Documentation Index
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Understanding the terminology used on a perpetual trading platform is essential to managing risk effectively. The table below defines every major term you’ll encounter on Pacifica — from foundational concepts like collateral and funding rates to platform-specific features like Builder Codes, Agent Keys, and the High-Water Mark. Terms are listed alphabetically for quick reference.
A – C
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| ADL (Auto-Deleveraging) | A last-resort liquidation mechanism that automatically and partially closes the positions of opposing profitable traders to cover losses when the liquidation vault cannot absorb them. ADL is only triggered after both initial and backstop liquidation have been exhausted. |
| Agent Key | A delegated API credential that allows a third-party agent or automated strategy to trade on behalf of an account without exposing the account’s primary API key. Permissions can be scoped and revoked independently. |
| API Config Key | A platform-level credential used to authenticate and configure programmatic access to the Pacifica API. Distinct from the Agent Key, it controls account-wide API settings and permissions. |
| Backstop Liquidation | A secondary liquidation step triggered when order book liquidity is insufficient to close a position via market orders. The remaining position and its collateral are transferred to a dedicated liquidation vault, which systematically unwinds the exposure. |
| BBO (Best Bid and Offer) | The highest resting buy order (best bid) and the lowest resting sell order (best offer) in the order book at any given moment. The BBO represents the tightest available spread for immediate execution. |
| Builder Code | A referral or affiliate identifier attached to orders placed through third-party interfaces or bots. Enables the code holder to earn a share of fees generated by activity routed through their integration. |
| Candle (Candlestick) | A chart element summarising price action over a defined time period, showing the opening, closing, high, and low prices. Pacifica’s candlestick charts are powered by TradingView. |
| Collateral | Funds deposited into your account to open and secure trading positions. On Pacifica, collateral is denominated in USDC. |
| Cross Margin | A margin mode in which your entire account balance is shared across all open positions, improving capital efficiency. If one position approaches liquidation, the platform uses available margin from other positions to support it. |
D – F
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| EWMA (Exponentially Weighted Moving Average) | A statistical method that gives more weight to recent data points when calculating an average. Used in risk and volatility models to ensure the most recent market conditions have the greatest influence on outputs. |
| Funding Rate | A periodic fee exchanged between long and short position holders, calculated and applied every hour. The rate is derived from the Premium Index plus a fixed interest rate component and is capped at ±4%. It keeps the perpetual contract price anchored to the underlying spot market. |
H – I
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| High-Water Mark (HWM) | The highest net asset value (NAV) a vault has achieved since inception. Performance fees on a vault are typically charged only on gains above the previous high-water mark, ensuring managers are not rewarded twice for recovering losses. |
| Impact Price | The average execution price calculated for a predefined notional amount by consuming liquidity from one side of the order book. Used alongside the Oracle Price to calculate the Premium Index, which feeds into the hourly funding rate. |
| Initial Margin | The minimum collateral required to open a new position. Calculated as (Position Size × Entry Price) / Leverage. |
| Isolated Margin | A margin mode that allocates a fixed, separate collateral amount to each individual position. If the position is liquidated, only that allocated collateral is at risk — the rest of your account balance is unaffected. |
L – M
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Leverage | A multiplier that allows you to control a position larger than your deposited collateral. Higher leverage amplifies both potential gains and potential losses and reduces the liquidation buffer. |
| Liquidation | The forced closure of a position when its margin falls below the maintenance margin threshold. Pacifica uses a three-tiered process: initial liquidation, backstop liquidation, and ADL. |
| Liquidation Price | The Oracle Price level at which a position will be automatically liquidated. It is calculated from your entry price, leverage, and any additional or withdrawn margin. |
| LP Share | A tokenised representation of a liquidity provider’s proportional ownership in a vault. LP Shares entitle the holder to a corresponding fraction of the vault’s net assets and accrue in value as the vault generates returns. |
| Maintenance Margin | The minimum collateral that must be maintained in an open position to avoid liquidation. Typically set at half of the initial margin requirement. If your margin falls to or below this level, liquidation is triggered. |
| Maker Order | An order that rests on the order book and adds liquidity — typically a limit order that is not immediately matched. Maker orders are charged lower fees than taker orders. |
| Manager Share | A vault operator’s ownership stake in the vault they manage. Manager Shares align incentives by ensuring the vault manager participates in both the gains and drawdowns alongside liquidity providers. |
| Mark Price | See Oracle Price. |
N – O
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| NAV (Net Asset Value) | The total value of a vault’s assets minus its liabilities, typically expressed per share. NAV is the basis for calculating LP Share value, manager performance, and the high-water mark. |
| Oracle Price (Mark Price) | An aggregated reference price calculated from multiple external sources. For liquid assets, Pacifica uses a weighted median from major centralised exchanges; for less liquid assets, a TWAP from decentralised exchanges is used. The Oracle Price governs margin calculations, funding fees, liquidation triggers, and unrealised PnL — making it resistant to manipulation on any single venue. |
P – R
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Perpetual Contract (Perp) | A derivative instrument similar to a futures contract but with no expiry date. Traders can hold long or short positions indefinitely, with funding rates periodically balancing the contract price against the spot market. |
| Portfolio Margin | An advanced margin mode that calculates margin requirements based on the aggregate risk of your entire portfolio, accounting for offsets between correlated positions. This can significantly reduce overall margin requirements for hedged or diversified books. |
| Premium Index | A measure of the deviation between the Impact Price and the Oracle Price. It is the primary input for calculating the funding rate and reflects whether the perpetual contract is trading at a premium or discount relative to spot. |
| Reduce-Only | An order attribute that instructs the platform to fill the order only if it reduces (not increases) the size of an existing position. Useful for closing or partially closing positions without accidentally opening a position in the opposite direction. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| STP (Self-Trade Prevention) | A mechanism that prevents an account’s own buy and sell orders from matching against each other on the order book. STP modes can typically be configured to cancel the resting order, the incoming order, or both. |
T – V
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Taker Order | An order that executes immediately by matching against existing orders in the book, thus removing liquidity. Taker orders are charged higher fees than maker orders. |
| TIF (Time-In-Force) | An instruction specifying how long an order remains active. Common TIF options on Pacifica include Good-Til-Cancelled (GTC), Immediate-or-Cancel (IOC), and Add-Limit-Only (ALO / Post-Only). |
| TP/SL (Take-Profit / Stop-Loss) | Conditional orders attached to an open position. A Take-Profit order closes the position (fully or partially) when price reaches a specified profit level; a Stop-Loss closes it when price moves adversely to a specified level. Both are triggered against the Oracle Price. |
| TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) | A price calculation method that averages an asset’s price over a specified time window, weighting each interval equally. Pacifica uses TWAP-based oracle feeds for less liquid assets to reduce the impact of short-term price volatility. |
| Unified Margin | A cross-asset margining framework in which a single pool of collateral supports positions across multiple markets. This reduces the need to manage separate collateral allocations per market. |
V – W
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Vault | A managed, on-chain pool of capital on Pacifica. Liquidity providers deposit collateral into a vault, which is deployed by a vault manager to generate returns through trading. Vault performance is tracked via NAV, LP Shares, and the High-Water Mark. |
| Withdrawal Controls | Temporary restrictions on collateral withdrawals during periods of extreme market volatility. These controls ensure open positions remain adequately funded and protect overall platform stability. Limits are lifted automatically as conditions normalise. |
Missing a term? Suggest additions by opening a thread in the Pacifica Discord or submitting a pull request to the documentation repository.