In a brutal market, survival is always the top priority.

The most heartbreaking story is this: a trader's directional judgment was completely correct, and they held on stubbornly for four days, only to be drained of over 1000 USDT by funding rates little by little, and finally forced to close the position. Ironically, the market surged after the liquidation. The shock brought by this contrast is something experienced traders can all feel.

The root cause is not misjudging the direction, but failing to understand the underlying logic of contract trading. Today, starting from the pitfalls we've stepped into ourselves, let's analyze the five most common tricks that easily trap traders in perpetual contracts.

**Trap 1: Funding Rate — The Invisible Plunder**

Most people focus on candlestick charts to judge price movements, never thinking that the funding rate quietly erodes their principal in the background.

This mechanism is unique to perpetual contracts. It is settled every 8 hours, and when the rate is positive, longs pay shorts; the reverse is also true. The key point is, even if the price remains unchanged, your money is still disappearing.

How to deal with it? Keep an eye on the funding rate level. Once two consecutive periods exceed 0.05%, be cautious when opening long positions. If you plan to hold for the long term, consider a different approach — trading in a direction where the funding rate is negative, so you can continuously earn fees instead of paying them.

**Trap 2: Liquidation Price — The Hidden Noose**

A common mistake among beginners: thinking that a 10x leverage only gets liquidated if the price drops 10%, but in reality, the system liquidates at a 5% drop. Is that strange? Not at all.

When the exchange executes a liquidation, it charges additional fees, which makes the actual liquidation price more stringent than the theoretical calculation. For example, when holding a long position, the calculation of the liquidation price involves the maintenance margin rate pulling the line downward. It may seem to have a safety margin, but in fact, that line of defense is much more fragile than you think.