What is margin trading?

Margin trading lets traders buy or sell crypto assets by borrowing funds, offering them access to greater sums of capital to leverage their positions. Margin trading could amplify trading results, potentially realizing larger profits on successful trades, or more significant losses when the market moves in the opposite direction.

What is futures trading?

Futures contract

A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price in the future.

When you open a futures position, such as BTCUSDT, unlike spot trading where you own the asset (BTC), you are instead entering a contract to buy or sell BTC from a counterparty in the future, at a set price.

Position types

• Long positions: Taking a "long position" means buying a futures contract with the expectation that the price of the underlying asset, like Bitcoin, will increase. Traders aim to profit by selling the contract at a higher price in the future.
• Short positions: Conversely, taking a "short position" involves selling a futures contract, anticipating a decrease in the price of the underlying asset. Traders intend to buy back the contract at a lower price later, thereby making a profit.

This allows traders to speculate on both rising and falling markets.

Types of futures contracts on Binance

• Quarterly Futures: These have predetermined settlement dates every quarter.
• Perpetual Futures: Unlike quarterly futures, perpetual futures do not have a set settlement date, which means traders can keep their position open without the constraint of an expiration date.

What are the differences between margin and futures trading?

1. Trading market

• Margin trading: Buying or selling crypto assets in the spot market. Here, margin orders are matched with spot orders.
• Futures trading: Buying or selling contracts in the derivatives market.

2. Leverage

• Margin trading: Typically offers between 3x to 10x leverage.
• Futures trading: Can offer significantly higher leverage, up to 125x. Selecting a higher leverage increases a position’s liquidation risk. Please trade responsibly based on your risk tolerance and trading strategy.

3. Collateral

On Binance, margin and futures trading both allow traders to switch between the isolated margin and the cross margin modes.

• Margin trading: You can borrow funds while opening a position. Please make sure you have a sufficient balance in your Margin Wallet to repay the loan.
• Futures trading: Futures uses the maintenance margin as collateral, which means there is no repayment. Please make sure you have a sufficient balance of the collateral asset in your Futures Wallet.

4. Trading fees

Binance charges a trading fee for both margin and futures trading. Traders can get a 25% discount on margin trading fees or a 10% discount on futures trading fees when they use BNB to pay for trading fees.

• Margin trading: Trading fees similar to spot trading.
• Futures trading:
  • Specific trading fees for COIN-M and USDⓈ-M Futures contracts
  • Perpetual futures involves a funding fee paid between long and short traders. For more details, please refer to Introduction to Binance Futures Funding Rates.