Standard Margin
Standard Margin supports options funded with USDC. Compatible options share margin within the same underlying and expiry. It does not enable spot collateral, borrowing, or perpetual futures.
Availability: the grouped options contract is present when a portfolio response contains margin_summary.standard_margin. Older responses do not contain that breakdown. See the API migration guide before upgrading a trading client.
What receives protection
- Identical contracts net before short exposure is evaluated.
- Verticals, butterflies, condors, and boxes receive protection from compatible long options. Margin follows the combined exposure, not a strategy label or how the positions were opened.
- Ratios and other portfolios retain charges for unmatched short exposure. An uncovered call tail does not have a finite maximum loss.
- Calendars retain separate expiry groups. A later-expiring long does not cap an earlier short's terminal payoff. There is no assumed offset across expiries.
- Long options are paid for upfront. Their marks affect account value but do not become spendable USDC.
Each compatible group compares the applicable standalone charges with its payoff requirement and unmatched-call charge under the fixed release policy. A capped payoff is not a promise that margin always equals maximum expiry loss. Oracle and quote-risk additions, when supported and enabled, apply separately.
Short limits: some accounts also face a platform-wide net short-notional cap. Check risk limits for current availability. Spread relief does not bypass that independent limit.
Fixed risk policy
The options upgrade fixes the following rates in the application code for every underlying. They are not adjustable through runtime settings or per-underlying overrides. These are proposed release values, not evidence of deployment. Existing short-notional limits, pricing-rate inputs, and fee settings remain separate from these option risk rates.
| Parameter | Proposed value |
|---|---|
| Short-option spot IM charge | 15% |
| Short-call IM floor | 10% of spot |
| Short-put IM floor | 10% of spot |
| Short-call spot MM charge | 7.5% |
| Short-put spot MM charge | 7.5% |
| Short-put MM charge floor based on marked liability | 7.5% |
| Short-put IM floor relative to MM | 1.05 times MM |
| Unmatched-call IM charge scale | 1.2 |
| Unmatched-call MM charge scale | 1.1 |
| Option-oracle confidence threshold and penalty | Both zero, disabled |
| Quote-depeg threshold and factor | Both zero, disabled |
These rates do not imply a blanket reduction in account margin. The revised calculation also includes marked short-option liabilities, payoff protection, unmatched tails, and the put-specific floors. Account requirements depend on the complete holdings. Oracle-confidence and quote-depeg charges are fixed at zero in this release; enabling them requires a code change and the required authoritative inputs.
Forward-price policy
The proposed model uses the same native carry convention as Hypercall option pricing:
Here, is the authoritative spot, is the selected pricing rate, and is the time to expiry at valuation. This is an explicit model choice, not a fallback when an external forward is missing. The unmatched-call charge uses this expiry forward.
Cash and account value
Premium moves through cash immediately: a buy debits USDC and a sell credits USDC. Marked account value includes the current value of held options:
A short position has negative quantity. Its option liability reduces NAV. NAV and available margin cash are different values.
Margin requirements and headroom
Position initial margin and maintenance margin are evaluated across the option groups. Per-position diagnostic margins are not additive allocations of the final portfolio requirement.
- Initial headroom controls admission and withdrawals. Pending buys reserve premium; pending sells may consume a protective long. Unfilled buys do not grant unconditional hedge credit.
- Maintenance headroom measures the remaining cash cushion against maintenance requirements. A negative value means a maintenance breach.
- Available balance is the nonnegative cash capacity reported by the server. It does not turn long-option marks into cash or guarantee withdrawal delivery.
- Closing a leg can increase risk by removing protection. Orderbook trades and multi-leg RFQs are checked against their resulting holdings and actual premium movements.
A funded short buyback during an active partial-liquidation episode can be admitted when the account's maintenance headroom strictly improves and requirements do not increase. Ordinary trades still need their normal admission checks.
Reading API values
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
margin_summary.equity | Marked account NAV |
margin_summary.position_im | Grouped position IM |
margin_summary.open_orders_im | Additional IM reserved for open orders |
margin_summary.initial_margin | Historical NAV-derived excess: NAV minus position IM, open-order IM, and reserved buy premiums |
margin_summary.maintenance_margin | Historical NAV-derived excess: NAV minus position MM |
margin_summary.standard_margin.cash_margin | USDC cash before requirements and buy-premium reservations |
margin_summary.standard_margin.initial_margin_headroom | Authoritative SM cash admission headroom |
margin_summary.standard_margin.maintenance_margin_headroom | Authoritative SM cash liquidation headroom |
margin_summary.standard_margin.option_groups | Compatible-expiry requirements and diagnostics |
Use the explicit SM headroom fields for risk decisions. The two historical excess fields retain their meaning for existing readers; they do not determine SM liquidation or withdrawal capacity. If the SM breakdown is absent, cash headroom is unavailable. Do not substitute NAV or zero.
Liquidation price: Standard options return null for the per-position liquidation_price. Liquidation depends on the complete account, including its cash and other options. Display an unavailable value or account headroom instead of inventing a price.
Withdrawals must leave sufficient cash for initial requirements and reservations, even if marked NAV remains positive. Existing USDC withdrawal authorization and delivery checks continue to apply.