Positions
Where your open positions show, what each column means, and how to close one from its row with DMA, Chase, TWAP or Sniper.
Your open positions show in two places: the Account widget in the terminal, and the Portfolio page. This page covers what each column means, which coin the unrealized PnL is in, and how to close a position from its row.
In the terminal
Open the Positions tab of the Account widget, beside Balances and Margin. The tab shows how many positions the selected account has. With none, it reads No positions.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Market | The market, led by its coin's logo. Under it, which way the position runs, Long or Short, then its leverage and margin mode, for example Long · 10x cross. |
| Size | The position's size, in its coin: the base coin, or the USD face of an inverse perpetual. |
| uPnL | Unrealized PnL, as the exchange reports it, in the coin it settles in. |
| Entry | The average entry price. |
| Mark | The mark price. |
| Liq. | The liquidation price. |
| Close button | The last column, with no header. Opens the Close dialog. See Closing a position. |
On a narrow widget some columns are hidden. uPnL, Entry, Mark and Liq. appear, in that order, as the widget gets wider. Market, Size and Close always show.
The widget shows the account selected in the terminal. To see every account at once, use Portfolio.
On the Portfolio page
Portfolio lists the open positions of every account in one environment, Live or Paper, under Positions · all live accounts or Positions · all paper accounts. Under each market sit the side and the account's name. Filter to one account and its own Positions section shows instead. With none, it reads No open positions.
Portfolio adds two columns the Account widget doesn't have: To liq., how far the mark is from the liquidation price, and Exposure. Every row has the same Close button. A close from Portfolio goes to the row's own account, and the account selected in the terminal stays as it is. Portfolio explains its columns.
Unrealized PnL and its coin
The exchange reports each position's unrealized PnL. It's in the coin the position settles in:
| Market | uPnL coin |
|---|---|
| Perpetuals and futures, other than inverse perpetuals | The quote coin, for example USDT on BTC-USDT-SWAP |
| Inverse perpetuals | The base coin, for example BTC on BTC-USD-SWAP |
Both show the coin beside the figure, and Portfolio shows the USD value on hover. A PnL the exchange didn't send shows as —, never as 0.
Closing a position
Press Close on a position's row. The dialog opens with the title Close and the market, a LONG or SHORT tag, and the account and exchange it trades on. Four figures sit across the top: Position, Entry, Mark and uPnL.
What's fixed
The dialog trades one market, one way. Three things don't change:
- The market: the position's own.
- The side: a long sells and a short buys, as the position stood when you pressed Close. If the position flips while the dialog is open, the side stays as pressed, and a note says so.
- The unit: the position's own, base or the USD face of an inverse perpetual.
Picking the algo
Choose DMA, Chase, TWAP or Sniper at the top, and hover the ⓘ beside them for how the selected one works. There's no Spreader, since a close works one market. The dialog opens on Chase every time, and remembers nothing between openings.
Each algo's fields are the ticket's own. See Placing an order and each algo's page.
| Parameter | What it does | Default and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Amount | How much to close, in the position's unit. The slider and its 25%, 50%, 75% and Max chips set a share of the position, floored to the lot. | The whole position, floored to the lot. |
| Limit price | Required for DMA. For Chase, TWAP and Sniper an optional bound: a sell never goes below it, a buy never above. | Required for DMA; none for the others. Closing a short buys, and a buy limit is at least one tick (Minimum 0.1 USDT, for example). |
| Order type | DMA only: IOC or Post. See DMA. | IOC |
| Chase distance | Chase and TWAP only. See Chase. | 0 |
| Post only | Every algo but Sniper. Grayed off under a DMA IOC. | Off |
| Reduce only | See Reduce only. | On, where offered |
| At end | TWAP only. What happens to what's left at the end. See TWAP. | Continue as Chase, because a close aims to end flat. The ticket's default stays Cancel remainder. |
| Duration and Interval | TWAP only. See TWAP. | 5 minutes and 1 minute. |
A close has no Starts or Expires. It goes out when you send it and works until it's done or you cancel it.
Under the fields, a sentence reads the order back, for example Works at the book and follows it until 0.5 BTC is sold. It also shows about how much PnL the close realizes at the mark (Realizes ≈ …).
Press the button, for example Sell 0.5 BTC, to send it, or Cancel to close the dialog. When Aura accepts the order the dialog closes, and a notification such as Chase placed follows, as for any order. The close is an ordinary order with no special tag, and it shows in Open Orders like any other. See Managing orders.
Reduce only
Reduce only is on at every opening wherever the exchange takes the flag. That means perpetuals on OKX and Bybit. The exchange cancels any part of the order that would pass the position.
Coinbase's order interface has no reduce-only flag. There, the dialog shows no switch, and a close is a plain order on the opposite side.
| Reduce only | What the dialog says |
|---|---|
| On | If you have open orders on the market: 1 open order on this market keeps working. Closing doesn't cancel it. (or the count, for several) |
| Off, or on Coinbase | A warning. If orders are already working on the closing side, it lists them first, for example "2 working orders already sell 0.3 BTC on this market (Chase, TWAP)." It then says This order isn't reduce-only., or Coinbase has no reduce-only orders., and by how much this order, together with them, would pass the position Aura shows and what that would open. When it wouldn't pass it, the warning says the rest opens a position the other way if the position shrinks while the order works. |
Why position figures never block a close
Position and margin figures can be stale, through a fault or an exchange outage. A stale figure must not stop you from closing, so the dialog never refuses an order because of one:
- An amount over the position shown is sent as typed.
- A position Aura shows as closed can still be sent. An amber note reads Aura shows this position as closed. Check exchange before sending.
- The exchange's own rules still apply, as in the ticket: whole lots, the minimum size, the minimum order value, and for a DMA the largest single order the exchange takes.
Where the exchange has reduce only, that flag is what keeps a close from passing the position, not the figures on screen.
When Close is off
Close is grayed out in a few cases. Hover it to read why.
| Case | What the hover says |
|---|---|
| The account can't trade right now: signed out, loading, locked out, disconnected, reconnecting or connecting | The reason, for example The account is disconnected. Reconnect it above, then close the position here. |
| The market isn't enabled for the account | Market isn’t enabled for this account. Enable the market to close the position here, or close it on *exchange***.** |
| A future with an expiry on an exchange whose futures Aura lists but doesn't trade | Futures with an expiry can’t be traded here yet. Close it on *exchange***.** |
| A margin position on a spot market | Aura can’t close margin positions. Close it on *exchange***.** |
| Aura can't tell which way the position runs | Aura can’t tell which way this position runs, so it can’t pick the side that closes it. |
Aura sends spot orders as cash orders, which neither borrow nor repay, so it can't close a margin position on a spot market. Close those on the exchange.
To change a perpetual's leverage, use the leverage chip in the ticket. See Placing an order.