Glossary

Terms are alphabetical. Where two are commonly confused, the entry says so.

Account equity

The total value of your futures account at the exchange: cash balance plus the unrealised profit or loss on open positions. Position sizes are computed from it, so it moves with the market even when you have not deposited or traded.

Available balance

The cash portion of your account not committed as margin. On Bitget this excludes unrealised profit and loss, which is why it can differ a lot from account equity on a book with open positions. The definition varies by venue.

Consolidated target

The book the system is aiming at on a given day: the sum of every active mini-portfolio, after per-symbol caps and any regime scaling. Orders are the difference between it and what you hold, never the target itself.

Drawdown

The decline from a previous peak, as a percentage. A maximum drawdown is the worst such decline over a period, and worth reading alongside any return figure.

Exchange margin leverage

The integer value sent to the exchange to set margin requirements on a symbol. Exchanges only accept whole numbers, so it is your sizing leverage rounded up, then capped at the exchange’s maximum for that symbol.

This is not your leverage setting

The two can differ in either direction. Rounding up makes the margin value higher: 1.75 becomes 2. A venue’s per-symbol cap can make it lower, where that cap sits below your setting, which is rare. Either way it changes the margin the venue requires, not how large a position the system builds. Position size always comes from the sizing leverage.

Exposure

The market value of positions, stated in four ways:

• Long exposure, the total value of long positions.
• Short exposure, the total value of short positions.
• Gross exposure, long plus short. Total market risk carried.
• Net exposure, long minus short. How directional the book is. On a market-neutral book it sits near zero, and a near-zero net beside a large gross is the intended state rather than a fault.

Flip

A rebalance that reverses a position’s direction in one instruction. One of the actions listed against an order, alongside open, increase, decrease, and close.

Funding rate

A periodic payment exchanged between long and short holders of a perpetual future, typically every few hours, which keeps its price tethered to spot. Positive rate, longs pay shorts; negative, shorts pay longs. It is a real cost or credit separate from price movement, and it settles into your cash balance rather than into unrealised P&L.

Gross leverage

Gross exposure divided by account equity. If a $10,000 account holds $10,000 of longs and $10,000 of shorts, gross leverage is 2x. It is what the plan’s leveraged-capital cap is written against.

Held order

An adjustment the system computed but deliberately did not send, most often because it fell below the exchange’s minimum order size or one tradable unit.

A held order is not queued for later: with a stable target and price, an adjustment that is too small stays too small. The guarantee is a bound, not a promise: your exposure in that name stays within one exchange unit of target. See Orders that were held.

Leverage multiplier (sizing leverage)

Your leverage setting: the multiplier applied to account equity to get the buying power positions are sized against. Equity of $10,000 at 2x gives $20,000, split across the book.

It can be fractional, in quarter steps, so 1.25 and 1.75 are valid settings. It is a pure sizing calculation on our side and is not the same as exchange margin leverage.

Lot size / quantity step

The increment every order size must be a multiple of. A step of 1 means the market trades only in whole units.

Combined with the venue’s minimum order value, this sets the true smallest order possible in that market, often higher than the headline minimum, and it is the usual reason an adjustment ends up held.

Margin

The collateral the exchange sets aside against an open position, sized from the position and the exchange margin leverage on that symbol. Margin is committed rather than spent: it returns to your available balance when the position closes.

Market-neutral

A portfolio built to hold long and short positions of roughly equal value, so broad market moves largely cancel and what remains is the longs’ performance against the shorts’. Neutral refers to market direction only: it does not mean low risk, or that the book cannot lose.

Mini-portfolio

A single day’s target book: the positions and weights the model wanted on that date. Several are active at once and sum into the consolidated target, so what you hold blends several days’ signals rather than only the latest. Older layers retire on a schedule.

Notional

The market value of a position or order, in dollars, before leverage. Buying 0.5 of an asset priced at $200 is a $100 notional order. Exchange minimums are expressed in notional, which is why the same quantity can be placeable on one asset and refused on another.

Perpetual futures

A futures contract with no expiry date, the standard instrument for leveraged crypto trading. Because it never settles, its price is kept close to spot by the funding rate. All AlphaHouse trading is in perpetuals.

Position mode

An exchange account setting controlling whether you can hold a long and a short in the same symbol at once. One-way mode allows one position per symbol; hedge mode allows both.

AlphaHouse requires one-way mode, because hedge mode makes a symbol’s target ambiguous: two opposing positions could satisfy the same net target. Most exchanges refuse the change while positions are open.

Rebalance

The scheduled run in which the system recomputes the consolidated target, compares it against what you hold, and places the difference. Nothing trades between runs, and an order goes out only when the gap is worth trading and large enough for the exchange to accept.

Reduce-only

An order flag telling the exchange the order may only shrink or close an existing position, never open or enlarge one. Used on exits so execution cannot accidentally open a position in the opposite direction.

Regime scaling

A risk control that reduces the whole book’s gross exposure, to roughly half, when our risk rules classify the market as unfavourable, and restores it when conditions change. It applies to the book at once rather than to individual names, hence the uniform halving. See Regime scaling.

Sizing leverage

See Leverage multiplier. The number that determines position size, and the one your leverage slider sets.

Tier and leveraged capital cap

Each plan caps leveraged capital, account equity multiplied by your sizing leverage. It limits the size of book you may run, not how much you may deposit.

If growth in equity or leverage pushes you past the cap on a sustained basis, we move you to the plan that covers it, with at least 14 days’ notice and effective no earlier than your next renewal. Your leverage setting is not changed. See Plan limits.

Unrealised P&L

The profit or loss on positions you still hold, from each position’s entry price to the current mark price. It becomes realised when the position closes.

It is a level, measured from whenever each position was opened, not a change over a window. That is why open P&L can read positive on a day your equity chart is down, with both figures correct. The app spells it “unrealized”.