Forex markets
The initial forex markets are EUR/USD and USD/JPY, both on Lighter. Both use the venue’s perpetual order book and price history, with trading available around the clock subject to venue availability and fresh market data. There is no weekend price substitute or switch to another venue outside traditional forex hours. Check the order ticket for each market’s current leverage and size requirements.Browse markets
The Markets page shows cached prices and statistics so browsing does not wait for every data source. Prices refresh every 30 seconds while the tab is visible; polling pauses in hidden tabs. A recent listing and its other statistics are reused for ten minutes; an older cached listing can appear while a replacement loads. Overview cards and historical charts load independently from the market list. Open a market to see current trading data. Orders use current execution checks, not the cached prices on the Markets page.Net PnL percentage
Position Net PnL % on the trading terminal, dashboard, and position PnL cards is calculated as Net PnL ÷ position margin × 100 for every market, including forex. For example, a 250 of margin is a 10% return. Open positions include unrealized PnL, realized PnL from earlier reductions, paid fees, swap fees, and the estimated fee to close the remaining position. Their percentage uses the current reserved margin plus the margin committed to earlier closed portions. Fully closed positions use the accumulated margin of all closed portions. Older positions without that history use the final remaining size’s entry margin as a fallback.Choose an order type
Check the order ticket for the order types available on the selected market.
How market orders fill
Market orders, including triggered stop and take-profit market exits, fill their whole size at the current reference price adjusted by a fixed slippage tier. For Lighter forex markets, this reference is Lighter’s mark price, the same price source used by the candles, displayed mark, unrealized PnL, and trigger and risk checks. Other markets continue to use the midpoint of the live venue book for market fills. Slippage always applies against the order’s direction: buys fill slightly above the mark and sells fill slightly below it. The tier depends on the order’s notional value, and for most instruments on the market’s current open interest, so larger orders and thinner markets pay more slippage, exactly like real market impact. Lighter forex fills can differ slightly from the chart because of slippage and price movement during the execution delay. A new, fresh mark is required before execution; an unavailable mark does not fall back to the bid, ask, or midpoint. When a forex feed is quiet, the platform briefly waits for a fresh quote from the venue before rejecting the order. If a fresh quote remains unavailable, the order is rejected. Limit orders still respect their specified limit price. The published schedule, in basis points of the mark price: Major indices and commodities (XYZ100, SP500, GOLD, SILVER, CL, BRENTOIL)
Forex
All other instruments, by the instrument’s current open interest at order
time:
When an instrument’s open interest cannot be observed, the most conservative
band applies. Limit orders are unaffected: they still execute against real
displayed depth at the limit price or better.
Understand trading fees
Commissions apply to each fill’s notional when you enter or exit a position. Maker and taker fills use the same rate within each asset class. Open positions also incur an hourly swap fee. Read Commissions and Fees for the rate tables, entry and exit examples, and how hourly holding costs are calculated.Size the order
You can start order tickets in USD or asset units. Forex markets can also use standard lots, where one lot represents 100,000 base-currency units. The size slider range changes the shortcuts shown in the ticket; it does not prevent you from typing another otherwise-valid size. Oil, Gold, Silver, NAS100, and SP500 can also use whole mini or micro futures-equivalent contracts. The platform back-solves a perpetual position with the same dollar-per-point exposure as the selected CME/COMEX contract. This changes order sizing only; it does not create or settle an exchange-traded futures contract.
Mini and micro modes use the market’s maximum leverage to calculate required
margin. The resulting platform position rounds down to the market’s supported
size increment. The contract slider uses whole numbers; its saved range changes
the visible shortcuts, while direct entry can use a larger whole-contract
amount. Markets without a maintained mapping show only USD and asset units.
Review both size and leverage before submitting. Higher leverage reduces the
margin assigned to the same notional position but leaves less room for adverse
movement before liquidation or a challenge-rule breach.
Hover over a market’s leverage badge, such as 10×, to see Maximum
Leverage and Maximum Position Size for your selected account. The position
size is shown in USD and uses the lowest applicable per-position, account-wide,
and shared market exposure ceiling for that asset, account model, and account
size. The same tooltip appears in the trade header, market picker, Markets
table, and search results. Sign in and select an account to see its limit.
This is a configured ceiling, not your remaining buying power. Available
margin, your other positions, and exposure already using the shared market
limit can reduce how much you can open. Orders still pass the trading engine’s
checks when placed and filled.
Read Asset Exposure Limits for how shared
market caps work and a link to the current market-by-market limits.
Choose a margin mode
Changing the default affects newly opened positions. It does not rewrite the
margin mode of an existing position.
Add Take Profit and Stop Loss Orders
Take Profit and Stop Loss instructions help define exits before an order is submitted. You can show their estimated gain or loss in percent or USD. Review the trigger, direction, quantity, and whether the exit uses market or limit behavior where the ticket offers that choice.Create price alerts from the chart
On the price chart, right-click the level you want to watch and select Add Alert at $X. The platform creates the alert immediately:- when the current mark is below the selected level, the alert watches for a cross above;
- when the current mark is above the selected level, the alert watches for a cross below.
Use execution protection
The Trading settings include:- Max Market Slippage, a server-enforced limit for ordinary market orders and individual position closes;
- separate Non-Forex and Forex leverage caps for the order ticket;
- Warn Without Stop Loss for orders that can increase exposure;
- confirmation controls for new orders and TP/SL chart drags;
- account-synced keyboard execution for placing orders, managing focused positions, canceling focused orders, and the reviewed Cancel All and Close All actions.
Customize the terminal layout
On desktop widths the trading terminal is rearrangeable. The chart stays in the center with the activity tabs below it; the order book and order ticket can move between the zones around them. The Layout switcher in the bottom bar (shown on trade pages) applies an arrangement in one click:- Colour Scheme: start with Graphite, Midnight, or Aubergine, then choose Customize Colours to adjust each terminal background, surface, text, accent, border, input, and chart colour individually. The terminal palette does not change the theme used by the rest of the app. Each preview shows the chart, data rows, and order ticket in your current light or dark mode. The chart has its own quiet canvas, order tickets use a raised surface, and inputs are recessed. The Layout window and its colour, save, and import dialogs follow the terminal palette. Buy/Sell and gain/loss colours keep their trading meanings.
- Pro: the complete terminal with the chart, order book, order ticket, and activity tabs. This is the default.
- Simple: a leaner terminal that keeps the order book hidden until you need it.
- Saved Layouts: your own named arrangements. Use Save Current Layout to name the arrangement on screen; select a saved layout to reapply it, or delete it from the same list. You can save up to 8 layouts.
- Edit Current Layout: enter edit mode without opening the bottom-bar switcher. Panel dragging is disabled outside edit mode so chart and order entry interactions remain unchanged.
- Copy Layout Code and Import Layout Code: export your arrangement as a shareable code string, or paste another trader’s code to replicate their exact layout.
- Reset to Default: restore the platform default arrangement and panel sizes in one click.
Hiding the order ticket removes the order entry form until you show it again
from customize mode or apply another arrangement.