BULK Exchange Trading Guide: Everything You Need to Trade Perpetuals on Mainnet

BULK Exchange is a decentralized perpetuals exchange with CEX-grade execution. This guide covers everything needed to trade on mainnet — account setup, order types, margin mechanics, fee optimization, and risk management.

For testnet setup (before mainnet), read the testnet guide first.

Account Setup

Connect Your Wallet

Go to early.bulk.trade (testnet) or the mainnet URL when live. Connect Phantom, Backpack, or Solflare.

Your connected wallet becomes your master account — the root identity for all activity on the platform.

Also connect your Twitter/X account. This registers your on-chain identity for ecosystem rewards and Aura points.

Deposit Funds (Mainnet)

BULK Exchange settles on Solana. Deposits and withdrawals are Solana transactions. Supported collateral: USDC (primary), with expansion expected post-launch.

Deposits process through per-user program-derived accounts (PDAs) on Solana — your funds are always on-chain, never in BULK’s custody.

Withdrawals require a FROST threshold signature from the validator set, ensuring no single entity can move funds unilaterally.

Create Sub-Accounts

Up to 64 sub-accounts per master wallet. Each sub-account:

• Has independent positions, margin, and PnL
• Shares volume with master for fee tier calculation
• Can be assigned a different leverage setting and strategy
• Transfers to/from master are gasless and instant

Create sub-accounts via: Account Settings → Create Sub-Account → Name it (alphanumeric, up to 32 characters).

Use case: Run a trend-following strategy in sub-account 1, a market-neutral hedged position in sub-account 2, and isolated high-leverage trades in sub-account 3. Volume aggregates across all accounts for fee tier purposes.

Markets Available

BULK Exchange launches with: BTC, ETH, SOL, DOGE, SUI, BNB, XRP, FARTCOIN, GOLD, ZEC perpetuals.

Maximum leverage varies by asset (up to 100x on BTC/ETH).

BIP-1 permissionless perpetuals will expand this list to any asset with a Pyth oracle — coming post-mainnet.

Order Types

Market Order

Executes immediately at best available price. Fills as taker. Fastest execution; price slippage risk on thin books.

Limit GTC (Good Till Cancelled)

Rests on the book at your specified price until filled or cancelled. Fills as maker when resting, taker when crossing. Most common order type for active traders.

IOC (Immediate or Cancel)

Fill immediately at the specified price or cancel the unfilled portion. No resting on book.

ALO (Add Liquidity Only / Post-Only)

Guaranteed maker execution or no fill. If the order would immediately cross the book (execute as taker), it’s cancelled entirely. Use this when you want to guarantee maker fee rates.

Fee implications: ALO orders are in the structural priority queue above regular orders (Layer 3 of the fair ordering system). Maker orders seed the book before any regular order can interact with it.

Conditional Orders

Conditional orders activate automatically when mark price reaches a trigger level. They run off-exchange until triggered, then submit to the order book.

Stop-Loss (SL)

Reduce-only market order triggered at mark price. Closes the position to limit losses. Example: Long BTC at $65,000, stop-loss at $62,000. If mark price reaches $62,000, the position closes.

Take-Profit (TP)

Reduce-only order triggered at mark price. Closes position when profit target reached. Usually set as a limit order at your target price.

Range Orders (OCO — One-Cancels-Other)

Set both a stop-loss and a take-profit on the same position. Whichever trigger price is reached first executes; the other cancels automatically.

Trailing Stop

Stop-loss that moves with price in your favor. Set in basis points from current price. Example: trailing stop of 200 bps — if you’re long and price moves up, the stop moves up with it. If price reverses 200 bps from its high, the position closes.

On-Fill Orders

An order that only becomes active after a parent order fills. Use case: you want to buy BTC and immediately have both a stop-loss and take-profit in place. Set an on-fill stop-loss attached to the buy order — it activates the moment the buy fills.

Margin Mechanics

Portfolio Margin (Default)

Your entire account is evaluated as a single risk unit. Positions that are correlated (long BTC + long ETH) share risk. Positions that hedge each other (long BTC + short ETH at ~0.85 correlation) receive a margin efficiency discount.

Documented claim: Up to 70% margin efficiency on hedged portfolios vs. per-position margin.

The underlying model: a 9-regime Hidden Markov Model (Bearish/Neutral/Bullish × Low/Medium/High volatility). Margin requirements are continuous — no cliff edges when crossing tier boundaries.

Sub-account margin: Each sub-account runs an independent portfolio margin evaluation. A loss in sub-account 3 doesn’t affect the margin in sub-account 1.

Isolated Margin

Set i=true on any order to route it to a per-instrument isolated margin account. The isolated account is automatically created on first use.

Isolated positions are ring-fenced: if the isolated position is liquidated, it doesn’t affect your main portfolio margin or other sub-accounts.

Use isolated margin when you want to cap risk on a specific position — you define the exact maximum loss by how much you deposit in the isolated account.

Leverage

BULK Exchange supports up to 100x leverage on major markets.

How leverage works with portfolio margin:

Portfolio margin calculates effective notional based on correlation-adjusted positions. High leverage on a hedged pair uses less effective notional than high leverage on a unidirectional position.

Example: 10x long BTC + 10x short ETH at 0.85 correlation. Portfolio margin treats this as lower effective leverage than 10x long BTC alone, because the short ETH partially offsets the BTC risk.

Use the margin calculator to model specific scenarios before committing capital.

Fee Optimization

Genesis Phase (first 30 days of mainnet): 0 bps maker fees across all tiers. Trade as maker (ALO orders, limit orders that rest) and pay zero fees on filled trades.

Post-Genesis tiers: Volume tiers based on 14-day rolling window. All sub-accounts aggregate under your master wallet for tier calculation.

Maker vs. taker economics:

The aggressive efficiency play: During Genesis, route as much flow as possible through ALO orders. At zero maker fees, you capture the spread instead of paying it.

Liquidations: How BULK Protects You

BULK’s liquidation optimizer does something most exchanges don’t: it tries to preserve your hedges.

Standard liquidation (most exchanges): Close the worst-performing positions first. This can cascade — closing a hedge destroys your remaining margin.

BULK’s optimizer: Identifies which positions actually improve your portfolio margin when closed. Positions that provide hedging benefit (closing them would NOT reduce margin) are skipped. The optimizer closes only positions where the margin benefit per liquidation cost is highest.

Liquidation triggers when: equity < portfolio maintenance margin AND position PnL < 0.

Read the full liquidation guide for the step-by-step mechanics.

Reading the Interface

Mark Price: The price used for margin calculations and liquidation triggers. This is a composite price derived from multiple oracle sources, not just the last traded price.

Last Price: The most recent trade price on the BULK Exchange order book.

Funding Rate: The periodic payment between longs and shorts to keep perpetual prices tethered to spot. Positive funding = longs pay shorts. Negative funding = shorts pay longs.

Order Book: Live bids (buy orders, green) and asks (sell orders, red) with price and quantity.

Risk Management Checklist

Before opening any leveraged position on BULK Exchange mainnet:

• Understand the portfolio margin requirement — use the live calculator
• Set a stop-loss immediately at order entry (use On-Fill orders)
• Know your liquidation price
• Check the current funding rate — if you’re holding overnight, funding matters
• Size positions to allow for drawdowns before your stop-loss triggers
• Understand how a correlated position affects your overall portfolio margin

Start trading on BULK Exchange → early.bulk.trade

Last updated: June 2, 2026