Aark Research
Technical writing on perpetuals risk mechanics — funding rates, liquidation cascades, oracle latency, and cross-margin decisions. Written for practitioners who already understand the product and want the depth behind it.
Funding rates are the invisible hand that keeps perpetual contracts close to spot. Understanding their mechanics is the first step to not getting squeezed.
When a cascade starts, price and liquidations feed each other. Here's the mechanics — and how Aark's heatmap shows you where the zones are before they trigger.
The margin mode you choose determines how your liquidation price is calculated. Most traders default to cross-margin without knowing what they're exposing.
The price your protocol uses to compute liquidations lags the market — sometimes by milliseconds, sometimes more. Here's why, and why it matters when volatility spikes.
Mark price is smoothed, oracle-sourced, and protocol-specific. Reading it correctly requires understanding what's inside it — and where it diverges from the price on your exchange screen.
Institutional desks don't open a perpetual position without checking six specific data points. This is the condensed version of that checklist.