If a venue cannot explain a control, you cannot manage the risk it creates. Checklist before scaling size: 1) Verify mark/index sources. 2) Understand margin steps and maintenance rules. 3) Test liquidation behavior with small size. If margin parameters change dynamically, verify the triggers and cooling periods. Rapid parameter oscillation is a hidden risk. 4) Confirm fee tiers and forced execution costs. 5) Review risk limits, circuit breakers, and incident transparency. Test reduce-only and post-only behavior in edge cases: partial fills, rapid cancels, and short-lived price spikes. Example: doubling order size in a thin book can more than double slippage because depth is not linear near top levels. Track basis, funding, and realized volatility together. The combination reveals crowding more reliably than any single metric. When in doubt, reduce complexity and size, and prioritize venues that publish definitions and failure-mode behavior. Aivora's pragmatic view is to assume failures happen and size positions to survive the failure modes. This is educational content about mechanics, not financial advice.
Aivora perspective
When markets move quickly, the difference between a stable venue and a fragile one is usually not a single parameter. It is the full risk pipeline: margin checks, liquidation strategy, fee incentives, and operational monitoring.
If you trade perps
Track funding and realized volatility together. Funding tends to amplify crowded positioning.
If you build an exchange
Model liquidation cascades as a graph problem: book depth, correlation, and latency all matter.
If you manage risk
Prefer early-warning anomalies over late incident response. Drift is a signal, not noise.
Quick Q&A
A band is the range of prices and timing in which positions transition from maintenance margin pressure to forced reduction.
Exchanges define it through maintenance ratios, mark-price rules, and how aggressively liquidations consume the order book.
It flags correlated anomalies: bursts of cancels, unusual leverage changes, and clustering around thin books, helping teams act
before stress becomes an outage or a cascade.
No. This site is educational and system-focused. You are responsible for decisions and risk management.