Nov 2026 Bybit Referral Code BTC9149 | Perpetual Order Panel | 58% Off

1. First, the order panel is not a form, it is eight decisions
2. Box one: margin mode, position mode, and leverage
3. Box two: order types — limit, market, conditional
4. ⭐ Box three: which price triggers the order — the one that matters most
5. ⭐ Box four: TIF execution strategy and Post-Only
6. ⭐ Box five: price limits and slippage thresholds, where the system rewrites your order
7. Box six: order size units — coins, contracts, notional value
8. Box seven: when to attach TP/SL to the order
9. Box eight: the final check before you submit
10. About the Bybit referral code BTC9149
11. FAQ
12. Risk reminder

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First, the order panel is not a form, it is eight decisions

On spot, the order panel has two things that really matter: how much to buy, and what you pay. The contract panel makes you answer eight questions at once:

1. Which margin mode backs this trade (isolated, cross, portfolio)?
2. Can you hold long and short at the same time (one-way or hedge)?
3. How much leverage?
4. Which order type (market, limit, conditional)?
5. Which price acts as the trigger for a conditional order?
6. How long should the order stay in the market (TIF)?
7. How much size, and in which unit?
8. Do you attach take-profit and stop-loss right now?

Bybit supplies a default for every one of these, and a default is the platform making the choice for you. The official docs are explicit: in one-way mode, default orders use cross margin with 10x leverage. Read that twice — it means the moment you submit, your entire account balance backs that position and your leverage is half of what the platform allows. That is not necessarily wrong, but it should be a decision you made.

What matters more: none of these eight boxes raises an error message. Nothing stops you from ordering, nothing warns you that a setting does not fit your trade. The values just flow into your liquidation price, your funding cost, and your fill price — and a few hours or days later, a number tells you the answer.

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Box one: margin mode, position mode, and leverage

These three sit in the top row of the order panel and are the most commonly skipped. The official guide groups them together because they interact.

Margin mode: three options, and they decide how your money is ring-fenced

Bybit supports isolated, cross, and portfolio margin.

• Isolated: losses on this position only touch the margin you allocated to it. If it goes to zero, nothing else in the account is affected. This is the safest choice for a first contract position.
• Cross: positions in the same trading pair share the account's available balance as margin. No manual rebalancing, but one blown position drags the whole balance down with it.
• Portfolio Margin: risk is calculated across the whole account, with the most complex rule set.

One detail that gets misread: the official docs state that on a standard account, margin mode can be changed at any time as long as available balance meets the margin requirement — regardless of open orders or open positions. Inside the Unified Trading Account (UTA), it can only be changed once certain conditions are met. The rule differs between the two environments, which is why the same person behaves inconsistently across both.

Position mode: one-way vs hedge, and a hard limit on switching

The docs put it plainly: you cannot switch between one-way and hedge mode while you hold a position or have an open order. You have to close everything and clear open orders first.

If you have not registered yet, enter referral code BTC9149 on the signup form: https://partner.bybit.com/b/BTC9149 (a 33% fee discount, and up to 58% with MNT fee deduction enabled). Getting these three settings right first stops you being stuck mid-operation later.

And hedge mode is not available everywhere: the docs note that only USDT perpetual and expiry contracts support hedge mode, and only then do "Open" and "Close" tabs appear on the trading page. In one-way mode you can hold a single direction, and an order in the opposite direction reduces or closes your existing position — this is the single most common cause of "I only meant to add, and my position disappeared."

Leverage: you do not pick how much you get

Your maximum leverage depends on your risk limit tier, and the tier is set by position size. The same BTCUSDT may allow 20x for a small position and only 10x for a large one. After you change leverage, both the initial margin and the maintenance margin required by that position shift — and so does the liquidation price. Most traders do not register this at the moment they tap the button.

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Box two: order types — limit, market, conditional

The order type decides how your order enters the market, and therefore whether you pay the taker fee or the maker fee.

