> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tradealpha.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Liquidations

> A liquidation closes your position automatically when your margin can no longer support it. Learn exactly when it happens, what you keep, and how to avoid it.

You put \$100 into a trade at 10x, so you control \$1,000 of a stock. If the stock drops about 9%, your \$1,000 position has lost about \$90, which is nearly all of your \$100. At that point the app closes the trade for you so the loss cannot grow past what you put in. That automatic close is a liquidation. You lose the \$100, and nothing else in your account is touched.

The number to watch is the **liquidation price**, shown before you confirm and on every open position. If the market gets there, the trade closes. A stop loss set above that price lets you get out earlier on your own terms.

## When it happens

Every market has a **maintenance margin** requirement, a minimum amount of margin that must remain behind a position. It is set per market and is a fraction of the position size, typically half of the margin required at that market's maximum leverage. On a 50x market, that is around 1% of position size.

Your position is liquidated when the margin remaining (your original margin plus or minus unrealized PnL and leverage fees) falls below the maintenance margin.

Liquidation is triggered by the **mark price**, which blends the real market price with the contract's order book. This is deliberate: it makes liquidations resistant to brief spikes in the contract price alone.

## What happens during a liquidation

<Steps>
  <Step title="The position is closed at market">
    A market order is sent to close the full position. This is the normal case.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Remaining margin is returned">
    If the close fills with margin to spare, whatever is left above the maintenance margin comes back to your balance. There is no liquidation fee.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Backstop, in extreme cases">
    If the market is moving so fast that the position cannot be closed before margin drops to two-thirds of the maintenance level, a backstop takes the position over. In that case the remaining maintenance margin is not returned.
  </Step>
</Steps>

For very large positions (above \$100,000), liquidation happens in 20% slices with a short cooldown between them, which reduces the price impact of closing and often leaves you with more margin.

## Isolated margin protects the rest of your account

Every position on Alpha has its own margin. A liquidation takes only the margin assigned to that position. Your other positions and your available balance are untouched. The most you can lose on any trade is the margin you put into it.

## Reading your liquidation price

The liquidation price shown at confirmation is an estimate based on current liquidity. Once the position is open, the displayed liquidation price is exact for the entry but still moves slightly over time as leverage fee payments are added to or taken from your margin. Adding margin moves it further away; paying the leverage fee moves it closer.

**Rule of thumb:** the distance from entry to liquidation is roughly (1 ÷ leverage) minus the maintenance margin.

| Leverage | Approximate move to liquidation |
| - | - |
| 5x | About 19% |
| 10x | About 9% |
| 25x | About 3% |
| 50x | About 1% |

## How to avoid it

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Use less leverage" icon="gauge">
    The most effective lever you have. 10x gives you nine times more room than 50x.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Set a stop loss" icon="shield">
    Exit at a price you choose, before the maintenance level, and keep all of your remaining margin.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Add margin" icon="plus">
    Top up a position that is going against you to push the liquidation price away. See [Editing an order](/get-started/editing-an-order).
  </Card>

  <Card title="Size for the move" icon="calculator">
    Ask what a normal daily range is for the asset, and make sure your liquidation price sits well outside it.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Auto-deleveraging

In the rare case that a position goes so far underwater that its margin is exhausted and the backstop cannot absorb it, the most profitable and most leveraged positions on the opposite side may be closed at the last mark price to keep the system solvent. This is a final safeguard and is extremely uncommon. A trader with no open positions is never affected.


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