Trading
UPDOWN is a decentralized exchange allowing trading without the need for a username or password. The platform uses oracle-based pricing sourced from aggregated exchange data, which reduces the risk of liquidations from temporary wicks.
Connecting Your Wallet and Funding Your Wallet
After you have a wallet, you can connect your wallet by pressing the "Connect wallet" button on the Trade page.
To fund your wallet with the required gas tokens, refer to your wallet onboarding experience, which should offer simple options for buying, bridging, and on-ramping. If you don't have the required gas token for the network, you can still trade using Express Trading.
Direct Wallet Trading
UPDOWN markets exist on CELO. When connected to any of these chains, you can trade directly using funds in your wallet — no additional setup required.
Pricing on UPDOWN
UPDOWN uses oracle-based pricing rather than an orderbook model. Understanding this is important for limit orders, stop-loss orders, and other conditional order types.
Oracle Prices: minPrice and maxPrice
UPDOWN receives price data from oracles as a spread with two values:
minPrice: The lower bound of the oracle price spread
maxPrice: The upper bound of the oracle price spread
The oracle price used for both triggering and execution depends on the operation:
Long open
maxPrice
You pay the higher price to enter a long
Long close / liquidation
minPrice
You receive the lower price when exiting a long
Short open
minPrice
You sell at the lower price to enter a short
Short close / liquidation
maxPrice
You buy back at the higher price when exiting a short
Mark Price
The mark price is the midpoint of the oracle spread: (minPrice + maxPrice) / 2
The mark price is used for:
Display in the interface and charts
Funding rate calculations
Price impact calculations (deposits, swaps, position sizing)
It is not used for order triggering or execution.
Trigger Price Evaluation
This is a key difference from orderbook exchanges. On orderbook platforms, limit and stop orders typically trigger based on the mark price (mid-market). On UPDOWN, trigger prices are evaluated against minPrice or maxPrice depending on the order direction—the same price used for execution.
Example: You set a stop loss at $3,900 for your ETH long. The order triggers when minPrice reaches $3,900 (not when the mark price reaches $3,900). Since closing a long uses minPrice, the trigger and execution price are the same oracle price.
The spread between minPrice and maxPrice is typically small (a few basis points) but can widen during volatility.
Charts
Candlestick charts use:
Close: average price (minPrice + maxPrice) / 2
Low: lowest minPrice reported by oracles
High: highest maxPrice reported by oracles
This means a candle may show your trigger price being reached, but your order may not trigger. For example, if you set a limit order to open a long at $3,900, the chart might show a low of $3,900 (based on minPrice), but your order uses maxPrice—which may have only reached $3,901.
Price Gaps and Volatility
During rapid price movements, the oracle price at execution may differ from your trigger price. This applies to all trigger-based orders (limit, stop market, TP/SL).
Examples:
Stop loss at $4,000: Oracle price updates from $4,010 → $3,990 (skipping past $4,000). Order triggers and executes at $3,990.
Take profit at $4,100: Oracle price updates from $4,090 → $4,110 (skipping past $4,100). Order triggers and executes at $4,110.
Trigger orders are not guaranteed to execute if the oracle price does not reach the specified trigger price.
Opening a Position
Click on "Long" or "Short" on the Trade page depending on which side you would like to open a leverage position on.
Long position:
Earns a profit if the token's price goes up
Makes a loss if the token's price goes down
Short position:
Earns a profit if the token's price goes down
Makes a loss if the token's price goes up
After selecting your side, key in the amount you want to pay and the leverage you want to use.
Selecting a Market
You can select a market by changing the token that you'd like to Long or Short.
Selecting a Pool
Multiple pools may be available for your selected market, for example, there may be an ETH-USDC and ETH-USDT pool. You can select which pool you'd like to trade in depending on which collateral you prefer to be backing your positions.
Selecting a Collateral
Multiple types of collateral may be available for your selected market, for example, in the ETH-USDC market, you can choose whether your position's collateral is stored as ETH or USDC.
Examples of how this could be used:
Long ETH with ETH as collateral: You would have be long ETH from your long position as well as from your ETH collateral. It is possible to e.g. open a 0.1 ETH long position for a small amount of ETH while using 1 ETH as collateral for a total of 1.1 ETH exposure.
Long ETH with USDC as collateral: You would be long ETH only from your long position. This could be useful if switching frequently between longing and shorting.
Short ETH with ETH as collateral: This could be useful for delta neutral strategies to earn funding fees. For example, if funding is such that longs pay shorts, then a 1 ETH short position could be opened with 1 ETH as collateral.
