Trading Guide

How trading works in Flash Terminal. No prior trading experience needed.

The Basics

You're trading perpetual futures — contracts that track an asset's price. You don't buy the actual asset. You open a position that profits or loses as the price moves.

Long vs Short

Long — You profit when the price goes up.

open 2x long SOL $100
# SOL at $140. If it rises to $154 (+10%), you profit.

Short — You profit when the price goes down.

open 2x short SOL $100
# SOL at $140. If it drops to $126 (-10%), you profit.

Leverage

Leverage multiplies your exposure relative to your collateral.

Position Size = Collateral x Leverage

Collateral	Leverage	Position Size	10% price move =
$100	1x	$100	$10 profit/loss
$100	2x	$200	$20 profit/loss
$100	5x	$500	$50 profit/loss
$100	10x	$1,000	$100 profit/loss

WARNING

At 10x leverage, a 10% move against you = 100% loss (liquidation). Start with 2-3x.

Default leverage is 2x (configurable via DEFAULT_LEVERAGE in .env).

Collateral

Collateral is the USDC you put up as margin. It determines your maximum loss on that trade.

Adjust collateral on open positions:

add $50 to SOL long       # More collateral → lower leverage → safer
remove $20 from SOL long  # Less collateral → higher leverage → riskier

PnL (Profit & Loss)

Long: PnL = (Mark Price - Entry Price) / Entry Price x Position Size

Short: PnL = (Entry Price - Mark Price) / Entry Price x Position Size

Example: 2x long SOL at $140, $100 collateral ($200 position):

SOL Price	Change	PnL	Return on Collateral
$154	+10%	+$20	+20%
$147	+5%	+$10	+10%
$140	0%	$0	0%
$133	-5%	-$10	-10%
$126	-10%	-$20	-20%

PnL is unrealized while the position is open. It becomes realized when you close.

Liquidation

When losses approach your collateral, the protocol automatically closes your position.

Leverage	Approx. Move to Liquidation
2x	~50% against you
5x	~20% against you
10x	~10% against you
20x	~5% against you

DANGER

Liquidation is permanent. Your position is closed and collateral is lost.

Avoid liquidation:

add $50 to SOL long       # Add collateral
set sl SOL long $130      # Set stop-loss
risk report               # Check liquidation distances

Fees

Fee	When	Rate
Open fee	Opening a position	~0.08% of position size
Close fee	Closing a position	~0.08% of position size
Borrow fee	While position is open	Variable, accrues over time

Example: $200 position → ~$0.16 open fee + ~$0.16 close fee = ~$0.32 round trip.

Fees are shown in the trade preview before you confirm.

Prices

All prices come from Pyth Network oracles — the same feeds used by Flash Trade on-chain. Prices are validated for:

• Staleness — Must be recent (< 30s)
• Confidence — Must be within confidence interval
• Deviation — Must not deviate excessively

price SOL          # Current price with confidence

Trade Confirmation (Live Mode)

Every live trade shows a full preview:

  Market:      SOL/USD LONG
  Leverage:    5x
  Collateral:  $500.00 USDC
  Size:        $2,500.00
  Est. Fee:    $2.00
  Wallet:      ABDR...7x4f
  Est. Entry:  $148.52
  Est. Liq:    $121.39

  Proceed? [y/N]

You must type yes. This cannot be bypassed.

Available Markets

markets

Pools:

Pool	Markets
Crypto.1	SOL, BTC, ETH, ZEC, BNB
Ondo.1	SPY, NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, AMD, AMZN, PLTR
Virtual.1	XAU, XAG, CRUDEOIL, NATGAS, EUR, GBP, USDJPY, USDCNH
Governance.1	JTO, JUP, PYTH, RAY, HYPE, MET, KMNO
Community.1	PUMP, BONK, PENGU
Community.2	WIF
Trump.1	FARTCOIN
Ore.1	ORE

Each market has per-pool leverage limits set by the Flash Trade protocol.

Next Steps

• Commands — Full command reference
• Simulation Mode — Practice risk-free
• Risk & Safety — All safety systems explained