Funding, fees and the 3% day
On perps, holding a position costs money by the hour and every market order costs a fee. Both come out of the same daily limit your losses do.
A 3% daily limit on a $100,000 account is $3,000. That sounds like room for a few bad trades. It is less than that, because the venue takes its cut before the market does.
Fees scale with notional, not with risk
Fees are charged on position size. A tight stop on a large position costs the same in fees as a wide stop. At a base taker fee of 0.045%, a common rate on Hyperliquid:
Ten market-order round trips on that size spend nearly half the day's limit before a single price move goes against you. Resting limit orders cut the maker side to a fraction of that, which is why scalpers on funded accounts care about maker fills more than anyone.
Funding is a clock
Perpetuals have no expiry, so a funding payment keeps their price near spot. When the perp trades above spot, longs pay shorts. Hyperliquid settles funding hourly; most centralized venues settle every eight hours.
On a calm day, funding is noise. On the days everyone is long the same coin, it is a fee you pay every hour for agreeing with the crowd. The scanner sorts every market by annualized funding so you can see that before you enter.
Budget the day before it starts
- Subtract expected costs first. Estimate round trips and holding time, take the fees and funding off the top, and size against what is left.
- Prefer maker fills when you can wait. The fee gap between maker and taker is the cheapest edge in the business.
- Check funding before holding through a session. If you are paying 40% annualized to hold, the trade has to earn it.
- Know whether your firm counts open funding. Some firms include unrealized funding in equity for drawdown purposes. Most include realized fees.
Your limit is a budget. Costs are the first line item.