Your copied positions take the trader's leverage, bounded by the market and by any cap you choose. Which leverage depends on the copy's sizing mode, and it decides, with the margin mode, whether a bad week is a loss or a liquidation.
how leverage is set on a copy
Pro rata of your capital (the default mode): the copy uses the trader's real leverage, not the one they set. That is their exposure divided by their capital at its peaks; on a coin they trade isolated, their own leverage for that coin. It is capped by the market's maximum and, if you set one in the advanced settings, by your own cap. A trader in cross margin who sets 20× but, at their peaks, puts only 3× of their account to work is copied at 3×. The margin of all the copy's positions together never goes beyond the amount you invested.
A fixed $ or a % per trade: you pick a maximum leverage: no leverage (1×), or 3, 5, 10 or 20×, or any whole number from 1 to 50, or the trader's with no cap. The default is 10×. Hypercopy then opens each position at the lowest of three: the trader's leverage for that coin, your maximum, and the market's maximum, floored at 1×. If the trader's leverage is not known yet when their first fill arrives, the copy opens at 3× (or your maximum, if lower) until it is.
Leverage is set when the copy opens a coin from flat. Adds to an open position keep that position's leverage; a new maximum applies to the next opening.
Margin used per order = notional ÷ leverage. A $200 copied order at 10× uses $20 of your balance; at 2× it uses $100.
what liquidation is on hyperliquid
Each perps position has a maintenance margin: the minimum equity it must keep, a fraction of the notional that depends on the coin and position size. When the mark price moves so that your equity for the position falls to that level, hyperliquid liquidates it: the position is closed at market, and you lose the margin. The liquidation price is shown on your position on hyperliquid.
Roughly, at leverage L, the adverse move that liquidates is a bit less than 1/L: about 9% at 10×, about 4.5% at 20×, about 2% at 40×, before fees and maintenance margin.
cross and isolated margin
Hyperliquid supports both. In cross margin, all your USDC (one balance for perps and spot; your other spot tokens do not count) backs every position, so one bad position can eat the margin of the others and a liquidation can take more than that position's margin. In isolated margin, each position has its own margin and a liquidation costs only that.
Hypercopy lets each copy choose (✏️ margin on its summary):
- Isolated (the default, recommended): what a copy can lose stops at its margin.
- Like the trader: isolated or cross, coin by coin, as the trader trades it. The closest copy; where they are cross, your whole wallet backs that position.
- Cross: the whole wallet backs every position, your other copies with it.
Cross and like the trader require a stop-loss. Isolated contains each copy's loss, but for the same leverage it is liquidated sooner than a cross position with a large balance behind it: a trader at 25× in cross may survive a 5% move that liquidates an isolated copy at 25× near 3% on BTC. The margin mode, like the leverage, is set when the copy opens a coin from flat; a position already open keeps its mode until it is closed. If you change a coin's setting yourself outside hypercopy, on hyperliquid, the bot tells you, and your next positions on it use the copy's setting again.
The wallet also has a limit in trades: the most all its copies may hold in margin together, in % of its value, no limit by default. It is in 👛 my wallets → ⚙️ leverage management.
sizing for liquidation
The question is not "what leverage" but "how much of my balance is at risk at once".
- Note the trader's usual leverage on their open positions and their 30-day max drawdown.
- Estimate how many positions they hold at once (their profile shows trades per day and median hold; three positions open at a time is common for swing traders).
- Pick the amount you invest (pro rata), or the fixed $ or % per trade, so that all those positions together use a fraction of your balance you could lose entirely.
- Add a stop-loss below the liquidation distance. At 10×, a 50% stop-loss on margin is a 5% move, about half the way to liquidation.
the trader's balance is not yours
A trader with $2M can survive a 20× position moving 3% against them because it is 5% of their account. If you copy them with a size that puts 40% of your balance in that position, the same move is a disaster for you and a Tuesday for them. This is what pro rata is for: your copy puts the same part of your amount in the position as they put of their account, so the same move costs you the same share. Hypercopy's profile shows account size for this reason: the same trade is a different risk at a different size.
what hypercopy does when margin runs out
If hyperliquid refuses an order for insufficient margin, hypercopy skips that entry, rests the wallet's entries for five minutes, and tells you, at most once a day. The copy is never paused for this: it keeps following the trader. Exits are never affected: reducing a position needs no margin.
faq
can i cap the leverage of copies?
Yes. In the advanced settings, each copy has a leverage cap: no leverage (1×), or any whole number up to 50× (10× by default for a fixed $ or % copy). The copy uses the trader's leverage when it is lower, and never more than the market allows. Keep the stop-loss for the move that leverage alone does not cover.
what happens to a copy when a position is liquidated?
The position is gone on hyperliquid; hypercopy sees it and treats the coin as closed. The copy continues with the trader's next move unless you stop it.
does hyperliquid have an insurance fund?
Yes; it backstops liquidations through its liquidator vault. That protects the exchange's solvency, not your margin.
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