Why does the position margin of a perpetual futures contract decrease without reducing the position?
Many perpetual futures customer are often confused: Why does my position margin fluctuate and increase or decrease even though I haven't reduced my position? This is mainly due to the funding fee mechanism of perpetual futures and marketplace price volatility.
Funding fee mechanism
OKX perpetual futures use a funding fee mechanism to anchor the perpetual futures market price to the spot price.
Generally, on the OKX, funding fees are settled every 8 hours at 8:00, 16:00, and 24:00 (UTC+8) each day. For certain futures, we settle funding fees every 2 or 4 hours.
You only need to pay or receive funding fees if you hold a position at that specific time. If the position is closed before the fee is charged, there is no need to pay the funding fee.
Funding fee = Position value * Current funding rate,
When the funding rate is positive, longs pay shorts;
When the funding rate is negative, shorts pay longs.
In other words, users holding a perpetual futures position may either be charged a funding fee or receive a funding fee. The actual funding fee user can receive also depends on the total amount deducted from the counterparty's account by the system.
Cross Margin Mode
Position frozen margin = face value * number of contracts * latest mark price / leverage,
Therefore, your initial margin will fluctuate with price changes, and funding fees have a relatively minor impact on the margin.
OKX doesn't charge any funding fees; funding fees are collected between users.