What are you practicing?
A perpetual future, often called a perp, is a derivative contract with no scheduled expiry. Its value follows an underlying market; holding a contract does not give you ownership of the underlying coin, stock, or commodity. Funding helps connect perpetual prices to the underlying market. You will practice that mechanism alongside price changes.
A long position gains from a price rise and loses from a fall, before costs. A short does the reverse. In paper trading, those gains and losses change a virtual balance. You cannot withdraw them.
1. Choose one market and write a practice plan
Pick an available market in Gobi and decide what you want to understand: order entry, price movement, or holding costs. Record the market, direction, intended position size, and the condition under which you will close. These are learning inputs, not a recommendation to buy or short an asset.
For a first session, practice one position at a time. It is easier to explain a balance change when several trades are not moving together. Check whether another position or pending order is already using your practice balance.
2. Separate margin, exposure, and costs
Margin is the collateral backing a position. Exposure, also called notional value, is the full position value affected by price moves. At entry, $200 of virtual margin at 5× leverage corresponds to about $1,000 of exposure, before fees and rounding.
A worked practice example
Suppose you open a $1,000 virtual long. A 2% rise produces about $20 of price profit; a 2% fall produces about $20 of price loss. Relative to $200 of margin, that is 10% in either direction, before fees and funding. These are invented round numbers for learning, not current prices or a suggested trade.
Read the estimated fee, funding information, margin mode, and liquidation estimate before continuing. Fees generally apply to the traded value, not just your margin. The available leverage and margin modes vary by market. See how margin and liquidation work.
3. Review and place the virtual order
Gobi’s ticket offers Market and Limit orders. A market order seeks an immediate fill at available prices. A limit order specifies a price and can remain unfilled. The price you saw before submitting is not a promise of the eventual fill.
Check the review screen and confirm only when its market, direction, amount, and costs match your practice plan. The first practice trade walkthrough follows the actual ticket controls.
4. Observe, close, and explain what happened
Open the position to compare entry price, current mark price, and P&L. Check fees and funding separately. When your planned exercise ends, use the position’s exit control and review the closed result. An unfilled order is not an open position.
- Did the order fill where you expected?
- How much of the result came from price, fees, and funding?
- Did the price move toward the liquidation estimate?
- Did you follow your exit plan? What would you change in the next exercise?
Use Ask Gobi to help explain a term or a position. Keep a short note of your own reasoning so you can compare sessions.
What paper trading cannot prove
Live prices make the exercise useful, but simulated execution cannot reproduce every real order-book condition, outage, or liquidity constraint. Virtual losses also feel different from losing money you need. A profitable practice run does not establish that a strategy will work with real funds.
Further reading on the underlying mechanics: Hyperliquid’s funding documentation and Hyperliquid’s liquidation documentation. Those describe a real venue; Gobi’s practice trades remain simulated.
Adapted from Gobi’s in-app lessons and practice flows. Examples are educational and use virtual funds. They are not investment advice or forecasts.