You think ETH will do worse than BTC, but you have no idea where the market goes next. Margin Pair Trade buys BTC and borrows ETH to sell it. If both fall, the short side gains while the long side loses; if both rise, the reverse. What is left is the difference between the two - the bet you actually wanted to make.
What it costs
This strategy is open on every plan - tiers set capacity, not access. Standard is free; Elite and Elite Plus raise how many assets and markets it can drive.
Recommended minimum vault: Elite · See all store pricing →
How it works
On one cross margin account the strategy holds two sides. The long side buys the asset you pick, up to the budget per side. The short side keeps an amount of the second asset borrowed and sells it, again up to the budget per side. Every round it reads the account's margin level: at or below the floor you set, it cancels the orders of both sides and borrows no more.
Key Features
Strategy profile
A snapshot of how this strategy behaves and who it suits, not a forecast of returns.
These are our assessments of strategy character, not user-specific performance figures.
A pair trade removes most of the market's direction, not the risk. If the asset you sold short rallies while the one you bought falls, both sides lose at once. Borrowing costs interest for as long as the loan is open, and a sharp rise in the borrowed asset can push the margin level toward liquidation. The two sides are sized by budget, not matched to each other's price swings, so the result is never perfectly neutral.
All figures on this page are simulated or historical backtest results, shown for information and education only. They are not real customer results, they do not include your specific fees and slippage, and past performance does not guarantee future returns. Your capital is at risk.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick glossary
Definitions for the trading terms used on this page.
- Backtest
- A simulation of how a strategy would have performed on historical price data. Past results never guarantee future returns - markets change.
- Slippage
- The difference between the price you expect and the price you actually get when an order fills. Worse on illiquid pairs and during fast markets.
- Spread
- The gap between the best buy price (bid) and the best sell price (ask). Tight spreads = liquid market, wider spreads = more cost per round trip.
- Stop-loss
- An automatic exit order that closes a losing position when price hits a chosen threshold. Caps how much one bad trade can hurt you.
- Take-profit
- An automatic exit order that closes a winning position once price reaches a chosen target. Locks in gains without relying on you to watch the chart.
- Volatility
- How sharply price moves. High volatility = bigger swings in both directions, which means more opportunity but also more drawdown risk.
Have a view on one asset against another?
Every new Margin Pair Trade starts in paper trading: the orders of both sides are kept on paper and listed on the strategy page, and a paper run stops by itself after an hour.
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