Why your liquidation price changes after you open a position

CoTrading editorial team 2026-09-23

A liquidation price is not fixed at entry. It depends on three inputs — the margin backing the position, the position’s size and average entry, and the maintenance rate that size attracts — and anything that changes one of them moves it. For an isolated position, price moving does not.

This page is for anyone who noted a liquidation price when they opened a trade and later found a different one on screen. It works through each cause with numbers, so you can tell which one happened and whether it moved the level toward you or away.

The one formula behind every change

The version most people know, entry × (1 − 1/leverage + MMR), assumes the margin is exactly notional ÷ leverage. Once anything changes that, you need the general form. It comes from the same equation — position equity equals the maintenance requirement — worked through in how liquidation price is calculated:

long:  liquidation ≈ entry × (1 + MMR) − margin ÷ quantity
short: liquidation ≈ entry × (1 − MMR) + margin ÷ quantity

Read it as a list of levers. Less margin moves liquidation toward the entry. More quantity on the same margin does too. A higher maintenance rate does too. A new average entry shifts the whole thing.

Baseline for every example below: 0.5 BTC long at 60,000, 3,000 of isolated margin (10×), and an illustrative maintenance margin rate of 0.5%. Liquidation: 60,000 × 1.005 − 3,000 ÷ 0.5 = 54,300. All rates are illustrative; none is a venue’s.

What does not move it: price

A common misreading: price falls, so liquidation must have moved closer. It has not. The unrealised loss is already inside the formula — the liquidation price is defined as the price where that loss has consumed the margin down to the maintenance level. What shrinks as price falls is the distance to liquidation, not the level.

That distinction is the practical one. The distance changes every tick; the level changes only when an input changes. Under cross margin the rule breaks, which is covered below.

How it actually moves

1. Funding you pay

Funding is charged on notional. At an illustrative 0.01% per settlement on 30,000 of notional, each payment is 3. Thirty payments cost 90, leaving 2,910 of margin:

60,000 × 1.005 − 2,910 ÷ 0.5 = 54,480   (+180)

Each unit of currency lost from margin moves a long’s liquidation up by 1 ÷ quantity — here, 2 per 1. That is why a position held for weeks through paid funding creeps toward liquidation without any change in price. The funding rate calculator estimates the total; see also what is funding rate. Whether funding is debited from the position’s margin or from the wallet balance differs by venue — in the generic isolated model it comes from the position.

2. Fees

The same mechanism, once. If an illustrative 0.05% entry fee on 30,000 (15) is taken from the position’s margin, liquidation moves to 54,330. Whether the entry fee is taken from position margin or from available balance is a venue detail.

3. Adding or removing margin

Margin	Effective leverage	Liquidation
2,000	15×	56,300
3,000 (baseline)	10×	54,300
4,000	7.5×	52,300
6,000	5×	48,300

On an isolated position, changing the leverage of an open position is adding or removing margin by another name. Whether a venue lets you do it while the position is open, and within what limits, varies.

4. Adding to the position

Adding to a winner. Price reaches 63,000 and you buy another 0.5 at 10×, posting 3,150. The position is now 1.0 BTC at an average of 61,500 with 6,150 of margin:

61,500 × 1.005 − 6,150 ÷ 1.0 = 55,657.50

Liquidation rose by 1,357.50. Measured from the current price of 63,000, the distance fell from 13.8% to 11.7%.

Averaging down. Price falls to 57,000 and you buy 0.5 at 10×, posting 2,850. The position is 1.0 BTC at 58,500 with 5,850 of margin:

58,500 × 1.005 − 5,850 ÷ 1.0 = 52,942.50

Liquidation moved away, because fresh margin went in. But the loss if it is reached grew from 2,850 to 5,557.50. A liquidation price that looks safer is not the same as a position that is safer — see averaging down vs dollar-cost averaging.

5. Crossing a maintenance tier

Doubling the size can move the position into a higher maintenance bracket. With an illustrative higher tier of 1.0%, the averaged-down position above liquidates at 53,235 instead of 52,942.50. Whether the higher rate applies to the whole position or only the part above the boundary depends on how the venue builds its schedule. The same thing happens without any action of yours if the venue revises its tiers: the baseline position at 1.0% would liquidate at 54,600.

6. Cross margin

Under cross margin, the liquidation price of each position depends on account equity, so every other position’s unrealised PnL, every realised trade, and every deposit or withdrawal moves it. That is why the displayed level drifts constantly, and why no four-input formula can reproduce it — see isolated vs cross margin.

7. Partial closes

Closing part of a position releases some margin and may realise PnL. How much margin is released, and where the realised PnL goes, differs by venue. Re-read the displayed level after any partial close rather than assuming it held.

All the examples in one table

Event	Margin	Qty	Avg entry	MMR	Liquidation
Baseline	3,000	0.5	60,000	0.5%	54,300
Paid 90 in funding	2,910	0.5	60,000	0.5%	54,480
Entry fee from margin	2,985	0.5	60,000	0.5%	54,330
Added 1,000 margin	4,000	0.5	60,000	0.5%	52,300
Removed 1,000 margin	2,000	0.5	60,000	0.5%	56,300
Added 0.5 at 63,000	6,150	1.0	61,500	0.5%	55,657.50
Added 0.5 at 57,000	5,850	1.0	58,500	0.5%	52,942.50
Same, higher tier	5,850	1.0	58,500	1.0%	53,235

Liquidation price vs the price on your chart

One more source of apparent movement. Liquidation is generally checked against a mark price, while a chart usually shows the last trade. The gap between the two varies, so the distance you read off the chart is not quite the distance that matters — see what is mark price. How each venue composes its mark price, and the rest of its liquidation detail, is covered in the venue calculators for Binance Futures, Bybit, OKX and Hyperliquid.

Where the boundary should sit

Re-read the level after every event above, not once at entry. For automated setups, fetch the venue’s figure after each change rather than caching your own — the same discipline as position reconciliation.
For positions held for days, subtract expected funding from margin first, then decide whether the distance is comfortable.
Check the stop against the new level. A stop that sat inside liquidation at entry may not after funding, a tier change or an addition. The leverage and stop-loss table shows where that crossover is.

FAQ

Why did my liquidation price move when I did nothing?

Usually because something was deducted from margin — most often funding paid at a settlement — or because, under cross margin, another position’s PnL changed account equity. A revised maintenance tier schedule can also move it. Price moving on its own does not change an isolated position’s liquidation price, only the distance to it.

Does adding margin lower my liquidation price?

For a long, yes: each unit of margin added moves the liquidation price down by one divided by the position quantity. On a 0.5 BTC long, adding 1,000 of margin moves it down by 2,000. For a short, added margin moves the liquidation price up, away from the entry.

Why did my liquidation price get closer after I added to a winning trade?

Because the new portion was bought at a higher price, which raised the average entry, and at the same leverage its margin covers less room from the current price. In the example, adding 0.5 BTC at 63,000 to a long from 60,000 moved liquidation from 54,300 to 55,657.50.

Does the liquidation price change as the market moves?

Not for an isolated position — the unrealised loss is already part of how the level is defined, so only the distance to it changes. Under cross margin it does, because liquidation depends on total account equity, which moves with every open position.