How futures work at One Trading#
At One Trading, our futures platform is designed to offer precision, speed, and transparency, setting us apart as the only MIFID II regulated venue in Europe, and the only venue with minute-level settlements. This means that every open position is settled every minute, allowing for the realisation of profits and losses at unparalleled speed. This frequent settlement ensures a clear and up-to-date account of your portfolio, empowering you to make informed trading decisions.Our futures contracts are perpetual, meaning they do not have an expiry date. These contracts allow traders to speculate on the price of assets without the need to hold the underlying asset, offering flexibility and leverage to enhance trading strategies.Identifying futures instruments#
To find which assets are available for futures trading, use the Instruments endpoint. Look for instruments with the type PERP, which indicates perpetual futures contracts, the endpoint allows filtering specifically by type. Each instrument is uniquely identified using the id property, e.g. BTC_EUR_P. This ID is what you would use to create orders for a particular futures market, as well as get positions data for it.Creating futures orders#
You can only place orders on futures markets from futures subaccounts. These are created on the One Trading UI. BTC_EUR_P.Unlike spot trading, futures orders leverage your account's margin, enabling you to open larger positions than your account balance alone would allow. There's no need to specify leverage when creating an order — your available margin determines the maximum order size. For example, if you have €100,000 of available margin, you could create an order of up to that value.This streamlined approach ensures a simplified order creation process while empowering you to fully utilise the flexibility and leverage offered by perpetual futures trading.Collateral for futures trading#
To determine how much of a particular asset can be collateralised, refer to the Currencies endpoint. Each currency includes a property called collateral_percentage, indicating the percentage of that asset’s value that can be used as collateral against futures positions.If the collateral_percentage for an asset is 50%, and you hold €1,000 worth of that asset, €500 can be used as collateral for futures trading.
This flexible collateral system enables you to optimise your portfolio and efficiently manage your margin requirements.We currently only support EUR as collateral for futures positions.
Funding rate#
Futures trading on One Trading incorporates a funding rate, which is a periodic payment between long and short position holders designed to keep the perpetual contract's price aligned with the underlying asset's spot price.Calculation Period: Funding rates are settled on a 4-hour basis.Update Frequency: The funding rate is updated minutely, ensuring that traders have the most accurate and timely information about their obligations or entitlements.This approach ensures that funding payments reflect current market conditions, contributing to a fair and balanced trading environment.The funding rate mechanism is an essential aspect of perpetual futures trading, ensuring price stability and reducing discrepancies between futures and spot prices.Use the Funding Rate History endpoint to get the historical 4 hour funding rates used for funding rate payments.