Skip to main content
Phoenix Perpetuals is a Solana market for perpetual futures, usually called perps. A perp lets you bet on a price going up (long) or down (short), often with leverage: a position larger than the collateral behind it. A Hedgin vault can trade perps from its own Phoenix account. This page shows how, from the Perps tab of the manager console.
Leverage magnifies losses as well as gains. If losses use up the account’s margin, Phoenix liquidates the account: it closes positions at a loss to cover them. The vault can lose all the collateral it moved into Phoenix.

​
What you need

  • A vault whose deposit token is USDC. Phoenix settles in USDC, so the program accepts Phoenix only for USDC vaults.
  • Idle USDC in the vault to use as collateral.
  • The vault’s authority wallet, connected to the console.

​
How the vault’s Phoenix account works

Each vault gets at most one Phoenix cross-margin account. Cross-margin means all positions in the account share one pool of collateral. The vault’s program address controls the account, not your wallet. Your wallet asks the Hedgin program to act, and the program checks every Phoenix account it passes along. Collateral is the USDC that backs your positions. When you add collateral, Phoenix’s Ember service wraps the vault’s USDC one-for-one into the token Phoenix uses internally. The vault’s USDC still counts toward its value while it sits in Phoenix. The keeper values the account at its equity: collateral plus open profit and loss at the current mark price. Equity never counts below zero. If any open position’s market has a mark price older than about 10 minutes, the keeper does not post a NAV for the vault until the price updates.

​
Set up trading

The Perps tab shows Enable perps trading until setup is done. Setup is two transactions, once per vault.
1

Create the account

Select Create account and approve the transaction. The program registers the vault’s Phoenix account and records it as a strategy. You pay the account rent.
2

Activate trading

Select Activate trading and approve. You sign only as the fee payer. Phoenix then co-signs and submits the transaction, which turns on deposits and orders for the account.
3

Add collateral

Move some of the vault’s idle USDC into the account. The next section shows how.

​
Move collateral

  1. In the account panel, select Add or Remove.
  2. Enter the USDC amount.
  3. Select Add collateral or Remove collateral and approve.
Phoenix can queue a large withdrawal instead of paying it at once. Queued USDC arrives in the vault later, still wrapped. When it arrives, the panel shows the amount as returned from Phoenix and awaiting unwrap. Select Unwrap to turn it back into USDC in the vault’s idle balance. The account panel also shows Equity, Available to trade, Margin used, Account leverage, and Margin ratio. Phoenix liquidates the account when the margin ratio reaches 100%.

​
Place an order

1

Pick the market and side

Choose a market, then select Long or Short.
2

Pick the order type

Select Market to trade now at the best available price, or Limit to set your own price and wait.
3

Set the size and leverage

Enter the size as Margin in USDC or as Size in the market’s asset. Drag Leverage from 1x up to the market’s maximum. The default is 5x, or the market maximum if that is lower.
4

Set the options

Turn on Reduce only to shrink an open position without opening or flipping one. Turn on Post only to make a limit order rest on the book and pay the maker fee, or fail instead of trading at once. For market orders, pick a slippage of 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, or 2%.
5

Check and submit

Check Est. fill price, Price impact, Est. liquidation price, Account leverage, and Fee. Then submit and approve.
The Positions, Open orders, and Trade history tabs show your open positions, resting orders, and past fills. Cancel an open order from Open orders.

​
What the status allows

  • In Normal status, every Phoenix action works.
  • In Reduce only status, you can remove collateral, cancel orders, place reduce-only market orders, and unwrap queued USDC. Adding collateral and placing limit orders are blocked.
  • In Paused status, every Phoenix action is blocked.

​
Wind down the account

To stop trading Perps and close the strategy:
  1. Close every open position. In the Positions tab, the close action places a reduce-only market order that fills within 1% of the mark price or fails without trading.
  2. Cancel every open order.
  3. Remove all collateral.
  4. Wait for any queued withdrawal to arrive, then select Unwrap.
  5. In the Portfolio tab, select Close strategy on the Perps row.
The Close strategy button stays disabled until the account is empty. Phoenix has no way to close a trader account, so the rent for that account stays with Phoenix.

​
Use a bot

The manager bot API covers the same flow: account setup, activation, collateral, orders, cancels, and unwrap. Activation is special: the bot submits it through a separate route, because Phoenix co-signs and sends it. The API reference describes each action and its status values.