Short ETH with USDC as collateral: This could be useful if switching frequently between longing and shorting.
Note that if opening a long position with a non-stablecoin as collateral, your liquidation price may change as the price of your collateral changes.
Max Leverage
The max allowed leverage of a pool will decrease as the total open interest of the pool increases, this is to guard the pool against gaming of price impact using high leverage positions. This mainly affects markets with less liquidity but can affect high liquidity markets if the open interest is very large. The interface will show a warning if the max allowed leverage will be exceeded. Note that this only affects opening / increasing of positions, it will not affect positions that have already been opened. For closing / decreasing of positions, if the max allowed leverage would be exceeded when decreasing a position then the order can still be executed, but the collateral within the position would not be reduced.
Managing Positions
After opening a trade, you would be able to view it under your positions list, you can also click on "Edit" to deposit or withdraw collateral, this allows you to manage your leverage and liquidation price.
Closing a Position
You can close a position partially or completely by clicking on the "Close" button in the position row. Closing a position will realise pending profits / losses proportional to the percentage of the position that is closed.
For long positions, profits are paid in the asset you are longing, e.g. if you long ETH your profits will be in ETH.
For short positions, profits will be paid out in the same stablecoin that you used to open the position, e.g. USDC or USDT.
You can customize the token to be received by changing the "Receive" token in the "Close Position" menu. Note that this may perform a swap from your profit token to the token you select if needed, the swap fees will be shown in the "Close Position" menu.
The amount of profit and loss for a position, excluding changes in your collateral's value, will be proportional to your position size. For example, if you open a long ETH position of size 10,000 USD and if the price of ETH increases by 10%, the position would have a profit of 1000 USD, if the price of ETH decreases by 10%, the position would have a loss of 1000 USD.
If a short position was opened instead, then if the price of ETH decreased by 10% the position would have a profit of 1000 USD, if the price of ETH increased by 10%, the position would have a loss of 1000 USD.
Leverage for a position is displayed as (position size) / (position collateral). If you'd like to display the leverage as (position size + PnL) / (position collateral) instead, you can customise this in the "Settings" menu by clicking on the "..." icon at the top right of the page.
Liquidations
A position is liquidated when (collateral - losses - fees) falls below a threshold (0.4%–1% of position size, depending on market settings). Liquidation checks use minPrice for longs and maxPrice for shorts.
Your liquidation price is not static. Borrowing and funding fees accumulate over time, moving it closer. With leverage above 10x and positions held for multiple days, monitor it actively. You can deposit additional collateral using the "Edit" button to improve your liquidation price.
When liquidated, any remaining collateral after deducting losses and fees is returned to your wallet.
Liquidation fees:
0.2% for non-synthetic markets
0.3% for synthetic markets
0.45% for newly listed / high volatility markets
Note: Price impact is not factored into liquidation price calculations, but is applied when the position is actually closed.
Limit Orders
Limit orders can be created by selecting the "Limit" option after choosing to open a long or short position, or by selecting "Increase Size (Limit)" from the "..." menu in the position row if you already have an open position.
For perps, note that limit orders on UPDOWN do not function the same way as limit orders on an exchange with an orderbook model. As there is no orderbook, a limit order is not making the book, thus it's not resting on the orderbook waiting to be filled. Instead, once the limit price is reached, it will attempt to execute the limit order at the closest oracle price. Some traders use limit orders on CLOBs to be executed immediately to enter into a position and control the price impact and slippage in this way. On UPDOWN you can simply use a market order instead, as there is no price impact for increase orders, and you can set an acceptable slippage under the execution details.
For perp limit orders, fast market moves can cause trigger skips or execution at a different oracle update. See Price Gaps and Volatility.
For limit swaps, execution may occur at a price different from your set limit price. UPDOWN guarantees you'll receive at least the minimum amount based on your limit price and allowed slippage. However, the actual execution price is influenced by fees and price impact. For example, with positive price impact, your order might fill before the limit price is reached. With negative impact, it might fill after. This means even if charts show the limit price was hit, there's no guarantee of execution. But you'll always get your desired token amount.
After creating a limit order, it will appear under the "Orders" tab. You can edit the order and adjust the limit price if needed.
Note that limit orders are not guaranteed to execute, this can occur in a few situations including but not exclusive to:
The oracle price did not reach the specified trigger price
The trigger price was reached but there may not be sufficient liquidity to execute the order
The trigger price was reached but the max allowed leverage would be exceeded
Stop Market Orders
Stop market orders can be created by selecting the "Stop Market" option after choosing to open a long or short position, or by selecting "Increase Size (Stop Market)" from the "..." menu in the position row if you already have an open position.
