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How to judge a perpetual futures venue
Most comparisons of perp venues rank them by leverage, which is the least useful number on the page. Leverage is a setting you choose. What actually separates one venue from another is what happens on a bad day: how funding is charged, how a liquidation is priced, who holds the collateral, and whether anyone can freeze it.
Funding is the real cost
A perpetual future has no expiry, so it needs a mechanism to keep its price near spot. That is funding, paid between longs and shorts at an interval the venue sets. A venue advertising low taker fees while running persistently expensive funding is more expensive to hold, not less. Read the funding history for the market you actually trade, not the headline fee.
Liquidation is a mechanism, not an event
Ask how the venue prices a liquidation: against its own mark, against an index, and with what buffer. Ask whether partial liquidation exists, because a venue that closes the whole position at the first breach turns a recoverable drawdown into a realised loss. A stop can also fill worse than its level in a fast or gapping market, on any venue, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
Custody decides who can stop you
On a custodial exchange the venue holds the collateral and can freeze the account. On a non-custodial venue you hold the keys and sign your own transactions, and nobody can stop a withdrawal. Both models trade; only one of them survives the venue having a bad week. This is the question that matters most and it is the one most comparison pages skip.
What TRUE does
TRUE runs its own perp engine with take profit and stop loss set at entry, non-custodial, with no KYC. Perps sit in the same account as spot swaps, memecoins on four chains and tokenised stocks, so moving between them needs no second app and no bridge. Autopilot can trade that account inside a budget and risk limits you set, and pausing it stops new positions without closing the ones already open.
Frequently asked questions
Is higher leverage better?
No. Leverage is a setting, not a feature of the venue. What matters is the liquidation mechanics behind it, the funding you pay to hold, and whether the collateral is yours.
What does non-custodial mean for perps?
You hold your own keys and sign your own transactions, and the venue never takes custody of your funds. On TRUE that is the default, and there is no KYC to open an account.
Can a stop guarantee my loss?
No. A stop is an instruction to close, not a promise of a price. In a fast or gapping market it can fill worse than its level. Plan the loss you intend, and treat it as a plan rather than a guarantee.
Related pages
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