Liquidation
Liquidation is the forced closing of your positions when your equity can no longer support them. On a real exchange it costs money; in the contest it costs equity, leaderboard positions, and usually the season. It is the single most avoidable disaster in leveraged trading.
When it triggers
Liquidation begins the moment equity ≤ maintenance margin (gross notional × 0.8% on BitBreakout). The terminal shows an estimated liquidation price next to every position — the price at which this condition would be met, assuming nothing else changes.
What happens on BitBreakout
- The engine reduces every open position by 70% with a market close.
- It immediately re-checks — the price may have kept moving.
- Any position with notional already below 50,000 USDT is closed in full; once total remaining notional is under 50,000, everything is closed at once.
- Each forced close pays the 0.04% taker fee plus a 0.04% liquidation fee — the exit itself is more expensive than a voluntary one.
(1) Funding is applied to equity every 8 hours and can tip a marginal account into liquidation with no price move. (2) The mark price triggers liquidation — not the last trade on the chart. You can be liquidated at a price the chart "never printed".
What moves your liquidation price
- More spare equity → further away. Unused balance is a buffer, not idle money.
- More positions or size → closer. Every new position raises gross notional, which raises MM for the whole account.
- Losses anywhere hurt everywhere. One balance backs everything, so a losing SOL short drags the BTC long's liquidation price closer too.
How to never meet the liquidation engine
- Size down. Keep effective leverage low (2–4x feels aggressive enough in crypto).
- Use stop-losses placed before the liquidation price — exit on your terms at 0.04%, not on the engine's terms at 0.08% (Stop-losses & drawdown).
- Watch the MM meter after adding any position, and mind funding when holding near the edge.
Liquidation is not bad luck; it is arithmetic. The estimated liquidation price is shown on every position — your job is to make that number irrelevant.