Learn the mechanics · Learning the hard way

Learn perpetual futures trading before it costs you.

Most traders learn funding, margin and liquidation by losing money to them, or from videos that end with a referral link.

By SuperQuant Research4 min read

  1. 01Notice
  2. 02Check
  3. 03Test
  4. 04Size & practice
  5. 05Review
  • Foundations
  • Learn the mechanics
  • Nothing to steal

Most people learn perpetual futures trading the expensive way. Perps have mechanics spot traders never meet (funding, margin tiers, mark price and liquidation) that can be learned in an afternoon, yet they usually show up first as a loss. SuperQuant's Trader Academy teaches them with exams and the same tools you'll use.

What it looks like

Perps education is scattered, unsourced and often selling something.

  • Free content is unsourced, and paid courses are expensive.
  • Theory without practice doesn't stick.
  • Nobody checks whether you actually understood it.
How most people learn perpsIllustration
  1. Video · "My 100× strategy 🚀" (referral link)
  2. Thread · funding explained, no sources
  3. Group chat · "just use 50×"
  4. Course · $499 lifetime access
  5. Exchange · your first liquidation

Lots of content · no practice · no exam

Why it happens

Why the usual way is expensive

  1. UnsourcedWho says?Claims without sources are hard to trust and harder to check.
  2. PassiveWatching isn't doingMargin tiers and funding stay abstract until they cost you.
  3. UncheckedNo exam, no feedbackIt's easy to feel you understand liquidation until it happens.

In depth

The perpetual futures mechanics you need first

A perpetual future tracks an underlying index without ever expiring. To keep it close to that index, longs and shorts exchange funding payments at set intervals: when the perp trades above the index, longs usually pay shorts, and the reverse when it trades below. Holding a position therefore has a running cost or income.

Margin, mark price and liquidation complete the picture. Margin is the collateral you post; the exchange values your position at a mark price derived from index and order-book data; and when losses push margin below the maintenance requirement, the position is liquidated.

In depth

How to practise without paying for it

Reading about leverage is not the same as watching it work. The Academy pairs lessons with practice: the Leverage Lab replays a trade from 1× to 20× on real history, market replay hides the future while you decide, and paper trades use simulated money.

Each stage ends with an exam that needs 80% with every critical question right, and the course ends with three decide-before-reveal cases on real history.

Worked example

Worked example: what funding costs over a week

Illustrative numbers; real funding varies by venue and by interval.

Position$5,000 long on a perp
Funding rate0.01% per hour, paid by longs
Cost per day$5,000 × 0.01% × 24 = $12
Cost over 7 days$84 if the rate stays the same
What it meansA trade has to earn more than its holding cost

Funding changes every interval and can turn negative, in which case longs are paid instead.

Before and after

What changes with SuperQuant

Without SuperQuantWith SuperQuant
Videos with referral linksLessons with no upsell
Unsourced threadsLearn articles that list their sources
Watching, not doingPractice with the Leverage Lab, replay and paper trades
No idea whether you understoodStage exams and a decide-before-reveal capstone

The SuperQuant solution

Trader Academy and Learn: the mechanics first, free.

Learn in the same app you'll trade your research in, practice with the real tools, and prove it in an exam.

Trader Academy/academy · /academySix stages and 24 lessons, from "what is a perpetual?" to an advanced research process, with exams and a capstone.
Feature tutorials/start/tutorialsOne reviewed tutorial per feature, with steps, a worked example and its limits.
Learn library/learnArticles on perps, risk, backtesting and journaling, each listing its sources.
Free tools & resources/tools · /resourcesCalculators, worksheets, checklists and a glossary that run in your browser.
Weekly market recaps/market-recapsA dated public record of what moved each week, and why.

Step by step

How the Academy works

  1. Start at stage oneFind the tools, then understand perpetuals: exposure, collateral and costs.
  2. Practice in the lessonHands-on exercises with the Leverage Lab, replay and paper trades.
  3. Pass the exam80% to pass, with every critical question right.
  4. Finish the capstoneThree decide-before-reveal cases on real history.
Trader Academy · 6 stages · 24 lessonsExample progress
  1. Get comfortable with SuperQuant
  2. Understand perpetuals
  3. Control risk and execution
  4. Read the app's technical analysis
  5. Make an app-assisted decision
  6. Build an advanced research process

Exam at every stage · capstone at the end

No hype

What the Academy is, and what it is not

It does

  • Free for every signed-in account, no holdings needed
  • Lists sources for the claims in Learn
  • Teaches with the same tools you'll use

It won't

  • Sell a course or a membership
  • Promise you'll become profitable
  • Give personal investment advice

SuperQuant is research and education software. It never places trades and is not financial advice. Trading perpetual futures carries a high risk of loss.

FAQ

Questions people ask

Is the Academy free?

Yes, for every signed-in account, with no holdings needed. Learn, the tools and the weekly recaps are free without an account.

How long does it take?

Twenty-four lessons of about seven minutes each across six stages, plus the exams and hands-on practice.

Can I learn in Telegram?

Yes. /academy in the bot opens the Academy from Telegram.

How do perpetual futures work?

A perp tracks an index without expiring. Funding payments between longs and shorts keep its price close to the index, positions use margin and leverage, and the exchange liquidates a position when losses push margin below the maintenance requirement.

Learn

Further reading

Free, source-cited guides from the SuperQuant Learn library.

Know the odds before you take the trade.

Learn the mechanics before they cost you.

The Academy is free for every signed-in account. Learn and the tools are free with no account at all.