More on LPing

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For the latest documentation, see https://docs.perp.com

What is an Impermanent Position?

Orders vs Positions As a maker, you place liquidity in price ranges—these are orders. Once some of your liquidity is used in trades, you will hold more/less tokens than before—this is a position.

Impermanent Position

After you provide liquidity, you will have an ‘impermanent position’ once the mark price moves away from the price at the time you added liquidity.

The impermanent loss is shown on the asset's pool page and click on the down arrow next to it to see your impermanent position (as shown below).

Example

If the mark price was $4000 / ETH when you added liquidity:

Price moves above $4000 → you will have a short position
Price moves below $4000 → you will have a long position

This is called an impermanent position because in theory if the price returns to exactly $4000, you will no longer have a position. In practice, you will always have a very small ‘dust position’ because the price will likely never return to exactly the point at which you provided liquidity.

Impermanent to Permanent

If you have an impermanent position and remove your liquidity, this position will become “permanent”. This means it will be converted into a regular position appearing in the Trade tab. If you have an existing position for the same asset, your maker position will be combined with that position.

Fees

Adding / removing liquidity has no fee (besides gas costs)
Impermanent to normal position conversion has no fee
Closing this normal position will cost 0.1%, just like any other normal position

Funding

Funding payments are earned or payed on positions in the same way as a position opened as a taker.

Maker Liquidation

A maker's position size is dynamic, determined by the current market price, liquidity and the order range. After opening a liquidity position that is in range (where the current price of ETH = $1500 and the maker enters a range of $1000, $2000), the maker will be short when the price rises and long when the price falls.

As a result, the position size of a maker is always in a state of flux as the the market price fluctuates and traders consume their liquidity to open new positions. When a trader fills a portion of the maker's liquidity order, the trader receives some tokens. Depending on the current market price and the order range, the maker will consequently take on a long or a short position.

Makers can be liquidated before the price goes out of range or after the price goes out of range. The liquidation price for a maker position is calculated in the same way as it is for a taker. To determine the liquidation price for a maker position, you just need to input the position size into the formula here. You can view the current position size via the UI or by querying the contract.

Liquidation Scenarios

This covers the most typical cases you may face liquidation, but it’s not guaranteed to cover all possible cases.

Borrowed Assets Appreciate

Maker / LP positions can be liquidated if the value of the liquidity exceeds your ability to pay back any borrowed tokens.

If a portion of your liquidity is in base token (e.g. ETH, BTC etc.), you must return these borrowed tokens at the current price when you remove liquidity. If the value these borrowed tokens increases to a point near the value of your collateral, your orders may be liquidated to prevent loss to the exchange.

Position Value Drops

If you open an order and the price goes down, you will end up with a long position in the given asset (takers have sold their base tokens (e.g. ETH, BTC etc.) to you). If the price continues to fall, your PnL may decrease until your account balance is too low to cover the value of your position. Your position may be liquidated to prevent loss to the exchange.

Margin Ratio

Account health is determined using margin ratio. This is the percentage ratio of your liquidity to your free collateral.

Maintenance Margin

This is the minimum margin ratio required by the exchange. If your margin ratio falls below this, one or more of your orders can be liquidated.

2-stage Liquidation

All liquidity positions are canceled if you are liquidated as a maker. Liquidity in these orders is converted into a permanent position (i.e., regular taker position).

All of your open liquidity positions will be closed, leaving you with permanent positions in a healthy state for each market you were providing liquidity in.
If the price continues to move against you, your permanent position will be liquidated.

Your positions will be liquidated separately, according to size (the keeper can only liquidate one position at a time, and will generally chose the largest to ensure maximum ability to collect the full liquidation bonus from the position.) This means that liquidation will likely leave other positions (if any) in a healthy state.

Slippage

Definitions

Slippage - an unexpected change in price that occurs between order initiation and execution (confirmation).
Price impact - a predictable change in price caused by all orders depending on order size, direction, and available liquidity.

Adding/Removing Liquidity

There is no price impact while adding and removing liquidity.
Oracle/index price is used to calculate token values while adding and removing liquidity.
Slippage may occur when adding or removing liquidity due to:

Change in mark price
- Mark price reflects the ratio of tokens in the pool. If the ratio in the pool changes, the ratio of tokens you add/receive will change.
Change in oracle price
- Applies when removing tokens. When you add liquidity, if a portion of your liquidity is in base token (ETH, BTC, etc.), you must pay back these borrowed tokens when removing liquidity. If the oracle price changes during your transaction, slippage will result.

Pool Party

Pool Party is here. Earn OP and PERP tokens based on the amount of volume you facilitate! See our blog post for more details.

Rewards are distributed on a weekly basis (on Mondays, at 06:00 UTC), where the amount of OP and PERP tokens earned proportional to the volume facilitated for a certain pool. Your estimated and claimable rewards will be shown here: https://rewards.perp.com/liquidity-mining

Liquidity mining may be subject to updates and changes so make sure to follow us on Medium or Twitter for the latest news.