How it works

The instrument: a perpetual option#

A call or a put that never expires on a date. You can close it at any moment, so it is never worth less than what it would pay if closed for its exercise value right now.

Its price has two parts. Intrinsic is what it would pay today, fixed by the strike and the price. Extrinsic is what the market adds for the chance it pays more later. Only the extrinsic costs anything to hold.

Duration is a lifetime, not a date#

Where a listed option has an expiry date, this one has a duration in months — its mean life. Its holding rate per year is 12 ÷ months, so a 3-month option is cheaper to buy and dearer to hold than a 12-month one. Any length inside the quoted range is allowed (fractions too). The range runs from about one hour up to 1.25 × the longest expiry the oracle venue lists.

Holding cost (funding)#

Keeping a perpetual claim whole means buying back the time value that wore away. That is the holding cost: the leg's extrinsic × its rate per year × the time that passed, priced at the oracle venue's ask (buying time is a buy). The holder pays it, the other side receives it, and the venue keeps 10 %. The size of your position never changes, and the holding cost alone never liquidates you. It builds up second by second; every close first settles what is owed.

When an Option account runs out of cash, a bought option pays its own holding cost by notional decay: it sells back just enough of itself, at the best closing price (the bid side), with no fee. A leg left worth under $1 closes. Protect positions have no notional decay; they close as a whole at maintenance. Opening your first option keeps a buffer of 30 days of holding cost in the account.

Every trade goes to one maker#

This is a request-for-quote venue. For each order (or each piece of it) the venue sends one request — one option, one size — to the makers' quoting programs. Makers quote only the size asked, as at other RFQ venues. Each maker answers with a firm, signed quote for the whole size. The single best maker wins: the lowest price for a buy (highest for a sell), among makers inside the price limit with room for all of it; if two are equal, the one with more room. That maker fills the whole piece at its own price — the contract checks the maker's signature, the price limit and the room. There is no splitting of one fill across makers.

• Slice order. In Execution details, Slice order with a Piece size (default $1,000 of premium) cuts a big order into pieces; each piece is its own request (all sent at once) and may land on a different maker. Smaller pieces can find a better overall price across makers, at the cost of more transactions.
• Protect swaps. The two options of a Protect swap always go to one maker together, in one transaction. A big swap can be sliced: each slice is a whole premium-neutral pair, and different slices may land on different makers. An order in more than one piece shows ⚠ "may not fill fully": if makers run out part way, you keep what filled.
• No single maker can take it. The venue refuses by name and tells you the largest size that fits. Nothing moves.

Slippage is measured from the oracle venue#

Slippage is how far your fill is from the oracle venue's price on your side: its ask when you buy, its bid when you sell. You set Max slippage (2 % for an option, 1 % of the swap's premium for a Protect swap, 1 % for the perp, which follows Hyperliquid). Over the limit you see ⚠ and the venue may refuse. Flex strike/duration can move your strike or duration slightly (within the move rates) to where slippage is lower, but only when the slippage at your exact pick is over the threshold (default 5 %); the venue then asks makers about a few nearby options (one request each) and picks the lowest slippage.

The three tabs#

• Protect — a perp plus one premium-neutral option swap; see Wallet & accounts.
• Option — one call or put, bought or sold, into your Options account. A bought option costs its premium; a sold one is margined.
• Earn — the maker side; see Earn.

Where it runs#

The ledger, the matching and the margin run in contracts on Elysium testnet. Perps and the money stay on HyperCore: you fund from your own HyperCore wallet and withdraw back to it. A venue service relays what you sign, pushes the oracle venue's prices on chain and settles holding costs; it sets no price and clears no trade.

What you do not see#

Makers are anonymous: you see yourself and the aggregate, never a maker's name, its room or how many makers there are. The only capacity number shown is the answer to a size you asked for.

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