Type	How it executes	Cost	Risk
Limit	You set the highest bid or lowest ask you accept; it does not fill until price arrives	Filled as maker = maker fee; filled immediately = taker fee	May be delayed, partially filled, or never filled
Market	Executes immediately at the best price available from the order book	Always the taker fee	No price control, so slippage; large size moves the market
Conditional	A market or limit order is placed only once the condition is met	Depends on which type gets triggered	A gap sits between trigger price and fill price

Here is a question new traders ask constantly: "I placed a limit order, why did it fill as a taker?" The official FAQ gives a simple answer: a buy order priced above the current best ask matches immediately, and a sell order priced below the current best bid matches immediately. That is market mechanics, not a glitch. If your intent is to rest on the book, turn on Post-Only (covered in the next section).

Cost belongs in the same frame: taker and maker fees sit in different tiers, and the discount you lock in at signup changes what every order actually costs you. Sign up via https://partner.bybit.com/b/BTC9149 with referral code BTC9149 for a 33% fee discount, stacking to up to 58% with MNT fee deduction enabled.

One mechanism is easy to miss: Bybit's matching engine converts market orders into limit orders to shield you from severe slippage. If the converted price deviates from the last traded price beyond the slippage threshold, the market order is canceled outright — not filled at the worse price, never entered at all. The threshold currently sits at 3% for BTC contracts and 5% for others. So in violent conditions you can tap a market order, have nothing happen, and see only a canceled order on screen.

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⭐ Box three: which price triggers the order — the one that matters most

This box is the one other Bybit contract articles leave untouched, and it is where beginners most often get hurt. A conditional order on Bybit can be triggered by any of three prices: last traded price (LTP), mark price, or index price. These are not the same number, and in a fast market the gap between them can be large.

Trigger basis	Upside	Downside
Last traded price (default)	Uses the platform's last traded price, so it estimates the eventual fill price most accurately	On a stop-loss, it may not trigger before liquidation, because liquidation is computed from the mark price
Mark price	Recommended for stop-loss orders, because it helps ensure the stop triggers before liquidation	Execution still happens at the then-current last traded price, so a wide gap produces slippage
Index price	Aggregates prices from multiple spot exchanges, avoiding false triggers caused by one venue's price anomaly	Can lag the real market in fast conditions, delaying the trigger and causing you to miss the moment

Translated into practice, the rule worth remembering is simple: triggering a stop-loss off the last traded price is the most common reason a stop loss "didn't work." Your liquidation line is driven by the mark price, but the stop is triggered by the last traded price. During a wick, the mark price can push through your liquidation price and your position gets force-closed while the stop order has never fired at all.

So the practical pairing is: trigger stops off the mark price, trigger take-profits off the last traded price. The first needs "guaranteed exit," the second needs "close to the price I expected." If you attach both on one order panel, note that the trigger basis can be chosen separately for each.

One distinction that must stay clear: triggering is not filling. Triggering is the system confirming price reached your threshold; filling is the system verifying margin and order parameters still hold at that moment and completing the trade. Market conditions can change in between, and that gap is slippage. The docs also warn that take-profit and stop-loss orders are not guaranteed to execute at the exact price you set.

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⭐ Box four: TIF execution strategy and Post-Only

TIF (Time in Force) answers one question: how long should this order stay alive? Bybit offers three, with GTC as the default.

Strategy	Behavior	When to use it
GTC Good till canceled	Stays on the book until fully filled or manually canceled	Waiting for a specific price with no time limit (default)
IOC Immediate or cancel	Fills immediately at the limit price or better; whatever does not fill is canceled	Accepting a partial fill, but not wanting leftover size resting outside
FOK Fill or kill	Must fill entirely and immediately, otherwise the whole order is canceled; partial fills are not allowed	All or nothing

The most common misunderstanding: assuming GTC means your order is guaranteed to fill eventually. GTC only means "no deadline." If price arrives but there is not enough size, your order fills partially and stays in the queue behind others. The difference between IOC and FOK is a single sentence: IOC lets you fill part of it, FOK does not. If you need "all of it or none," pick FOK.

In the same box sits a checkbox called Post-Only, which guarantees your limit order can only fill as a maker order and never crosses as a taker. If the order would match immediately on submission, the system cancels it automatically rather than charging you the taker fee.

