The Hyperliquid Trading Screen, Explained Like a Map
The first time you open the Hyperliquid trading screen, three or four panels are competing for your attention at once. This article is a map, not a tutorial — it tells you what each region does so you can decide where to look first, and which controls to leave alone for now.
What You're Looking At When You Open the Screen
Open app.hyperliquid.xyz, log in to your wallet, and the screen splits into four regions. Memorise these four before you click anything — they will be the same on every market, every day:
Chart — top-left, the biggest panel. Price over time, with timeframe and indicator controls.
Order book — to the right of the chart. Live list of bids and asks, with the mark price in the middle.
Order ticket — far right. Where every actual trade is placed.
Tray — bottom strip. Your positions, open limit orders, and history.
The Order Book and the Depth Chart, Side by Side
Reading the book: bids below, asks above, mark in the middle
The order book is a live list. Red rows at the top are sellers — asks — at progressively higher prices. Green rows at the bottom are buyers — bids — at progressively lower prices. The thin row between them, usually cyan, is the mark price: the platform's official live price for this market.
An optional depth-chart toggle shows the same information as a mountain-shaped graph. The mountain's slope at any point tells you how much liquidity sits at that price. Cliffs in the slope are where price often pauses.
Why the mark price comes from outside this exchange
Most CEXs derive their internal mark from their own order book. Hyperliquid does not. It derives the mark from a median of external CEX prices, so a single-exchange wick on another platform does not push Hyperliquid traders into liquidation. The exact formula is in the Mark Price page of the official docs.
The Order Ticket: Buy/Long, Sell/Short, and the One Slider That Matters
The right-hand panel is where every trade is placed. There are six controls. Read them top to bottom, one decision per row:
Market vs Limit, on the ticket itself
Two tabs at the top of the ticket let you choose Market (fill now at the best available price) or Limit (post a price and wait). Article 4 walks the decision tree; here we just note that the choice lives on the ticket, two clicks away.
Leverage slider: choose a number, see the liquidation distance change
The leverage slider runs from 1× up to a per-asset maximum. Higher leverage shortens the distance between your entry and your liquidation price. Article 5 covers the trade-off in detail. For your first session: leave the slider low.
Advanced controls — do not touch yet
Below the basic ticket sits a strip of advanced order types: TWAP, IOC/FOK, stop-limit, trailing, reduce-only. They are useful soon — and a fast way to lose money on day one. Treat them as a "later" panel until you are comfortable with the basics.
Your Open Position: Where Your Liquidation Price Lives
The moment your trade fills, a row appears in the bottom tray under Positions. That row is the most important thing on the screen for the next minutes / hours / days.
Entry, size, live PnL, liquidation price — column by column
Each column has a single job:
Entry — the average price at which your position opened.
Size — how much asset you currently hold (positive = long, negative = short).
Live PnL — current valuation against mark. Real, but not yet realized.
Liquidation price — if mark price reaches this value, the position closes automatically.
Margin mode — Cross or Isolated, see article 5.
Funding — your current funding accrual this hour.
Open Orders vs Positions — two tabs, two different things
Limit orders that have not yet matched appear under Open Orders, not Positions. A common beginner mistake is to assume an order filled because the tab was already showing a previous trade. Always check the correct tab.
Your First-Session Checklist
Six checks. Each costs ~10 seconds. They are the product of this article.
Where to Go Next
Educational content. Not investment advice. Trading perpetual futures involves risk of loss, including the full position.
Further Reading
Hyperliquid in 6 Minutes: The Trader's Cheat Sheet from CEX to On-Chain Perps
If you can read a Binance order book, you can already trade on Hyperliquid — but the account underneath looks nothing like one. Here is what changes, and what to check first.
Leverage on Hyperliquid: How Far Are You From Liquidation, Really?
Higher leverage shortens your distance to liquidation. Here is how Cross and Isolated margin behave on Hyperliquid, what the margin ratio actually measures, and when to dial leverage back.
Market vs Limit Orders on Hyperliquid: Which One You Click First
Market orders execute instantly at the best available price. Limit orders give you exact price control and lower fees. Here is how to choose on Hyperliquid, with a beginner-safe default.