Isolated vs cross margin: what is the difference
The margin mode decides how much of your balance a single position can lose. It is a setting you choose once and then forget — which is exactly why it is worth understanding.
Isolated margin
Each position has its own margin. If the position is liquidated, you lose only that margin; the rest of the balance is untouched. You can add margin manually to move liquidation further away.
Good for: trying a setup with a defined maximum loss, high-leverage trades, holding several unrelated positions.
Cross margin
All positions share the whole available balance. Profits of one position support another, and liquidation is further away because the entire balance stands behind each position. The flip side: one position that runs away can drain everything.
Good for: hedged positions and traders who manage risk with stops and want to avoid early liquidations on small balances.
Same trade, two outcomes
Balance 2,000. A 10× long with 200 margin goes against you by 12%.
- Isolated: the position is liquidated at about −10%; you lose roughly 200 plus fees. The other 1,800 stay.
- Cross: the position survives — the remaining balance covers it — and is now down about 240. If the move continues, the loss keeps growing toward the whole balance.
See these numbers for your own trades
Connect an exchange and your trades load automatically — PnL, fees and funding per trade. The demo works without signing up.
Common mistakes
- Using cross margin with no stop-loss “because liquidation is far”.
- Adding margin to a losing isolated position again and again — it turns isolated into an unplanned cross.
- Forgetting that the mode is per coin on many exchanges, and switching coins with a different setting.
What to check in your journal
Look at your largest losses: were they planned stops or positions that ran far beyond the plan? CheckMyProfit shows your worst trades, losses by coin and holding time of losing trades, which makes this visible quickly.