Open a position

Overview

Opening a position on Atomic is a single signed transaction. Margin comes from your wallet at the moment of execution; the protocol borrows the leveraged portion from the lending pool and routes the swap through a DEX aggregator.

The order panel

Before you sign, the panel shows:

• Entry price - current best fill from KyberSwap/0x routing.
• Position size - margin × leverage.
• Liquidation price - the price at which the 88% threshold triggers. See Liquidations.
• Fee - 10 bps of position size, deducted at open.
• Max slippage - your acceptable spread between quoted and filled price.

If any number looks wrong, do not sign. The panel is the last stop before on-chain execution.

Step by step (UI)

1. Pick a market from the list at the top of the trading view.
2. Select side - Long if you expect the price to rise, Short if you expect it to fall.
3. Enter margin in USDC.e.
4. Set leverage with the slider (1x–20x; per-market limits apply, see Trading pairs).
5. Review entry price, liquidation price, and total fee.
6. Approve the asset if it's your first time trading this market (one-time ERC-20 approval).
7. Click Buy / Sell and sign the transaction.

The position appears in Open Positions as soon as the transaction confirms - typically within a second on Arbitrum.

Order types

Atomic supports three order types. All entry and exit happens at market; TP/SL are conditional automation layered on top of an open position.

Type	When it fires	Fee
Market	Immediately, at the current aggregator price.	10 bps
Take Profit	Auto-closes when the price reaches your target.	10 bps (close fee)
Stop Loss	Auto-closes when the price reaches your max acceptable loss.	10 bps (close fee)

Setting, editing, or cancelling Take Profit / Stop Loss is free - no fee until the trigger actually fires.

Setting Take Profit and Stop Loss

1. In Open Positions, click Edit on the live trade.
2. Enter target prices for TP and/or SL.
3. Sign the transaction (these are stored on-chain; no off-chain trust).
4. The keeper network monitors the position and closes it when either price is hit.

You can update both targets at any time, or remove them entirely. Editing is gas-only - no protocol fee.

What's happening on-chain

On signing the open transaction:

1. Margin USDC.e is pulled from your wallet.
2. The lending pool lends margin × (leverage − 1) to the protocol.
3. The combined notional is swapped via aggregator into the long/short asset.
4. Position state - entry, liquidation threshold, borrowed amount - is written against your address.

Closing reverses every step in a single transaction: aggregator unwind → pool repayment → residual margin to your wallet. PnL is realized atomically; nothing is held overnight in any vault.

Common mistakes at open

• Ignoring the liquidation price. If it sits inside the day's normal range, the trade is too aggressive. Lower the leverage.
• Skipping max slippage. Default is 30 bps. On illiquid markets or during volatility, increase it - or accept that the order may fail.
• Approving infinite spend. First-time approvals can be set to "exact amount" instead of "infinite" - slightly more gas later, much smaller blast radius if the wallet is compromised.