Bybit Futures Trading Guide

Bybit is a popular platform for trading futures contracts, offering a range of assets to trade, including cryptocurrencies, indices, and commodities.

The platform supports various types of orders, including market orders, limit orders, and stop orders, allowing traders to execute trades quickly and efficiently.

Bybit's order book is highly liquid, with a large number of active traders participating in the market, making it easier to find favorable prices and execute trades.

Bybit offers a range of trading tools, including charts, indicators, and alerts, to help traders make informed decisions and stay on top of market movements.

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Futures contracts are a type of derivatives trading product that allows you to buy or sell an asset like BTC or ETH on a predetermined date and price with an expiry date. This is the traditional way futures contracts work.

Perpetual futures, on the other hand, don't have an expiry date, but they still function similarly to traditional futures contracts. They monitor the cryptocurrency's spot price and trade very close to it.

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Bybit offers both standard and perpetual futures contracts, with the latter being a popular choice among traders due to its flexibility.

Here are some key differences between perpetual and standard futures contracts:

Bybit's perpetual futures contracts share the same margin as their BTCUSD perpetual contracts, making it easier to manage your trading account. This shared margin also means you won't need to worry about funding fees while holding a position.

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Futures are a type of derivatives trading product that allows you to buy or sell an asset like Bitcoin or Ethereum on a predetermined date and price, but with an expiry date.

These contracts are known as standard futures contracts, but exchanges like ByBit offer perpetual futures which don't have an expiry date.

Perpetual futures function the same as traditional future contracts, monitoring the cryptocurrency's spot price and trading very close to it.

The price of a perpetual contract is closely tied to the asset's spot price, making it a reliable way to trade cryptocurrencies.

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When trading futures, it's essential to understand the listing and settlement dates. These dates determine when a contract becomes active and when it expires.

The listing date is when a contract becomes available for trading, and it varies depending on the contract. For example, the BTCUSD0930 contract was listed on March 11, 2022.

The settlement date, on the other hand, is when the contract expires. This date is also contract-specific, with some contracts expiring on the same day, like the BTCUSD0930 and ETHUSD0930 contracts, which expire on September 30, 2022.

Some contracts have later settlement dates, such as the BTCUSD0331 and ETHUSD0331 contracts, which expire on March 31, 2023.

Here are the listing and settlement dates for some contracts:

It's also worth noting that the contract expiry time is 08:00:00 UTC on the settlement date.

Trading futures on ByBit is a straightforward process. First, you need to create an account and deposit funds into your futures trading account.

To get started, you can follow the steps outlined in the ByBit guide, which covers the basics of creating an account and depositing funds.

Once you've deposited funds, you can launch the trading terminal by going to Derivatives > USDT Perpetual or USDC Perpetual, depending on your trading preferences.

You can also select Derivatives > Inverse Contracts if you want to trade with cryptocurrencies that are not stablecoins.

One of the benefits of trading Bybit Inverse Futures is that you can enjoy shared margin with BTCUSD perpetual contracts, which means you can trade across perpetual and futures contracts with a single BTC trading account.

To access the trading terminal, you need to launch it after depositing funds.

You can access the trading terminal by going to Derivatives > USDT Perpetual or USDC Perpetual if you're trading with a stablecoin.

If you want to trade with cryptocurrencies that are not stablecoins, you need to select Derivatives > Inverse Contracts.

To get started with trading futures on ByBit, you first need to create an account. This is a pretty simple process that requires you to deposit funds into your futures trading account.

Once you've deposited funds, you need to launch the trading terminal, which can be accessed by going to Derivatives > USDT Perpetual or USDC Perpetual.

From the trading terminal, select the trading pair you're interested in. You can do this by clicking on the BTC/USDT pair from the top left, which will open up a long list of available trading pairs.

To find your desired trading pair, use the search option, and it will open its chart. This will give you a clear view of the market and help you make informed trading decisions.

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Bybit Futures fees are structured based on your account level, with Non-VIP traders paying 0.06% as the taker fee and 0.01% as the maker fee. VIP 1 level traders pay 0.05% and 0.006% as the taker and maker fees, respectively. Pro 1 level traders pay 0.04% as the taker fee with no maker fees.

