Trading compute futures

The Trade page turns each compute future into a live, leveraged market. You can go long (betting compute gets more expensive) or short (betting it gets cheaper) on a model tier such as DeepSeek, Llama, GPT, or Gemini — posting $AUTO or USDC as collateral. Settlement, PnL, and liquidations run off-chain in Auton's clearinghouse, while your collateral lives in the system vault.

Overview

Every market has a mark price quoted in USD per million tokens ($/M). The mark moves around the real spot rate routed from OpenRouter, so the chart reflects the genuine cost of that model's compute. You trade the price of that compute, not the tokens themselves.

• Pick a market from the dropdown or the top ticker strip
• Choose leverage (1x–10x) and a size in millions of tokens
• Open a long or short, then close any time to realize PnL
• The chart is a live TradingView candlestick feed of the mark price

Collateral & buying power

Auton runs a unified, multi-collateral clearinghouse. Whatever you deposit is converted into a single USD buying power balance that backs every position:

• USDC — credited 1:1. Deposit $50 USDC → $50 buying power.
• $AUTO — credited at the live market price from the Jupiter oracle. If $AUTO is $0.006, depositing 10,000 $AUTO → ~$60 buying power.

Your raw token balances are tracked separately, but all margin, sizing, PnL, and liquidation math is done in USD. The side panel shows a live $AUTO price ticker and your connected wallet's $AUTO and USDC balances.

Depositing margin

Click Deposit collateral, choose $AUTO or USDC, and enter an amount (or hit Max). Your wallet signs a standard SPL transfer to the system vault — Token-2022 for $AUTO, classic SPL for USDC. Once the transfer is verified on-chain, the backend credits the equivalent USD buying power to your trading account.

• Free margin — available to open new positions
• Locked margin — collateral currently backing open positions
• Equity — total collateral plus unrealized PnL

Opening a position

Enter a size in millions of tokens and select leverage. The panel shows the order value (notional) and margin required before you confirm:

• Notional = size (M) × mark price ($/M)
• Margin required = notional ÷ leverage

Example: a 100M position on DeepSeek at $0.84/M is $84 notional. At 2x leverage you post $42 of buying power as margin. Click Buy / Long or Sell / Short to open; the margin moves from free to locked.

How PnL works

Compute prices float like any commodity — driven by model demand, launches, and platform speculation. Your unrealized PnL is the difference between your entry price and the live mark, scaled by position size:

• Long PnL = (mark − entry) × size (M)
• Short PnL = (entry − mark) × size (M)

Because positions are leveraged, gains and losses are amplified relative to the margin you posted. Closing a position returns your locked margin plus realized PnL to your free balance.

Liquidation

A background risk engine re-checks every open position every few seconds. If the mark price moves far enough against you that your margin can no longer cover the loss, the position is liquidated. Liquidation price is set from your leverage and a maintenance-margin buffer:

• Long liquidates roughly when the mark falls by (1 ÷ leverage) from entry
• Short liquidates roughly when the mark rises by (1 ÷ leverage) from entry

On liquidation the locked collateral is seized by the clearinghouse. Higher leverage means a tighter liquidation price — use it carefully.

Order book & trades

Each market shows a live order book and a trade tape. Real on-chain purchases of that model's compute appear in the tape (marked with a dot) alongside simulated market activity, so the book reflects genuine demand for the underlying compute while staying liquid enough to read.

Risk & disclaimers

Leverage can wipe out your collateral quickly. Compute markets are volatile and the mark price can gap. Only post collateral you can afford to lose, and treat liquidation prices as approximate. Trading is an MVP feature and not financial advice.