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A haircut is the discount applied to your collateral’s market value when calculating your credited margin. Example: A 10% haircut on $1,000 of SPYon means the exchange credits you with $900 of margin, but holds the full $1,000 of SPYon. The $100 gap absorbs conversion slippage and price movement if the exchange ever needs to convert your collateral to USDC. Key details:
  • Collateral ratio equals 1 minus the haircut (10% haircut = 0.90 collateral ratio).
For details on accepted collateral see Funding Your Account.

How Margin Is Calculated

Your account health is represented by a single number called margin balance:
Where:
  • Non-USDC Margin Value: Total post-haircut value of all your deposited tokenized equities, sum(quantity x price x (1 - haircut)) for each asset, counting tokens up to the asset’s collateral cap (see Funding Your Account).
  • USDC balance: Your cash balance, which can be negative if you have accumulated losses or fees.
  • Unrealized PnL: Profit or loss on your open positions.
  • Funding: Accumulated funding payments.
Your margin balance captures everything that affects your account health in one number. It moves when asset prices change, when your positions gain or lose value, when you pay fees, and when funding payments accrue.