Placing Orders

• You may place buy and sell orders of various types in the Place Order tab of the Trading Dashboard.

• When a trader places a buy or sell order, before they are allowed to submit the order the system will check that they have enough Available Balance to reserve the Initial Margin. If the trader has an existing position in that instrument, it will also check that they have enough available balance to cover the change in Maintenance Margin and PNL, should the position be priced at the order price. If they have enough funds then they are allowed to place the order. Note: Net open orders that have not been filled or canceled will reduce the available balance by the initial margin of those net orders.

Margin and Profit & Loss (PNL)

• Before you are able to trade you first must deposit the relevant cryptocurrency to fund your margin account. You should first review the terminology behind the Margin Terms.

Perpetual and Futures Contracts

• The following are important rules regarding Initial Margin (IM):

  • For Buy orders the Initial Margin required = (IM * Contracts * Limit Bid Price * Multiplier). Commission is reserved using the limit bid price; however, the actual commission paid will be calculated based on the final execution price.

  • For Sell orders the Initial Margin required = (IM * Contracts * Max (Limit Offer Price, Best Bid) * Multiplier). Commission is reserved using the limit offer price or the best bid for that contract, whichever is higher. The actual commission paid will be calculated based on the final execution price.

  • Traders are not charged Initial Margin if their order will reduce their position size.

  • If a trader has both Bids and Offers in the market, initial margin will only be charged on the Net amount of Bids (Bid orders - Sell orders). The Sell orders will still be charged initial margin unless they reduce the current position size. For example, if a trader bids 20 contracts for $100 and offers 15 contracts for $150, he will only be charged initial margin on his net bids of 5 contracts (20 - 15) and on his offers of 15 contracts.

  • If a contract uses Fair Price Marking initial margin will be calculated differently. If a buy order is placed above the mark price, or if a sell order is placed below the mark price then the trader must fully fund the difference between the order price and the mark price. For example, if the mark price is $100 and the trader submits a bid order for 10 contracts at $110, then the initial margin required = (IM * 10 contracts * $110 * Multiplier) + (100% * 10 contracts * ($110 - $100) * Multiplier).

• Maintenance Margin (MM) is calculated based on the Entry Value of the executed prices.

  • Maintenance Margin requirement differs for each contract. You can find the Maintenance Margin requirement for each contract under the contract specifications.

Funding and Settlement

• Perpetual contracts on BitMEX are subject to Funding. Examples of Funding Calculations are found under each perpetual Contract Specification. Funding History is also available on all perpetual contracts.

• Perpetual contracts do not settle (except in the event of Early Settlement as further detailed below), and therefore do not incur a settlement fee.

• At the Settlement of a contract, the position will close out at the Settlement Price.

• Once a contract has expired, the lifetime profit and loss of that contract will be added to the trader’s applicable cryptocurrency balance, depending on the settlement currency. This contract will no longer appear in the Positions section.

• All calculations done by BitMEX are final.

Market Disruption Event (MDE)

• In the event that an exchange that contributes to the Index Price experiences an outage, BitMEX may declare an MDE and will inform traders how the settlement or expiry date of affected contracts will be altered in line with the Early Settlement procedure detailed below.

  • Traders will be notified via an email announcement and the declaration of an MDE will be predominantly displayed on the trading dashboard.

• The declaration of a MDE is at the full discretion of BitMEX, and all decisions are final.

Early Settlement

BitMEX may decide to settle a Futures or a Perpetual Swap contract early due to a Market Disruption Event or other events or reasons including, but not limited to, regulatory concerns regarding any underlying coin and/or our intention to ensure an orderly market.

The process for Early Settlement - Futures

In the event of early settlement of a futures contract, the following standard practice will apply unless communicated otherwise:

• At time T_announce the early settlement is announced, with the following information:

  • Details of the Contract that will be settled early.
  • The contract’s original settlement date and time.
  • The reason for the early settlement.
  • The date and time of the early settlement, T_settle.
  • The applicable Settlement Price Index eg .BXBT30M.
  • The Settlement Price Adjustment Rate to be used in the calculation of Settlement Price for early settlement.
  • The time T_start when the Early Settlement mechanism is enabled for the contract (usually within 60 minutes of the announcement).
  • A warning that open orders that use IndexPrice for price triggers will be cancelled at T_start.

• At time T_start:

  • BitMEX cancels all open orders that use execInst=IndexPrice.
  • The Settlement Price calculation changes to use the Index Price multiplied by the Settlement Price Adjustment Rate.
  • API users will see this change reflected in indicativeSettlePrice .
  • Fair Price Marking will use this adjustment to the Index .
  • The % Fair Basis is updated such that the Mark Price is in line with the Impact Mid Price.
  • The Contract Specification page displays information about early settlement.

