Video: Vest Markets Everything You Need to Know FULL TUTORIAL How To Take Advantage of Perpetuals
Creator: Antonio Russo
Original Video: Watch the original video
Difficulty: Advanced
The Big Idea
Moving from exchange futures to perpetual products requires more than finding an equivalent buy button. You need to understand the position’s point value, notional exposure, margin requirement, ongoing costs, and the separate rules of any evaluation account. A familiar-looking chart can conceal a very different risk calculation.
If you remember one thing: position size determines exposure; the leverage setting does not multiply an already specified position’s dollar P&L a second time.
Separate the Product From the Account Program
The source combines a platform walkthrough, account-plan discussion, and a comparison with futures trading. Those are three separate layers. The perpetual is the trading instrument. The venue supplies its price feed, order handling, and margin system. An evaluation or funded-account program adds contractual targets, loss limits, payout conditions, and other restrictions.
A plan label such as $10,000 does not establish that $10,000 is the amount you can lose. It may describe a nominal balance while the actual permitted drawdown is much smaller. Nor does a displayed profit target prove what can be withdrawn or when. Read the contract for the exact account type rather than inferring those terms from the interface.
The transcript’s prices, discounts, payout speeds, preferred plans, and maximum-leverage figures are time-sensitive promotional observations. This guide does not treat them as current offers or recommend a plan. The durable lesson is how to check the mechanics before deciding whether any particular account suits a trading process.
The Four Numbers Behind Every Position
| Quantity | What it measures | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Units and point value | Dollar change for a specified price move | The amount of collateral required |
| Notional value | Total price exposure | The most you can lose |
| Required margin | Collateral required under venue rules | A safe stop distance or loss budget |
| Planned stop risk | Loss under assumed entry and stop execution | A guarantee against gaps or liquidation |
For an illustrative linear contract with one dollar per point per unit, a quantity of two units gains or loses $2 for each one-point move. At a price of 30,000, the notional is $60,000. A twenty-point adverse move changes P&L by $40 before fees, funding, and execution effects.
If the venue allows 20:1 leverage, simple initial-margin arithmetic gives $3,000 for that exposure. At 40:1 it gives $1,500. The same two units and twenty-point move still imply $40 of price P&L. Actual margin, maintenance requirements, and liquidation calculations can differ from this simplified example.
Correct the Double-Leverage Mistake
The transcript’s explanation risks mixing an amount entered as collateral with the final quantity of the instrument. If you enter more collateral at a chosen leverage, the resulting notional position may grow. But once quantity and contract point value are fixed, multiplying the price P&L by the leverage again counts exposure twice.
Vest’s current margin and sizing documentation, checked October 22, 2026, states that fixed-size dollar P&L does not change with the leverage setting and describes cross margin. It also lists ES/NQ market-unit equivalents. Those specifications belong to that venue; do not copy them to another platform without checking its own contract definitions.
A micro or mini selector is a convenience label, not evidence that the product is a CME contract. Verify the actual dollar-per-point exposure. Compare a tiny permitted test position’s preview with your calculation before relying on a familiar label.
Worked Example: Size From the Stop, Then Check Margin
Suppose your chosen price-risk budget is $100, your planned stop is twenty-five points away, and the contract pays $1 per point per unit. Ignoring costs initially, quantity is $100 ÷ (25 × $1) = four units. At an index price of 30,000, notional is $120,000.
At an illustrative 40:1 initial-margin ratio, that exposure would require $3,000. The calculation does not say you should use 40:1 or that $3,000 is an adequate account cushion. It only connects the assumed ratio with the chosen position. Maintenance margin, other open positions, and program limits can make the trade unacceptable.
If you reserve $20 for expected costs and adverse execution within the same $100 budget, only $80 remains for price risk. The raw quantity becomes 3.2 units, subject to the venue’s increments and minimums. Round down to a permitted size and recalculate rather than rounding up to recover the original target.