There is real value hiding here: the taker and maker rates on contracts are meaningfully different, and if you can wait a few seconds and fill as a maker, the long-run cost gap compounds. The trade-off is that the order may not fill at all. That is precisely why many traders shift their limit price slightly away from the market when opening, add Post-Only, and give up a little price in exchange for the better fee tier. Note that the actual benefit attached to maker fills depends on current program terms, so check the official rules.

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⭐ Box five: price limits and slippage thresholds, where the system rewrites your order

The first four boxes are things you set. This one is where the platform changes your order for you. Plenty of traders fill a price, watch the fill happen somewhere else, and never work out why.

Price limits: a ±5% band

To guard against manipulation, Bybit sets price limits on all perpetual and expiry contracts. The announcement states 5% on the highest bid and 5% on the lowest ask:

• Highest bid price = last traded price × (1 + 5%)
• Lowest ask price = last traded price × (1 − 5%)

The limit applies to both opening and closing positions. Per the docs, if your long entry is priced above the highest bid, the system adjusts the price to the maximum permitted bid; depending on your order strategy, that order may fill at the highest bid or be canceled. Sell orders below the lowest ask follow the same rule. The docs add a warning that conditional limit orders may be adjusted as the market moves.

One catch that trips up beginners: price limits do not apply to take-profit and stop-loss orders. Your stop still fires in extreme conditions instead of being blocked by the band — which is the point: a stop that can be blocked by a price limit is not a stop.

Worth noting that the real calculation is more involved than the announcement suggests — the official formula combines mark price, index price, and a 30-second EMA of the premium average (Premium Avg) to handle isolated quote anomalies. The actual percentage per contract is visible on the contract's trading rules page, and that number moves; it is not permanently 5%. Check the page before you order.

Market order slippage threshold: 3% for BTC, 5% for the rest

As covered above, market orders are converted into limit orders for matching, and canceled if the converted price deviates from the last traded price beyond the threshold. Bybit's API documentation states the current thresholds plainly: 3% for BTC contracts, 5% for other contracts.

In practical terms: during violent conditions, tapping a market buy means the system actually places a limit order at "last traded price × 1.03" for BTC. If price moves further than 3% before that order lands, it is canceled without ever resting on the book. You believe you "did not fill," when in fact the system blocked you — and the two situations leave completely different positions behind. This is one of the hardest discrepancies to reconcile during a volatile session.

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Box six: order size units — coins, contracts, notional value

Bybit offers more than one way to enter size. The official guide lists three:

• By quantity: type the order size directly.
• By cost: converted from the initial margin plus opening and closing fees. The docs note that this mode is available only for USDT perpetual contracts in hedge mode.
• By value: converted from the required margin and your chosen leverage.

The unit itself also differs by contract. USDT-margined perps are quoted in USDT with size mapping directly to coin quantity, while coin-margined contracts are sized in the coin and derive position value from the contract face value. The most common beginner mistake is reading the number on the panel as "how many coins" when what you are actually trading is "how many contracts," with a different underlying position value behind it.

Three specifications decide whether your order is accepted at all:

Specification	Rule
Tick size	The smallest price increment. BTCUSDT perpetual has a tick size of 0.1, so at 68,592.10 the lowest bid you can make is 68,592.20
Maximum order size	Market and limit caps differ, with limit usually higher. Bybit's example for BTCUSDT: 100 BTC for market orders, 155 BTC for limit orders
Minimum notional value and minimum order size	The larger of the two applies. Official formula: min order quantity = max (preset minimum order size, minimum notional value ÷ order price), rounded up

Run the official numbers once and the "why did the system change my 0.001 BTC" mystery resolves. BTCUSDT has a minimum notional value of 100 USDT and a minimum order size of 0.001 BTC. With the last traded price at 60,000 USDT, the minimum order quantity = max (0.001, 100 ÷ 60,000) = max (0.001, 0.00167) = 0.002 BTC, rounded up. Your 0.001 was not rejected — it was raised.

One beginner-friendly rule: closing orders are not restricted by the minimum notional value, though they still face the preset minimum order size. In other words, you can always flatten a position without being blocked by a leftover fragment too small to trade.

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Box seven: when to attach TP/SL to the order

When you enable the TP/SL option while placing an order, once your order fills, the system automatically places the take-profit and stop-loss orders you defined. The value is that it removes the gap between "filled" and "stop attached" — and that gap of a few seconds to a few minutes is exactly when wicks do their damage.