After creating a stop market order, it will appear under the "Orders" tab. You can edit the order and adjust the trigger price if needed.
Fast market moves can cause trigger skips or execution at a different oracle update. See Price Gaps and Volatility.
Note that stop market orders are not guaranteed to execute, this can occur in a few situations including but not exclusive to:
The oracle price did not reach the specified trigger price
The trigger price was reached but there may not be sufficient liquidity to execute the order
The trigger price was reached but the max allowed leverage would be exceeded
TWAP Orders
TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) orders will increase or decrease positions, as well as perform swaps, in evenly distributed parts over a specified time. By breaking down the order into smaller chunks and executing them over a predefined time period, TWAP aims to reduce the price impact.
These can be created by selecting the "TWAP" option after choosing to open or decrease a long or short position, or by selecting "Increase Size (TWAP)" from the "..." menu in the position row if you already have an open position. TWAP orders are also available for swaps.
After creating a TWAP order, it will appear under the "Orders" tab. TWAP orders can't be edited, but they can be cancelled and recreated. Blockchain network fees for TWAP orders are paid once when created, so if they increase, the extra costs will be paid by UPDOWN.
Note that TWAP orders parts are not guaranteed to execute, this can occur in a few situations including but not exclusive to:
There may not be sufficient liquidity to execute the order
The max allowed leverage would be exceeded
Take Profit and Stop Loss Orders
Take profit and stop loss (TP / SL) orders can be created by clicking the "Close" button for a position, selecting "Set TP/SL" from the "..." menu in the position row, or using the "TP/SL" tab in the trade box.
After creating a TP / SL order, it will appear in your position's row and under the "Orders" tab. You can edit the order and adjust the trigger price if needed.
Fast market moves can cause trigger skips or execution at a different oracle update. See Price Gaps and Volatility.
Market Types and ADL
Two types of markets are possible in UPDOWN.
Fully backed markets
An example of a fully back market would be an ETH perp market backed by ETH-USDC where the open interest is limited to be less than the total amount of ETH and USDC tokens in the pool.
For example, if there is 1000 ETH and 1 million USDC in the pool and the max long open interest is limited to 900 ETH and the max short open interest is limited to be 900k USDC, then all profits can always be fully backed regardless of the price of ETH.
Synthetic markets
An example of a synthetic market would be a DOGE perp market backed by ETH-USDC. While the max long open interest could be limited to a fraction of the amount of ETH tokens, it may be possible for the profits of long positions to exceed the worth of the tokens in the pool.
For example, if there is 1000 ETH and 1 million USDC in the pool and the max long DOGE open interest is limited to 300 ETH, but the price of DOGE increases 10x while the price of ETH increases only by 2x, in this case the pending profits would exceed the worth of the ETH in the pool.
To avoid this scenario, ADL (Auto-Deleveraging) may take place. When the pending profits exceed the market's configured threshold, profitable positions may be partially or fully closed. This helps to ensure that markets are always solvent and all profits at the time of closing can be fully paid.
Fees and Rebates
Open / Close Fees
The trading fee to open a position is 0.04% or 0.06% of the position size, similarly there is a 0.04% or 0.06% fee when closing the position. This applies for increasing the position size of an existing position and partially decreasing a position size as well.
If the trade increases the balance of longs and shorts then the fee would be 0.04%, otherwise the fee would be 0.06%.
Swap Fees
The fees for a normal swap are 0.05% or 0.07% of the swap amount.
If the trade increases the balance of tokens in the pool then the fee would be 0.05%, otherwise the fee would be 0.07%.
The fees for stablecoin swaps are 0.005% and 0.02% of the swap amount.
If the trade increases the balance of tokens in the stablecoin pool then the fee would be 0.005%, otherwise the fee would be 0.02%.
Slippage
Slippage is the difference between the expected execution price when you submit the order and the actual price when the order is executed, caused by price volatility during that small window while the order is processing. The default allowed slippage is set to 1% and can be adjusted in settings or in the trade box when trading. For example:
Expected execution price: $4,000 for a ETH/USD long.
Actual price when executed: $4,080 (2% higher) due to volatility.
Since the price moved against you (higher entry for a long), this is unfavorable slippage.
The order will not be executed unless the allowed slippage was set to 2% or higher.