Funding and Fees Belong in the Holding Plan
A perpetual may have no scheduled expiration, but holding it is not necessarily free. Funding can transfer money between longs and shorts, while trading fees and spreads affect entry and exit. Vest’s funding documentation distinguishes funding from exchange fees. Check the applicable market and settlement rules rather than assuming one fixed overnight cost.
For an invented cost example, a 0.0025% fee on $120,000 notional is $3 per side, or about $6 for entry and exit at unchanged notional. It is not $3 on the collateral. Funding of 0.01% over a specified holding interval would be another $12 if payable on that notional. These are separate hypothetical inputs, not a current quote or an estimate for every venue.
Fee notation deserves care: 0.0025% equals 0.000025 as a decimal. Confusing percent with decimal notation changes the answer by a factor of one hundred. Write out the multiplication at least once before storing a shortcut in a sizing preset.
Account Breach and Liquidation Are Different Events
An evaluation account can fail its contractual daily or overall loss rule before the market position reaches a venue liquidation threshold. Conversely, a planned stop does not guarantee protection from liquidation if available margin is inadequate or execution is interrupted.
Build a rule sheet for the exact account: daily reset time and timezone, whether unrealized P&L counts, whether fees and funding count, static versus trailing drawdown, open-position treatment, and what happens at a breach. Do not generalize the source’s hard-breach discussion to every non-futures program.
Cross margin can also link multiple positions through shared collateral. Two trades that look individually small may collectively reduce the buffer. Calculate total exposure and correlated downside, not just the risk number beside the newest order.
A Reference Chart Is Not the Execution Feed
The source discusses analyzing a futures chart while executing a perpetual. Similar direction does not imply identical levels. Basis differences, venue-specific liquidity, spreads, trading pauses, and mark-price rules can separate the prices. An NQ level is not automatically an executable trigger at the same number on a different product.
Record the analysis symbol, execution symbol, observed price difference, and order trigger basis. Confirm whether stops respond to last, mark, or another reference price. A displayed slippage estimate is not an unconditional maximum loss or a guaranteed fill. A limit order controls its price condition but may remain unfilled.
Practice and Research
- Point-value exercise: choose the smallest permitted quantity, calculate P&L for a one-point and ten-point move, and compare it with the platform preview. Resolve any mismatch before increasing size.
- Leverage comparison: hold final quantity constant while changing the leverage setting in a practice environment. Record margin changes separately from price P&L.
- Breach scenario: calculate a combined adverse move across all positions, then add fees, funding, and a slippage allowance. Compare the total with both account loss limits and margin buffers.
Keep the account contract and market specifications beside the worksheet. Repeat the calculation after changing account type, market, or venue; matching interface labels do not establish matching terms.
Check Your Understanding
Two units pay $1 per point each. What does a twenty-point adverse move cost? $40 before costs, regardless of the leverage setting if quantity remains two units.
Does a $10,000 plan imply a $10,000 loss allowance? No. The permitted drawdown is a separate contractual number.
Why check two prices? The analysis chart and execution product may trade differently; use the execution venue’s actual order rules and prices.
Final Takeaway
Calculate point exposure first, planned loss second, and margin and account-rule compliance third. A familiar chart or convenient sizing preset cannot replace those checks.
Risk Disclosure
This material is for education and research, not personalized financial advice or a recommendation to trade any security, contract, or account program. Trading can result in substantial losses. Leveraged products can produce losses beyond the amount initially committed, and short selling can involve unlimited loss. Options carry exercise, assignment, liquidity, and expiration risks. Stops and displayed prices do not guarantee execution; gaps, spreads, slippage, fees, funding, halts, and platform interruptions can materially change outcomes. Hypothetical examples, historical charts, indicators, and creator-reported results do not establish future performance. Understand the instrument, account rules, and total exposure, practice before committing capital, and use only risk capital you can afford to lose.
CandleChasers provides independent educational analysis and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the source creator, platforms, or firms discussed.