Three forms are documented:

• Take-profit market order: once price reaches the take-profit level, a market order is placed immediately.
• Stop-loss market order: once price reaches the stop-loss level, a market order is placed immediately.
• Trailing stop: you set a trigger price and a trailing distance; when the trigger is reached the trailing stop activates, and when price retraces by the trailing distance a market order closes the position. The trigger price can be mark price, index price, or last traded price.

To modify them, there are two paths: unfilled limit orders are edited under the Open Orders tab, and existing positions under the Positions tab. Do not mix these up — editing in the wrong place makes it look like nothing can be changed.

A practical note: trailing stops suit situations where the direction is right but you do not know how far it can run. Because activation and exit are two separate steps, a fast reversal leaves the actual exit price worse than the trailing distance you expected. If your strategy needs a fixed risk ceiling, a fixed-price stop-loss market order remains the most direct instrument.

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Box eight: the final check before you submit

Condense the eight boxes into one list you can actually walk through. A first contract position built this way will not turn you into an experienced trader, but it will prevent the worst outcome: a position nothing like what you intended, with no way to trace it back.

1. Margin mode: confirm it is isolated. Isolated is the first firewall for a beginner — a total loss stays inside the margin you set aside for that trade.
2. Position mode: confirm it is one-way, unless you specifically need hedge mode. In one-way mode, an order in the opposite direction closes the position — the most common misoperation in the whole interface.
3. Leverage: confirm it is the multiple you chose, not the default 10x. Then read the initial margin and liquidation price shown in the order box.
4. Order type: confirm limit or market. To save on fees, use a limit order with Post-Only and accept that it may not fill.
5. Trigger basis: stops on mark price, take-profits on last traded price. This is the single most valuable line in this article.
6. TIF: confirm the default GTC is what you want. Choose FOK for all-or-nothing, IOC if you do not want leftover size resting.
7. Size: confirm you typed a size unit rather than "coins," and check whether the system raised it to the minimum order size.
8. TP/SL: set it before submitting rather than adding it after the fill.

One more step after submitting: open the Assets → Derivatives page and check the actual result. Verify position quantity, average entry price, liquidation price, and funding settlement time against what you intended. The real numbers in the account always beat the estimates in the order box.

And if you have not opened an account yet, entering Bybit referral code BTC9149 on the signup form is the simplest thing you can do: https://partner.bybit.com/b/BTC9149 for a 33% fee discount, up to 58% with MNT fee deduction enabled, plus new-user perks. The discount applies silently — miss the code on signup day and it never applies at all.

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About the Bybit referral code BTC9149

The eight boxes above are about setting parameters correctly. But there is one variable you do not control at all: the fee on every single trade. That part, at least, can be saved in advance.

Signing up with Bybit referral code BTC9149 gives you a 33% fee discount when you enter the code at registration; enabling MNT fee deduction on top takes the two together to up to a 58% fee discount, plus new-user perks. The discount applies silently — no action needed at trade time, but only if the code was entered on the day you registered.

Measured against the scenario in this article, the discount matters more on contracts than on spot: you pay once to open and once to close, and the taker and maker fee tiers are different again. The most common new-trader pattern on contracts — reordering repeatedly, adjusting on the way in, then closing right after a stop triggers — multiplies the number of fee events fast. Every fee you shave off comes straight out of your cost basis and your liquidation price.

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FAQ

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Conclusion: the real content of an opening guide is replacing defaults with your own decisions

If "how to open a perpetual contract" only teaches you which button to press, it taught you a button, not an opening. The real content of opening a position is replacing eight defaults, one by one, with parameters you have actually decided on — margin mode, position mode, leverage, order type, trigger basis, TIF, size unit, and when TP/SL gets attached.
The one worth memorizing is the trigger basis: trigger stops off the mark price so they fire before liquidation. The second is the hidden line about price limits and slippage thresholds: the system may rewrite your order without you noticing, and may even cancel your market order outright.
Make those eight boxes a fixed step before every entry, and you will never again find a position in your account that looks nothing like the one you planned. The first lesson in contract trading is not predicting price — it is checking every parameter that feeds into your P&L before you hit send.