Why Your Perps PnL May Look Positive but Your Balance Drops
Trading perpetual futures (perps) can be fast, efficient, and highly rewarding — but it also comes with mechanics that can be confusing if you’re new to leveraged trading.
One of the most common questions we receive is:
“Why does my balance decrease even if my trades show a positive PnL?”
Let’s break down why this happens, how fees work, and how to correctly calculate your real profit or loss when trading perps on xPortal.
1. Perps Use Leverage — Fees Apply to Your Leveraged Position Size
Unlike spot trading, where fees apply only to the amount you own, perps trading applies fees to your leveraged position size, not your wallet balance.
Example
If you open a $10 trade with 20× leverage, you’re actually opening a $200 position.
This means:
Fees are charged on $200, not $10
This happens each time you open AND close a position
Entering and exiting multiple times multiplies the effect
Even if your position shows +PnL, fees taken from the leveraged volume can be larger than your gains.
2. What Fees Exist When Trading Perps on xPortal?
There are 3 types of costs:
A. Taker Fee / Maker Fee (Hyperliquid)
Hyperliquid charges 0.045% for market orders or 0.015% for limit orders per trade (open + close)
Applied to the leveraged notional size
B. Builder Fee (xPortal)
xPortal applies a fee of 0.1% per trade (open + close)
Also applied to the leveraged notional size
C. Funding Payments
Typically very small
Charged hourly
If your trade lasts only a few minutes, funding is usually close to zero
In short:
More leverage = higher effective fee impact.
More trades = more total fees.
3. Why Your Balance Can Drop Even With Positive PnL
Here’s the important part:
Trade PnL only measures the price movement — not your total trading costs.
A trader might see:
+ $23 total PnL
– $24 total fees
– $0.04 funding
This results in a net loss, even though the trade PnL looks good.
This is exactly what happened in the user case below:
Real Example From xPortal
Total trading volume with leverage: $16,715
Total PnL: + $7.64
Total fees (HL + xPortal): – $24.23
Net result: – $16.59
The system is working correctly — the misunderstanding comes from the difference between “PnL” and “final profit after fees.”
4. How to Calculate Your Real Profit
To understand your actual result from perps trading, use this simple formula:
Real Profit = Trade PnL – Trading Fees – Funding
Or visually:
PnL shown in activity ≠ final profit
Only PnL – fees – funding = what’s added (or removed) from your balance.
5. How to Keep Fees Lower When Trading Perps
Here are practical tips to make your trading more efficient:
1. Use less leverage
Lower leverage → lower notional size → lower fees.
2. Avoid opening/closing too frequently
If you scalp with many small trades, fees add up fast.
3. Go for larger, fewer entries instead of multiple tiny ones
4. Hold positions for reasonable time frames
Avoid over-trading during low volatility.
5. Consider reducing leverage if your strategy relies on small profits
If you’re aiming for 0.1–0.3% price moves but paying 0.29% round-trip fees, the math will not work in your favor.
Summary
Perps fees apply to your leveraged position size — not your wallet balance.
This means that even with positive PnL, your final balance can decrease if your trade sizes and leverage generate fees larger than your gains.
Once you understand the mechanics, you’ll make smarter, more profitable trading decisions.