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Every perp position runs in one of two margin modes, which decide what collateral backs the position and how its risk is contained.
  • Cross margin — positions share your account’s collateral, so the whole balance backs every position. Profit on one position can support another; a loss on one draws on the same shared equity.
  • Isolated margin — collateral is allocated to a single position, capping that position’s risk to its own allocation. A loss is contained to the collateral you have posted to that leg and cannot pull down the rest of your account.
All positions are cross margin by default. A position is only isolated after you explicitly enable isolated mode for that market.
This page is conceptual. For the underlying account and leverage mechanics see Margin & leverage; read the current mode and effective leverage per market from GET /v1/leverages.

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How margin is measured in each mode

The marginUsed field on a position row reflects the mode, and the two behave differently: In cross mode your used margin floats with the mark; in isolated mode it is a fixed pool you control directly, insulated from the rest of the account.

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Switching modes

Set the margin mode with the optional isolated flag on POST /v1/setLeverage:
  • isolated: true switches the market to isolated mode.
  • isolated: false switches it back to cross mode.
  • Omit the flag to leave the current mode unchanged.
A cross → isolated switch is rejected with HAS_OPEN_POSITION if you already have an open position in that market — close the position first, then switch to isolated mode. The reverse (isolated → cross) and any no-op change are always accepted. Changing leverage or margin mode does not affect a position’s maintenance margin or liquidation price — those depend on the market’s maintenance-margin fraction, not the per-account leverage cap.

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Moving collateral in and out

Once a market is in isolated mode with an open position, use POST /v1/adjustIsolatedMargin to move collateral between your shared cross bucket and the isolated leg:
  • amount is a dollar decimal string (e.g. "100" for $100) — send dollars, not quote quantums.
  • Positive adds margin to the leg (cross → isolated); negative removes it (isolated → cross); zero is rejected.
The move requires the market to be in isolated mode with an open position, otherwise it is rejected with NOT_ISOLATED or NO_OPEN_POSITION. Adding margin fails with UNDERCOLLATERALIZED if the cross bucket lacks the free collateral to fund it; removing margin fails with UNDERCOLLATERALIZED if it would leave the isolated leg below its initial-margin requirement.

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Reading the current mode

The margin mode is exposed as marginMode (CROSS / ISOLATED) and its boolean twin isolated in three places:
  • On position rows (snapshot and streaming).
  • On GET /v1/leverages, alongside the effective leverage for every market.
  • On the accountAttributeUpdates WebSocket channel, which folds the margin-mode outcome into leverage entries.

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What it means for liquidation risk

The mode determines how far a losing position can reach into the rest of your account:
  • In cross mode, one shared balance backs every position, so a single position’s loss draws on the collateral supporting all of them.
  • In isolated mode, a position’s collateral and risk are contained to its own leg. A move against that position can only consume the margin you have posted to it — the rest of your account is insulated.
Liquidation itself is still governed by maintenance margin the same way in both modes. See Liquidations for how a position becomes eligible for liquidation and what happens when it does.