Perpetual Futures (Perps)
A futures contract is originally 'an agreement to buy or sell at this price later,' and traditional futures have an expiry date on which the agreement settles. Perpetual futures are a crypto-native product that removed the expiry. No expiry means you can hold a position for a day or a year — hence 'perpetual.'
The biggest difference from spot trading is that you never actually own the coin. Spot means buying Bitcoin and putting it in a wallet; a perp is a contract betting on 'up' or 'down.' That's what makes shorting a falling market possible. Being able to bet in both directions is the big break from spot.
Leverage comes built in. With $1,000 at 10x leverage, you open a $10,000 position. Price moves 3% your way and that's $300 on the position — +30% on your money. But 3% against you is −30%, and a 10% adverse move wipes out the full $1,000 margin and the position is force-closed (liquidated). Losses get amplified exactly as much as gains.
The problem created by having no expiry — the futures price drifting away from spot — is handled by the funding rate. Every few hours, longs and shorts pay each other small amounts, pulling the perp price back toward spot. The longer you hold, the more this cost (or income) accumulates, so holding a perp long-term has a very different P&L profile from holding spot.
Perps have become crypto's flagship product — on many days perp volume exceeds spot volume. That says how accessible they are, but go in knowing what the product adds on top of spot: three extra costs and risks — liquidation, funding, and fees.
What the data actually shows
Barobara's setup statistics count each chart signal's historical win rate and expected value based on BTC price moves. Most results sit near a coin flip. Turn those signals into actual perp trades and you additionally pay fees (once to enter, once to exit) plus funding for however long you hold. The closer the directional odds are to 50/50, the more often those costs decide the sign of your final P&L. Exchange-by-exchange fees and rebate terms are in the fee comparison.Common misconceptions
"Higher leverage means higher expected returns" is a misconception. Leverage only multiplies the same price move; your odds of calling the direction are unchanged. If anything, the higher the multiplier, the smaller the adverse wiggle that liquidates you — you can end up right about direction eventually, with your position long gone. "No expiry means I can sit on a perp like spot" is dangerous too. The longer you hold, the more funding accumulates and the longer you stay exposed to liquidation risk — the long-term P&L structure is nothing like spot.
FAQ
Q. How are perpetual futures different from spot?
Spot means actually buying and holding the coin. A perp is a contract betting on price direction without owning the coin. Perps allow leverage and shorting, but in exchange carry liquidation risk and funding costs that spot doesn't have.
Q. If there's no expiry, why do positions still get force-closed?
It's not expiry — it's margin. When losses pile up and your margin falls below the maintenance minimum, the exchange forcibly closes the position (liquidation). 'Perpetual' means no time limit, not no loss limit.