The short answer
Leverage on perpetuals is set per symbol, not per account. Each market has its own cap and you choose your own leverage anywhere up to it. You are never required to use the maximum.
Margin is simply position value divided by leverage. No lot tables, no per-contract schedules.
The leverage caps
Market group | Maximum leverage |
BTC, ETH, SOL | 10x |
All other crypto | 2x |
Stock and ETF perps | 4x |
Index perps (SP500, XYZ100) | 10x |
Gold, silver, WTI and Brent crude | 8x |
Copper | 5x |
Forex perps (EUR, JPY) | 25x |
Coming from CFDs, these will look low, and that is deliberate. Perp caps follow the risk of each market: the majors with the deepest order books get the most headroom, and volatile small-cap crypto gets the least. Per-symbol caps are listed in The perpetuals symbol catalog.
Margin is position value divided by leverage
If you open a $22,000 BTC position (0.2 BTC at $110,000) at 10x, it locks $2,200 of margin. Drop your leverage to 5x and the same position locks $4,400.
Lower leverage means more of your equity is committed, but it also puts your liquidation price much further away. That trade is usually worth taking.
You set leverage per symbol before opening a position. While a position is open on that symbol its leverage is fixed. Close the position to change it.
Cross and isolated margin
Cross margin means all your positions share your account equity as collateral. A winning position supports a losing one, and you only approach liquidation when the whole account runs low. It is the more capital-efficient mode and the more dangerous one, because every position affects every other.
Isolated margin walls off a single position. Only the margin you allocated to it is at risk, and the rest of your account cannot be pulled in. If that position fails you lose the allocated margin and nothing more. You can set isolated mode per symbol before opening a position.
What actually closes your account
This is the most important section on this page, and it is where perpetuals differ from a retail exchange account.
On a public exchange, the thing that ends a position is liquidation: your margin runs out and the exchange closes you. On an Upcomers account, you will almost always hit an Upcomers rule long before that. The rules that govern your account are:
Daily drawdown. The maximum you can lose in one 00:00 UTC day, measured from your starting equity or balance, whichever is higher. A hard breach.
Maximum drawdown. Either a trailing floor that follows your equity higher and never moves back down (our Dynamic Risk Shield™) or a fixed floor below your starting balance, depending on the program. A hard breach.
Max single trade loss. A cap on how much any one trade may lose, applied on funded accounts. A hard breach.
The Best Day Rule. A soft rule. It never fails your account, it only decides whether you can withdraw right now.
Each program's exact percentages are in Upcomers Perpetuals programs: complete rules and overview. Because those limits sit well inside the point at which margin would run out, your drawdown floor is your real risk limit, not your liquidation price. Size every position against the gap between your equity and that floor.
The liquidation price shown on your position
The platform shows an estimated liquidation price on every position. Treat it as an estimate: the exact level depends on the mark price and on your other open positions, because under cross margin they all share the same collateral.
On a 24/7 market that level can be reached at any hour. A stop loss placed above it keeps the exit on your terms rather than the engine's.
Two things worth repeating
Maximum leverage is a ceiling, not a target. Most experienced perpetuals traders run well below the cap and size the position instead.
Your drawdown floor will stop you before liquidation does. Trade against the floor.
Where to go next
Read Upcomers Perpetuals programs: complete rules and overview for your program's drawdown percentages, Fees and how your order fills for what opening a position costs, and Markets never close: trading 24/7 for why an always-open market changes how you size overnight risk.
Need help?
Contact Upcomers support through live chat, the help center, or at [email protected].