When trading perpetuals on Grvt, managing your risk is just as important as predicting price movements. Grvt offers two margin modes to help you manage your capital: Cross Margin and Isolated Margin.
This guide explains the differences between the two, when to use them, and how to manage your isolated positions effectively.
1. Cross Margin vs. Isolated Margin
Cross Margin (The "Shared Pool" Approach)
In Cross Margin mode, your entire account balance is used as collateral for all your open positions.
How it works: PnL from profitable positions can offset losses from losing positions.
The Risk: If positions move significantly against you, you risk liquidating your entire cross account balance and positions.
Best for: Hedging, complex portfolio management, or traders who want to avoid liquidation on a specific position by utilizing their full account balance.
Isolated Margin (The "Fenced Off" Approach)
In Isolated Margin mode, the margin assigned to a position is restricted to a specific amount. The rest of your account balance is not exposed to this trade.
How it works: You allocate a specific amount of collateral (e.g., 100 USDT) to a trade.
The Risk: If the trade moves against you, you only lose the isolated position and margin assigned. Your cross balance and other positions will be safe. However, liquidation can happen faster because there is no backup funds from the main wallet unless you manually add more.
Best for: High-leverage speculative trades, testing new strategies, or strict risk management where you want to cap your maximum loss per trade.
2. Trading Guide with Cross and Isolated Margin
Switch Margin Mode
By default, your position is under cross margin mode. Here is how to change it.
⚠️ Important Requirement: You cannot switch Margin Modes (Cross ↔ Isolated) if you currently have open orders or open positions for that specific pair. You must close them first.
Steps:
Make sure you have no open positions or active orders for this pair.
In the order placement panel, click the dropdown that shows Cross or Isolated.
In the Margin Mode dialog, select your desired mode.
Adjust Leverage
Click the leverage value on the order panel.
Select your desired leverage (e.g., 1x–50x).
In Cross Margin, you can increase or decrease leverage with existing positions or open orders.
In Isolated Margin, you can only increase leverage when there are existing positions or open orders; you cannot decrease it.
Note: High leverage increases your liquidation risk.
Manage Positions
On the Positions section, you can see which positions use cross margin and which use isolated margin.
Liquidation Risk
For cross positions, liquidation happens when cross margin ratio reaches 100%
For isolated positions, liquidation happens when isolated margin ratio reaches 100%
Manage Isolated Positions (Adding/Removing Margin)
Once an isolated position is open, you can adjust your risk level (margin ratio) by manually adding or removing collateral.
Navigate to the Positions tab.
Locate the Margin (%) column for the specific position.
Click the Edit (Pencil) Icon next to the margin.
A. To Add Margin (Reduce Risk)
When creating isolated position, system will automatically transfer in Initial Margin amount assigned to the isolated position. You can add more margin to protect the position from liquidation.
Effect: This lowers your effective leverage and pushes the Estimated Liq. Price further away from the current market price.
How: Select the Add Margin tab, enter the amount within Max Addable Margin, and click Confirm.
B: To Remove Margin (Increase Capital Efficiency)
If your trade is in profit and you initially over-collateralized, you can remove margin to use elsewhere.
Effect: This increases your effective leverage and brings the Estimated Liq. Price closer to the current price (increasing risk).
How: Select the Remove Margin tab, enter the amount within Max Removable Margin, and click Confirm.
Manage Account
Available to Trade is your cross margin balance that can be used to open new orders and positions.
Account Equity is the total equity of current trading account, including your cross and isolated balances plus unrealized PnL.
You can manage your cross portfolio under Perp Overview (Cross). When the Cross Margin Ratio reaches 100% (i.e., equity falls below the required maintenance margin), all cross positions will be liquidated along with your cross margin balance.