# What are Perpetual Futures?

Perpetual futures (“perps”) are contracts that let you go long (bet price goes up) or short (bet price goes down) on an asset without owning the underlying asset directly.

Unlike traditional futures, perps do not have an expiration date. To keep perp prices close to the underlying market price, exchanges use a mechanism called funding (a periodic payment between longs and shorts). 

***Example***

If you open a 5x long on APPL, and APPL moves up 10%, your return is roughly +50% (before fees/funding).

If it moves down 10%, your loss is magnified in the same way.

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