Glossary / Instruments
Perpetual futures
Definition
Crypto derivatives with no expiry, kept near spot by funding payments.
Why it matters
Funding is a recurring cost or income that never appears in raw P&L, so it must be journaled separately.
Example
BTC perp trading at $67,100 while spot is $67,000 pulls back toward spot via funding paid by longs to shorts every eight hours.
How to track it in a journal
TradeStack calculates the core performance numbers — win rate, average win and loss, profit factor, expectancy, drawdown and consistency — automatically from imported trades, so perpetual futures stops being something you estimate and becomes something you read.
Related terms
Tick value
The dollar value of the smallest price increment of a contract.
Pip
The standard smallest price move in a currency pair, usually 0.0001.
Lot size
The trade unit in forex: 100,000 units for a standard lot.
Contract specifications
The exchange definition of a futures contract: size, tick, hours and expiry.
Keep reading
Trading journal guides
Expectancy, profit factor, drawdown, backtesting and the PDT rule.
Free trading calculators
Position size, risk-reward, expectancy and options profit.
Expectancy calculator
Expected profit per trade from your own numbers.
Broker CSV export guides
Step-by-step exports for Tradovate, NinjaTrader, IBKR and more.
Stop estimating your numbers
TradeStack is a free trading journal that calculates them from your own trades.
Start free