Stock perps: equity exposure without the share
A stock perp is a perpetual future whose underlying is an equity price rather than a crypto asset. The contract mechanics are identical to any other perp, the margin is a stablecoin, and the thing you are trading is a price feed rather than a company.
- Live product data
- Self-custodial
- Human confirmed
What you are actually holding
You hold a contract that pays out on the movement of a share price. There is no share, no entry on a register, no transfer agent and no voting right. There is also no dividend paid to you, no proxy statement and no shareholder claim in a restructuring. For someone who wanted directional exposure, none of that was the point. For someone who wanted to own part of a business, a perp is the wrong instrument and no amount of tracking accuracy changes that.
Where the price comes from
An oracle reads the underlying equity market and publishes a reference the venue marks against. That dependency sets the hours: when the underlying exchange is closed the reference stops updating, and venues respond either by halting the market or by keeping it open against a stale or extrapolated price. Both choices have consequences worth knowing before you hold overnight, and they are venue-specific rather than a property of the instrument.
Corporate actions
Equities do things crypto assets do not, and each one has to be handled by the venue rather than by the market.
- Splits and reverse splits change the price by a ratio, and positions have to be adjusted or the contract breaks
- Dividends show up as a drop in the underlying price on the ex-date, which the perp inherits, and whether a long is compensated for it is a venue policy rather than a given
- Mergers, acquisitions and delistings can end the underlying market, forcing the venue to settle the contract early
- Halts on the underlying exchange leave the oracle frozen while the perp still has open positions
The gap risk that crypto traders are not used to
A crypto market trades continuously, so a price path from one level to another passes through everything in between. An equity does not. A close at one level and an open at another with news overnight means the price simply appears at the new level, and a stop placed between the two is jumped rather than triggered at your price. Position sizing for a stock perp has to assume the gap, not the intraday range, and that single difference changes what leverage is reasonable.
A worked position
Suppose an equity perp is quoted at one hundred and eighty dollars and you want ten units of exposure. That is one thousand eight hundred dollars of notional, which at five times leverage needs three hundred and sixty dollars of margin. A ten percent overnight gap against you is one hundred and eighty dollars, which is half the margin gone in one print with no opportunity to react. The same gap at fifteen times leverage would have closed the position. Whatever leverage a venue offers on an equity perp, the overnight gap is the constraint that should set yours.
What you gain and what you give up
You gain access without a brokerage account, stablecoin margin shared with your other positions, symmetric shorting with no borrow to locate, fractional sizing, and settlement that does not care where you live. You give up ownership and its rights, dividend income, the depth of the real equity market, and the investor protections that come with a regulated broker. Liquidity in a stock perp is a small fraction of the underlying market, so spreads are wider and slippage matters more than it would through a broker.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I own the stock?
- No. You hold a derivative contract on its price. Nothing about the position gives you a claim on the company, a vote, or a dividend.
- Can I trade a stock perp overnight or at the weekend?
- Only if the venue keeps the market open, and the oracle needs a reference price to do so. Many venues close equity and index markets when the underlying exchange is shut, precisely because marking against a stale price creates liquidation risk from nothing.
- What happens to my position on a dividend?
- The underlying price drops by roughly the dividend on the ex-date, and the perp follows it. Whether the venue compensates a long for that drop is a policy question with different answers across venues, so read it before holding through an ex-date.
- Why is the spread wider than at my broker?
- Because the liquidity is a fraction of what the underlying exchange carries. The perp is a separate market with its own participants, and it is much smaller. That shows up as a wider spread, less depth and more slippage on size.
- Can I short without borrowing shares?
- Yes. There is no share to borrow, so there is no locate, no borrow fee and no recall. The carry is the funding rate instead, which can pay you or cost you depending on which way the market is leaning.
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Move from reference to the live product when you are ready.
Perpetual futures are leveraged instruments and can lose more than your initial margin. Nothing on this page is investment advice.