1. Enter through the official application

Use app.hyperliquid.xyz and verify the hostname. Hyperliquid currently supports wallet-based and email-based onboarding. Availability can vary by user and region; do not bypass restrictions or assume a third-party front end has the same controls.

If you use a wallet, isolate trading capital from long-term holdings. Hardware signing can reduce key exposure, but it does not make a mistaken order or malicious approval safe.

2. Fund the trading account

The official onboarding flow lists multiple supported source assets and chains. The native USDC bridge route uses Arbitrum and requires ETH for source-chain gas. Confirm asset, network, destination and minimum before sending.

Start with a small transfer. Once credited, keep enough margin headroom for volatility, funding and closing fees rather than treating the whole balance as deployable risk.

3. Verify product and market state

Confirm whether you are trading spot, a standard perpetual or another deployed product. Check mark, oracle, 24-hour volume, open interest, funding and a size-relevant view of depth.

A ticker match does not guarantee identical mechanics across venues. Verify maximum leverage, margin mode and any additional builder or deployer fee in the official order preview.

4. Build the order around execution

Market and IOC orders prioritize execution; post-only ALO orders prioritize maker status; GTC limit orders remain until filled or cancelled. Stop and take-profit orders are trigger instructions, not guaranteed prices.

For large size, break the problem into urgency, visible liquidity and acceptable slippage. TWAP can distribute execution, but official suborders can still fail and the strategy is not invisible.

5. Define loss and exit before leverage

Choose position size from the distance to your invalidation, not from maximum available leverage. Liquidation is a protocol backstop, not a stop loss. Mark price drives margin and liquidation.

Before submitting, estimate both legs, funding for the intended hold, slippage and the effect of a fast adverse move. After execution, verify fill price, fee, position size, liquidation price and active exit orders.

  • Use reduce-only for exits when appropriate.
  • Do not move a stop merely to avoid realizing a planned loss.
  • Recalculate risk after partial fills or size changes.
  • Withdraw excess trading collateral instead of normalizing oversized balances.