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The order cost for Bybit Futures includes the initial margin and fees to open and close positions. For example, Trader A's order cost for a long BTCUSDT position was 5,052.25 USDT. This includes the initial margin of 5,000 USDT and fees to open and close the position.

The order cost calculation takes into account the leverage used. For instance, Trader B's order cost for a long ETHUSD position was 0.20561 ETH, which includes the initial margin and fees to open and close the position.

Here's a breakdown of the order cost components:

Note that the fees to open and close positions must still be paid in the respective settlement assets upon order execution, even if you're using other collateral assets as margin balance in your Unified Trading Account (UTA).

Bybit's unified account borrowing feature allows users to pledge multiple assets as collateral to obtain margin for trading across different products. This means you can use your existing assets to trade multiple contracts.

Users can check for any insurance fund updates on the Bybit platform through the insurance fund interface. This interface allows for queries of the insurance pool, making it easy to stay informed.

A floating loss incurred in a trade will result in a debt being recorded, and interest will be charged hourly, so it's essential to manage your positions carefully.

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Unified Account Borrowing is a game-changer for traders like Alice, who can now pledge multiple assets as collateral to obtain margin for trading across different products.

You can use a unified account to open a USDT-settled BTCUSDT contract position even if you only hold BTC assets.

This means that if a floating loss is incurred, a debt will be recorded and interest will be charged hourly.

With unified account borrowing, you can upgrade your account to a unified account mode, allowing for sharing and cross-utilization of funds across Spot, USDT Perpetual, USDC Perpetual, and Options contracts.

This feature enhances capital efficiency by enabling users to offset profit and losses across different positions, making it easier to manage your trades and minimize losses.

The Insurance Fund Interface is a valuable tool for Bybit users.

This interface allows users to check for any insurance fund updates on the Bybit platform.

The addition of this interface means users can now query the insurance pool with ease.

With this feature, users can stay on top of any changes to the insurance fund and make informed decisions about their trades.

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Bybit's API coverage is quite comprehensive, allowing users to create multiple orders across different products with a single request, like when creating an order with POST /v5/order/create and specifying category=spot/linear/inverse/option.

Bybit supports three primary order placement methods, which is great for users who want flexibility in how they place their trades. Bybit's API coverage includes the ability to create multiple orders across different products with a single request.

Users can specify the category of the order, such as spot, linear, inverse, or option, when creating an order with POST /v5/order/create. This makes it easy to place trades across various products with a single request.

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When placing an order on Bybit futures, you have two main options for specifying the quantity of your trade: Order by Quantity and Order by Value.

The default method is Order by Quantity, where you can input the contract quantity you wish to buy or sell. For example, if you want to buy or sell 1 contract, the quantity is in USD for Inverse contracts.

For USDT and USDC contracts, the quantity is in the respective underlying token, such as MNT for MNTUSDT. This means you need to input the quantity in the correct token.

Order by Value is another option, where you input the position value you wish to open. The system will then reverse-calculate the quantity to be placed, taking into account the minimum order quantity/value requirement.

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Bybit Inverse Futures offers a unique trading experience. You can trade across perpetual and futures contracts with a single BTC trading account.

One of the benefits of Bybit Inverse Futures is that it shares margin with BTCUSD perpetual contracts. This means you can manage your positions more efficiently.

Bybit Inverse Futures also shares an insurance fund with perpetual contracts. This existing fund is built by the BTCUSD perpetual contract and provides an added layer of protection.

One thing to keep in mind is that Bybit Inverse Futures doesn't involve any funding fees. This can help you save money on trading costs.

Here are some key benefits of Bybit Inverse Futures at a glance:

Bybit Futures offers a unified approach to trading with the V5 API, which brings together Spot, Derivatives, and Options in one set of specifications.

This uniformity provides a seamless experience for traders, allowing them to access a wide range of products and features through a single interface.

The V5 API is designed to be efficient, streamlining the trading process and reducing the complexity of navigating multiple platforms.

This means that traders can easily switch between different products and features, without having to learn new systems or interfaces.

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