Perpetuals Learn Start trading

Step-by-step guide

How to trade Perpetuals on Kalshi

A walkthrough of the whole flow — from finding a market to placing a trade and managing it. New to Perpetuals? Start with the overview.

Start trading Read the overview

Why perps

Advantages of trading Perpetuals

Perpetuals let you trade whether an asset price — like Bitcoin — is going up or down, without ever owning the coin. Compared to stocks, options, and prediction markets, they offer:

Trade with leverage
Leverage lets you trade a larger position with less upfront cash. With higher leverage your gains are magnified — but so are your losses.
No expiration
Unlike traditional options and futures contracts, perps never expire. You can close your position at whatever time works best for you.
24/7 access
Respond to price-moving events — crypto news, macroeconomic data, geopolitical developments — at any hour, including weekends when traditional markets are closed.

01Find a market

Find the perp you want to trade

Open the Perps tab on the Kalshi app or website to see the full list of crypto Perpetuals available to trade — each with its current price and max leverage.

Kalshi Perpetuals asset list showing BTC, ETH, HYPE, SOL, XRP and SUI with max leverage and prices

02Read the market page

Get familiar with the market page

Every market page has familiar elements: the asset, its max leverage (⚡), chart time frames to see how the price has moved, and the buttons to trade Up or Down.

BTC perpetual market page with a price chart and Up / Down trade buttons

03Check the signals

Review the market signals

Below the chart, the Insights section shows how people are positioned, 24h volume, open interest, the funding rate, and the largest open positions — signals you can review to decide how you want to trade.

Insights tab showing the up/down split, volume, open interest, funding rate and largest open positions

Many traders also use TradingView to form a view on which direction prices will go.

04Place your trade

Place your trade

Tap Up or Down to start. Choose your order type (Quick or Limit), set your upfront cash, and choose your leverage — then slide to open.

Order entry screen: $100 upfront cash, 6x leverage, and a slide-to-open control

05Set your exits

Set take profit & stop loss

After you open a position, set your Autosell levels: a Take Profit price to lock in gains, and a Stop Loss price to cap losses.

You can see your position right on the chart, and drag the TP or SL lines any time to adjust — no need to dig into your position settings.

Position on the BTC chart with take profit, entry, liquidation and stop-loss levels marked

Key feature

Funding rate

Funding cycles are periodic payments exchanged between Up (long) and Down (short) positions, to keep the contract price aligned with the underlying asset's index price.

Kalshi runs three funding cycles a day. The interest-rate component of the funding rate is 0%, and the rate is capped at ±2.00% per cycle. You can see an asset's current funding rate and the time until the next cycle in the Funding rate row of the Insights section (shown in step 03).

Key feature

Liquidation

Every perps position has a liquidation price — the point at which losses have used up your margin and the position is automatically closed with a forced sell.

You can monitor your liquidation price and how close you are to it from your Portfolio or the market page. If the price moves too close, the Health meter changes to At Risk and turns red, and Kalshi sends you an email and push notification. Tap Add funds to top up your position and move it out of liquidation range.

Position detail showing cost, value, take profit / stop loss, a Healthy meter and the liquidation price Add funds screen to reduce liquidation risk

Ready to trade Perpetuals?

Kalshi's crypto Perpetuals are live — regulated, onshore, with transparent funding rates and no expiry.

Get Started