Note that slippage is different from price impact: price impact is a separate positive or negative adjustment applied on top based on open interest imbalances.
Price Impact and Price Impact Rebates
On UPDOWN, opening positions incurs no price impact at entry. The entry price is determined by the oracle price (maxPrice for longs, minPrice for shorts). See Pricing on UPDOWN for details. Price impact is calculated based on the net open interest imbalance caused by both opens and closes, but it is only applied (charged or credited) when you close or decrease a position—hence the name "net price impact."
Net price impact can be positive or negative, up to a market-specific cap. Unlike orderbook models, UPDOWN caps price impact—so you don't have to worry about orderbook depth. Also, unlike orderbooks, a positive price impact means you can get paid. You can view net price impact in the net value tooltip on the positions list or close modal. For advanced technical details, enable "Breakdown Net Price Impact" in the display settings—this shows the price impact stored when you opened the position, the price impact from closing, and how they combine into the net amount.
Funding Fees
There may be positive or negative funding fees while a position is open.
The funding fee rate can be viewed on the interface when making a trade. Note that the rate will change over time based on the balance of longs and shorts.
If you receive positive funding fees for your position, these fees can be claimed by using the "Claim" button in the "Claimable Funding" box of the Trade page.
Adaptive Funding
Funding rates gradually adjust over time based on the long and short ratio.
For example, if the total long open interest is larger than the short open interest then the funding rate that longs pay shorts will gradually increase until the difference between the long and short open interest is below a certain threshold or an upper limit is reached, at which time the funding rate will remain constant.
If in this scenario more shorts are opened or longs are closed such that there are now more shorts than longs then the funding rate that longs pay shorts will gradually decrease until the difference between the long and short open interest is below a certain threshold.
If there remains more shorts than longs then the funding rate will gradually adjust in the other direction such that shorts will pay longs a funding rate that gradually increases until the difference between the long and short open interest is below a certain threshold or an upper limit is reached.
Borrowing Fees
To avoid a scenario where liquidity is fully reserved by a user opening equal long and short positions for a small cost, there is a borrowing fee for open positions. If there are more longs than shorts then longs would pay the borrowing fee, if there are more shorts than longs then shorts would pay the borrowing fee. This borrowing fee also helps to incentivise more liquidity to be added in the event that all liquidity is reserved for positions.
The borrowing fee rate can be viewed on the interface when making a trade. Note that the rate will change over time based on the pool utilization percentage.
Network Fee
There are two transactions involved in opening / closing a position:
User sends the first transaction to request open / close / deposit collateral / withdraw collateral
Keepers observe the blockchain for these requests then execute them
The cost of the second transaction is displayed in the interface as the "Max Network Fee". This network cost is paid to the blockchain network when the order is executed. This cost is overestimated to handle potential increases in gas price. When the order is executed, the excess execution fee is sent back to your account. The amount of overestimation can be configured using the "Settings" menu in the top right corner of the page.
Trading Risks
Caution should be exercised when interacting with any smart contract or blockchain application. While risks are attempted to be mitigated through testing, audits and bug bounties, there is always a risk of vulnerabilities in smart contract code.
A non-exhaustive list of risks:
Smart contract risks
Liquidations
ADLs
Additionally, collateral and profits may be backed by bridged or pegged tokens which may not be guaranteed to maintain peg.
Stablecoin Pricing
In case the price of a stablecoin depegs from 1 USD:
For stablecoin tokens, there may be a spread from the Chainlink price of the stablecoin to 1 USD. If Chainlink Data Stream prices are used then the spread would be from the data stream and may not be to 1 USD.
Arbitraging
If pools are imbalanced for swaps or perps, arbitraging can be done to gain a profit while helping to balance the pools.
Perps
For perps, positive price impact and funding fees can be arbitraged.
For example, if there are more ETH long positions than short positions then there would be a positive price impact to open ETH short positions, this would result in a better entry price than the current market price. The position would also earn funding fees while it remains open.
If in the same scenario, the ETH long positions close such that there are more shorts than longs, then there would be a positive price impact to close the long position, this would result in a better exit price than the current market price.
For markets where the index token is the same as the collateral token, e.g. using ETH collateral in the ETH perp market, delta neutral positions can be opened by using the collateral token to open a short position. Conversely, when arbitraging with long positions, a 1x long position can be opened using a stablecoin as collateral, this would lead to 1x exposure to the index token.
Note that funding will tend towards zero as the long / shorts become balanced, this should be considered when deciding on the position size to open for arbitrage.
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