the Upcomers rulebook does not change. The same drawdown engine watches your equity, the same breach logic closes an account, the same Best Day Rule gates your payout, and your daily drawdown still resets at 00:00 UTC. If you have traded CFDs with us, the account mechanics will feel familiar. It is the market underneath that changed.
Execution is simulated, on both products
This is not a difference. Your CFD account is simulated and so is your perpetuals account: you trade a simulated balance against real live prices, and your payouts are real money. What changes is the source of those prices. On CFDs they come from a broker feed. On perpetuals they come from the Hyperliquid order book, which is public and which anyone can inspect. See What is Hyperliquid?.
The three habits to update
The market never closes. There is no Friday "hold or go flat" decision and no Sunday gap, but your risk also runs while you sleep. Size positions and set stops accordingly. See Markets never close: trading 24/7.
Funding replaces swap. It is usually small, but it settles every hour and flips direction with market sentiment. Check the current rate on a symbol before holding it for days. See Funding rates, explained.
Leverage is a choice, not a fixture. Each symbol has its own cap. You set your own leverage anywhere below it, and lower leverage puts your liquidation price further away. See Leverage and margin on perpetuals.
Where to go next
Read What is Hyperliquid? for where the prices come from, Funding rates, explained for the one genuinely new mechanic, and Upcomers Perpetuals programs: complete rules and overview for the rules your account runs on.
Need help?
Contact Upcomers support through live chat, the help center, or at [email protected].