name: futures-trading
description: "Perpetual futures trading on Base. Position management, funding rates, liquidation. Use when building or executing futures trading strategies."
metadata:
openclaw:
emoji: "📊"

Futures Trading on Base

Perpetual futures (perps) allow leveraged directional bets without expiry. Key protocols on Base.

Perps Protocols on Base

Core Concepts

Perpetual Futures

• No expiry — positions stay open indefinitely
• Funding rate: Periodic payment between longs and shorts to keep price aligned with spot
• Positive funding = longs pay shorts (market is bullish)
• Negative funding = shorts pay longs (market is bearish)

Position Anatomy

interface Position {
  market: string;           // 'ETH-USD'
  side: 'long' | 'short';
  size: bigint;             // Position size in base asset
  entryPrice: bigint;       // Average entry price
  leverage: number;         // 1x - 50x
  margin: bigint;           // Collateral (USDC)
  liquidationPrice: bigint; // Price at which position is liquidated
  unrealizedPnl: bigint;   // Current profit/loss
  fundingAccrued: bigint;   // Accumulated funding payments
}

PnL Calculation

function calculatePnL(position: Position, currentPrice: bigint): bigint {
  const priceDiff = currentPrice - position.entryPrice;
  const rawPnl = position.side === 'long'
    ? (priceDiff * position.size) / PRICE_PRECISION
    : (-priceDiff * position.size) / PRICE_PRECISION;
  return rawPnl - position.fundingAccrued;
}

Liquidation Price

function liquidationPrice(position: Position): bigint {
  const maintenanceMargin = position.size * MAINTENANCE_MARGIN_RATIO / PRECISION;
  if (position.side === 'long') {
    return position.entryPrice - ((position.margin - maintenanceMargin) * PRICE_PRECISION) / position.size;
  } else {
    return position.entryPrice + ((position.margin - maintenanceMargin) * PRICE_PRECISION) / position.size;
  }
}

Synthetix Perps V3 Integration

// Open a long position
const marketId = 100; // ETH-USD on Base
const sizeDelta = parseEther('0.1'); // 0.1 ETH long
const acceptablePrice = currentPrice * 101n / 100n; // 1% slippage

const tx = await perpsMarket.commitOrder({
  marketId,
  accountId,
  sizeDelta,
  settlementStrategyId: 0,
  acceptablePrice,
  referrer: ethers.ZeroAddress,
  trackingCode: ethers.encodeBytes32String('baisedagent'),
});

// Order settles after delay (async settlement)

Funding Rate Strategy

// Funding rate arbitrage: collect funding on favorable side
async function checkFundingOpportunity(marketId: number) {
  const fundingRate = await perpsMarket.currentFundingRate(marketId);
  const annualized = fundingRate * 365 * 24; // Hourly → annualized

  if (annualized > 0.20) { // >20% APR for shorts
    return { action: 'short', reason: 'High positive funding — shorts earn' };
  }
  if (annualized < -0.20) { // >20% APR for longs
    return { action: 'long', reason: 'High negative funding — longs earn' };
  }
  return { action: 'none', reason: 'Funding rate not attractive' };
}

Risk Management

• Position sizing: Never risk >2% of portfolio on a single trade
• Stop losses: Always set, preferably on-chain
• Max leverage: Start with 2-5x, never exceed 10x without explicit approval
• Funding monitoring: Check funding rates before holding positions overnight
• Correlation risk: Don't stack same-direction bets across correlated assets
• Human approval: Required for any position >$100 notional

Safety Rules

• ⚠️ No autonomous trading without explicit human approval
• ⚠️ Always calculate liquidation price before opening position
• ⚠️ Monitor positions — liquidation = total loss of margin
• Paper trade first, live trade with tiny amounts, scale up with track record

Cross-References

• spot-trading: Underlying spot markets
• leverage-trading: General leverage patterns (Aave, Compound)
• agent-wallet-management: Fund management for margin
• onchain-analytics: Trade performance analysis