Polymarket Perps: The Complete Tutorial (2026)

Polymarket now offers more than YES/NO prediction markets. Perps — perpetual futures on indices, commodities, crypto and equities — let you go long or short with leverage, with no expiry date. This tutorial walks through the whole flow, written from Polymarket's official documentation (docs.polymarket.com/perps). Perps launched broadly on September 3, 2026 — up to 20x leverage on crypto, index and commodity markets, up to 10x on single stocks — and parameters can still change, so always check the live app before trading.

One honest note before we start: this guide is built from the official docs, not from a live trading session. Where the docs describe the developer flow, we say so.

Before you start

You need three things:

A Polymarket account — create one at Polymarket if you don't have one.

pUSD — Perps collateral is pUSD, Polymarket's dollar-pegged balance. The minimum Perps deposit is 10 pUSD as of September 2026.

Access — during the rollout, Perps access may require a valid referral link or code. A referral link looks like a normal Polymarket Perps URL with a code attached, and the code is applied to your account automatically when you open Perps through it. Each account can apply one code, once.

Also check eligibility — this one matters. Perps carry their own geographic restrictions, separate from prediction markets: as of September 2026, Polymarket's documentation lists the United States and Canada (plus sanctioned jurisdictions) as regions where Perps order placement is blocked entirely — market data is viewable, but you cannot trade. The main platform carries separate restrictions in the UK, Australia and elsewhere. If you're in a restricted region, Perps won't be tradable for you — and circumventing geo-restrictions violates Polymarket's terms.

Step 1: Fund your Perps account

Perps positions are margined from a dedicated Perps balance, not directly from your main Polymarket wallet. Funding is a two-part action: approve pUSD for Perps collateral, then deposit pUSD from your Polymarket wallet into the Perps account. In the app this is a deposit flow; in the developer SDK it is an explicit approvals-plus-deposit call.

Your Perps balance is the collateral that backs every position — the docs call the working number equity: collateral plus unrealized profit and loss, minus fees and funding owed.

Step 2: Choose a market

Perps markets are listed as instruments — for example an S&P 500 index perp (SP500-USD in the docs' examples). Instruments span indices, commodities, crypto assets and equities. Before trading one, look at three parameters:

Max leverage — set per instrument (crypto, index and commodity markets allow up to 20x, single stocks up to 10x, as of September 2026; always confirm in the app since parameters change).

Session hours — perps on assets that don't trade 24/7 use market sessions, which affect how the price feed behaves outside underlying trading hours.

The three prices — the traded price (what fills actually execute at), the index price (Polymarket's estimate of fair value for the underlying) and the mark price (used to value your position for margin and liquidation). Your liquidation risk follows the mark price, not the last trade.

Step 3: Open a position

Opening a position means submitting an order with:

Side — buy to go long (profit if price rises), sell to go short (profit if price falls).

Size — quantity of the instrument. Size times price is your notional exposure.

Price and execution — the docs' first-trade example places a limit order with immediate-or-cancel execution; the app's order ticket exposes the same concepts.

Leverage — how much notional you control per unit of collateral. Opening the position reserves initial margin, which equals notional divided by leverage. 500 pUSD at 10x leverage controls 5,000 pUSD of notional and reserves 500 pUSD.

Step 4: Know what it costs

Three costs apply, all denominated in pUSD as of September 2026:

Trading fees — charged per fill on notional: fee equals notional times the rate. Base tier is 0.0400% taker / 0.0125% maker, improving with 30-day volume (down to 0.0250% / 0.0000% at the 500M tier, with a maker rebate at the top tier).

Funding — settled hourly between longs and shorts to keep the perp near the index. When the perp trades rich (above index), longs pay shorts; when it trades cheap, shorts pay longs. Payment is proportional to your position size and the hourly rate, transferred directly between traders with no protocol fee.

Liquidation fees — only if you get liquidated: fills executed by the liquidation engine carry the normal fee plus a per-market liquidation fee rate.

Step 5: Watch your margin

Your account moves between three states, per the official margin docs:

Healthy — equity at or above initial margin. Normal trading.

Margin call — equity below initial margin but still above maintenance margin. You can only reduce exposure or deposit collateral.

Liquidation — equity falls below maintenance margin and the system starts closing your position. Maintenance margin is notional times 0.5 divided by the market's max leverage — 2.5% of notional on a 20x market.

You can margin positions two ways: cross (your whole balance backs all positions) or isolated (a fixed slice of collateral backs one position, capping what that position can lose to its allocation).

Step 6: Close the position

Close by trading the other side of your position (sell what you bought, or buy back what you sold) — a market or limit order for the position size, or a partial close. Profit and loss realizes into your Perps balance, and you can withdraw pUSD back to your main Polymarket wallet.

Positions can also close without your input: the liquidation engine closes them if equity falls below maintenance margin, and in extreme cases auto-deleveraging can reduce profitable positions when the insurance fund can't absorb a bankrupt counterparty. If you hold perps, check them regularly — funding accrues every hour, even while you sleep.

Quick reference

Collateral: pUSD, minimum 10 pUSD deposit

Fees: from 0.0400% taker / 0.0125% maker, on notional, per fill

Funding: hourly, longs pay shorts when the perp trades above index

Initial margin: notional divided by leverage

Maintenance margin: 0.5 divided by max leverage, times notional (2.5% at 20x)

Liquidation: begins when equity falls below maintenance margin

Ready to see the markets yourself? Open Polymarket Perps — start small, use isolated margin while learning, and read our risk math guide before sizing up.

Risk notice: Perps are leveraged derivatives. Funding costs accrue hourly, liquidation can close your position automatically, and you can lose your entire deposit — liquidation is not a guaranteed stop-loss. Nothing here is investment advice. All mechanics cited from docs.polymarket.com/perps as of September 2026. We may earn a commission when you sign up through links on this site — this never affects our coverage.