Order Types & Margin Modes on Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid’s interface looks clean, but behind the order ticket sits a full professional toolkit: several order types, execution algorithms for larger size, time-in-force flags that control how an order rests, and two distinct margin modes. Choosing well affects the price you get, the fees you pay, and how close your liquidation sits to your entry. This guide walks through all of it with concrete examples.

The core order types

These are the building blocks. Everything else is a variation or an automation layered on top.

Market orders

A market order crosses the spread and fills against whatever liquidity is resting on the book. It guarantees execution but not price — in a thin market or during volatility, you may pay meaningful slippage. Market orders are always taker orders, so they pay the higher taker fee. Use them when certainty of execution matters more than a few basis points of price.

Limit orders

A limit order specifies the worst price you will accept and rests on the book until it fills. If it adds liquidity (rests rather than immediately matching) you earn the lower maker fee. Limit orders are the default tool for patient entries and exits. Pair them with the Post-Only flag (below) when you specifically want to guarantee maker treatment.

Stop and take-profit orders

Stops and take-profits are conditional: they sit dormant until the market reaches a trigger price, then convert into a market or limit order. A stop-loss is the single most important risk tool on this list — deciding your exit before you are emotional about it is what keeps a bad trade from becoming a liquidation. Note that stops on Hyperliquid trigger off the mark price, which protects you from being wicked out by a single manipulated print.

Execution tools for larger size

If your order is large relative to the book, dumping it as a single market order moves the price against you. Hyperliquid provides two native tools to spread execution out.

Scale orders

A scale order places multiple limit orders spread evenly across a price range you define — for example, ten buy orders laddered between two prices. This improves your average entry if the market trades through the range and means you are not betting everything on one exact price. It is the manual, price-based way to build or unwind a position.

TWAP orders

A TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) order slices your total size into many small child orders released steadily over a duration you set. Instead of choosing prices, you are choosing to average into the market over time, minimizing market impact. TWAP is the tool of choice when you need to move real size without announcing it to the whole book at once.

Time-in-force flags

Time-in-force controls what happens to the part of a limit order that cannot fill right away. Getting this right is how you control your fee treatment and avoid unwanted resting orders.

Use ALO / Post-Only when your strategy depends on earning the maker rebate and you would rather have an order rejected than accidentally pay the taker fee. Use IOC when you want to sweep available liquidity right now without leaving a resting order behind. For a full breakdown of how maker and taker fees translate into cost, see the fees guide.

Cross margin vs isolated margin

Margin mode is arguably a bigger decision than order type, because it determines how a loss on one position affects the rest of your account.

Cross margin

In cross margin, all your positions share one collateral pool. This is capital-efficient — unrealized profit on one position can support another, and you are less likely to be liquidated by a brief move. The danger is contagion: a catastrophic loss on one position can draw down the equity backing every position, potentially cascading into multiple liquidations.

Isolated margin

In isolated margin, you assign a fixed amount of collateral to a single position. If that trade goes to zero, your loss is capped at the assigned margin and the rest of your account is untouched. The trade-off is that the position has no extra buffer to draw on, so it liquidates sooner than the same position would under cross margin.

Putting it together: a worked example

Suppose you want to build a long position worth more than the top of the book can absorb, then protect it. A disciplined approach might be: use a TWAP over thirty minutes to accumulate the position with minimal impact; place the position in isolated margin so your downside is capped; set a stop-market below structure as a hard risk exit; and add a take-profit limit at your target. Every one of those decisions is a tool from this guide, and together they turn a gut-feel trade into a plan.

Before you trade

Order types and margin modes control your risk and your fills; the referral code controls your cost. They are independent — applying code PERPLIST for a 4% fee discount does not change any of the mechanics above, it just makes every fill cheaper. If you have not set it up yet, do so before your first trade via the referral code page, then come back and trade with a plan.