Liquidation map
Where liquidation levels would sit if positions were opened the way the assumptions below describe — and, the part that matters, where price has already cleared them. The dark corridor the price path carves through the field is not empty space; it is the levels the market has already taken out. This is a model, and it is labelled as one inside the picture, not only underneath it.
Hourly candles to 17:00 UTC, refreshed every 2 hours and drawn here in 4-hour steps. The dashed line is the live mark, $6.41, from a snapshot 3 minutes old. Two different ages, so neither is allowed to stand for the other.
The assumptions, in full
| # | Assumption | Value used | Observed or assumed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Total notional modelled | Equal to current open interest, $11.23M | observed |
| 2 | When positions were opened | Spread over the bars of the window in proportion to each bar's traded volume | observed |
| 3 | Leverage mix | Balanced — Weight spread across the range, tilted slightly to the middle. A deliberately unopinionated default. | assumed |
| 4 | Direction | Half long, half short at every leverage | assumed |
| 5 | How long a position stays open | A bounded life of 14 days, decaying in four tranches. Removed earlier if price trades through its level. | assumed |
| 6 | Maintenance margin | 5.000% at tier 1, from the published table | observed |
| 7 | Positions before the window opens | 84 bars before the chart starts are modelled off-screen, so the first drawn column already holds a full position-life window of positions | assumed |
| 8 | Drawn price range | Fitted to the traded range, $6.04–$6.98, plus headroom. 56.04% of modelled notional liquidates further away than this and is not drawn. | observed |
Row 8 is the one most worth reading twice. Tying the axis to what actually traded is what gives the price path presence — the previous version spanned a third of the price to accommodate 2× levels half a market away, and flattened real movement into a squiggle. A minimum of ±8% stops a very quiet window from zooming into noise, and in a quiet window it is that minimum rather than the traded range that sets the axis. Either way the cost is that low-leverage levels fall off the picture. Here that is 2× and 5×.
Leverage mix used: Balanced
The exact weight vector behind the picture. Every other profile is one form submission away.
| Leverage | Share of notional | Modelled notional | Long liquidation, % from mark |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2× | 9.00% | $1.01M | −47.4% |
| 5× | 19.00% | $2.13M | −15.8% |
| 10× | 27.00% | $3.03M | −5.3% |
Where the model puts the biggest clusters
Price levels still carrying modelled notional at the right-hand edge of the chart, largest first — $1.15M across the ten listed. These are the numbers the bright bands stand for.
| Price | Distance from mark | Side closed | Modelled notional | Share of open interest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $6.02 | -6.82% | longs | $208,131 | 1.85% |
| $6.66 | +3.05% | shorts | $205,517 | 1.83% |
| $6.08 | -5.88% | longs | $132,567 | 1.18% |
| $6.82 | +5.63% | shorts | $105,886 | 0.94% |
| $6.72 | +3.99% | shorts | $92,675 | 0.83% |
| $6.03 | -6.70% | longs | $91,316 | 0.81% |
| $6.66 | +3.16% | shorts | $91,149 | 0.81% |
| $6.83 | +5.75% | shorts | $78,626 | 0.70% |
| $6.73 | +4.10% | shorts | $77,344 | 0.69% |
| $6.17 | -4.47% | longs | $69,790 | 0.62% |
How far price can move before each leverage liquidates — derived, not modelled
No assumptions here. Given the tier table and a mark these prices are arithmetic: the upper cap is where a short is closed, the lower cap where a long is closed.
| Leverage | Initial margin | Long liquidation | Move down | Short liquidation | Move up | Corridor width |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10× · max | 10.00% | $6.077 | −5.26% | $6.720 | +4.76% | 10.03% |
| 8× | 12.50% | $5.908 | −7.89% | $6.872 | +7.14% | 15.04% |
| 6× | 16.67% | $5.626 | −12.28% | $7.127 | +11.11% | 23.39% |
| 5× | 20.00% | $5.401 | −15.79% | $7.330 | +14.29% | 30.08% |
| 4× | 25.00% | $5.064 | −21.05% | $7.636 | +19.05% | 40.10% |
| 3× | 33.33% | $4.501 | −29.82% | $8.145 | +26.98% | 56.81% |
Where AVAX's margin tiers step down
Maintenance margin is set by the tier the notional falls in. Above $20.00M the corridor widens, because maintenance margin rises to 10.000%.
| Tier | Notional from | Max leverage | Maintenance margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · charted | $0 | 10× | 5.000% |
| 2 | $20.00M | 5× | 10.000% |
What is deliberately absent
No liquidation totals and no cascade tracker. Those need an event feed, and every available one is throttled — Binance publishes at most one liquidation per symbol per second, so a sum over it understates by an unknown factor, worst exactly when the number is most quoted. The full reasoning →
The 5 February sweep, on real candles → · Leverage survival — nothing modelled → · AVAX funding and margin tiers →