• At the early settlement time T_settle:

  • Any outstanding positions are settled at the adjusted Settlement Price.
  • There are no fees charged for the settlement.

Futures Early Settlement Calculation

• Settlement Price Adjustment Rate is calculated as:

Settlement Price Adjustment Rate = (1 + [30 minute TWAP of % Fair Basis at Tannounce] * (Original Expiry Date - Tsettle) / 365)

• Settlement Price is calculated as:

Settlement Price = [30 minute TWAP of Index Price] * Settlement Price Adjustment Rate

Example of Futures Early Settlement (All times in UTC)

1 March 2021, 16:00 - T_announce

• BitMEX announces the early settlement of XBTH21 Futures contract with the following details:
  • The Original Settlement date and time of XBTH21: 12:00 on 26 March 2021.
  • The Early Settlement time is set to 12:00 on 2 March 2021.
  • The applicable Index is .BXBT, current price is 15,000.
  • The 30 minute TWAP of the XBTH21 Fair Basis is calculated as 30.416667%.
  • The Settlement Price Adjustment Rate is set to 1.02 based on the formula:
    • Settlement Price Adjustment Rate = (1 + 30.416667% * (26-2)/365)
  • The contract will switch to Early Settlement mechanism in 1 hour’s time, at 17:00 on 1 March 2021.

1 March 2021, 17:00 - T_start

• .BXBT Index Price is currently 15,000.
• Mark Price is currently using .BXBT as its Index Price.
• BitMEX cancels all open orders for XBTH21 that use execInst = IndexPrice, including, but not limited to, Stop , Stop Limit, MarketIfTouched and LimitIfTouched.
• indicativeSettlePrice, the Index used for Mark Price, calculation is changed by multiplying .BXBT by the Settlement Price Adjustment Rate of 1.02.
• indicativeSettlePrice is 15,300 (15,000 * 1.02) - a 300 increase from the previous price of 15,000.
• The % Fair Basis is updated such that the Mark Price is in line with the Impact Mid Price.
• The XBTH21 Contract Spec page displays information about early settlement.

2 March 2021, 12:00 - T_settle

• .BXBT30M, the TWAP of the last 30 minutes of .BXBT is calculated as 15,500.
• The Settlement Price price is calculated as (15,500 * 1.02) = 15,810.
• All outstanding XBTH21 positions settle at the Settlement Price of 15,810.

The Process for Early Settlement - Perpetual Swaps

In the event of early settlement of a perpetual contract, the following standard practice will apply unless communicated otherwise:

Note: Funding times for Swaps are daily at 04:00, 12:00, 20:00 UTC

• At time T_announce the early settlement is announced, with the following information:

  • Details of the Perpetual Contract that will be settled early.
  • The reason for the early settlement.
  • The date and time of the early settlement, T_settle, which falls on a funding time for this contract.
  • The time T_start when the early settlement mechanism will be enabled for the contract. This will always be the last funding time 8 hours before T_settle.

• At time T_start - (this is always T_settle - 8 hours):

  • The Funding Rate: F_last of the contract based on the contract’s prices from (T_start - 16 hours) until (T_start - 8 hours) is used to determine the exchange of funding payments as usual.
  • Further Funding Rate calculation is discontinued and the next Funding Rate is set to 0.
  • The Contract Specification page for the Swap displays information about early settlement.

• At the early settlement time T_settle:

  • Any outstanding positions are settled using the 30 minute TWAP of the Index Price.
  • There will be no exchange of funding payments.
  • There will be no fees for settlement.

Example of Perpetual Swap Early Settlement (All times in UTC)

1 March 2021, 04:00 - T_announce

• BitMEX announces the early settlement of the XBTUSD Perpetual contract.
• The Early Settlement time is set to 20:00 on 1 March 2021 .
• The contract will switch to the Early Settlement mechanism at the next funding time 12:00 on 1 March 2021.

1 March 2021, 12:00 - T_start - the last funding time 8 hours before T_settle

• Funding payments are exchanged between long and short positions using the the funding rate that was set at 04:00 on 1 March (8 hours prior).
• Further Funding Rate calculation is discontinued and the rate is set to 0.
• The XBTUSD Contract Specification page displays information about early settlement.

1 March 2021 20:00 - T_settle

• The Settlement Price (.BXBT30M), the 30 minute TWAP of .BXBT, is calculated as 15,100.
• All outstanding positions in XBTUSD settle at the Settlement Price of 15,100.
• There will be no exchange of funding payments.
• There will be no fees charged for the settlement.