Glossary

4min

General 
 Term
Definition
Clearing House
margin/accounting engine of the protocol
AMM
means an Automated Market Maker is Drift's source of constant liquidity that is based on the constant product formula x*y=k balancing the reserves.
Keeper Network
refers to the network of Keeper Bots on Drift that facilitates the exchange of liquidity. For more information, read Keeper Bots﻿﻿
JIT 
means to Just-In-Time. 
JIT Auction 
a "Just-in-Time" Auction refers to the dutch auction mechanism that lets Market Makers provide liquidity to Takers.
a "Just-in-Time" auction refers to the dutch auction mechanism that lets Market Makers provide liquidity to Takers
a "Just-in-Time" auction refers to the dutch auction mechanism that lets Market Makers provide liquidity to Takers
a "Just-in-Time" auction refers to the dutch auction mechanism that lets Market Makers provide liquidity to Takers
Market Makers / Makers
refers to parties on the platform that provides liquidity to the exchange. Liquidity 'provided' by Market Makers can be 'taken' by Takers. 

Market Makers includes parties that place orders on Drift with the 'Post-Only' function. This means the order will be placed on the decentralised orderbook and will only add to the liquidity available. 

Market Makers also include parties that provide liquidity via the JIT mechanism. 
Takers
refer to users on the platform that 'take' liquidity from the exchange. Takers take liquidity made available by Market Makers or Drift's AMM. 
LPs
Liquidity Providers (LPs) are users who hold LP Shares in a particular Perpetuals Market and increase the AMM's liquidity. 

These users receive positions pro-rate:
e.g. their share amount of the AMM's constant product invariant (k). Adding/Removing LP shares increases/decreases the AMM's k 
Longing
means you are speculating on the price of the asset going up. 
Shorting
means you are speculating on the price of the asset going down. 
TWAP
means Time Weighted Average Price which is the average price of the Oracle over a specified period of time. This approximation is calculated on-chain during program interactions with the account.
Market Info
Term
Description
Example
Index / Oracle Price
is the price of the underlying asset (currently: as reported by Pyth).
$201.01
Mark Price
is the price of the relevant market.
$201.05
Funding Rate
refers to 1/24 the average premium every hour.
if positive, longs pay shorts. if negative, shorts pay longs.
see  for more details
.0012%
Open Interest 
refers to the total size of all positions (long and short) in the relevant market.
181 SOL
24h Volume
refers to the total volume traded in the past day in the relevant market.
$1.04M
Position Table
 Term
Description
Example 
Market
means a base / quote asset pair.
SOL/USD
Direction
means the position's bet on price change.
LONG,SHORT
Size
means the position's base asset value.
2.3555 SOL
Notional
means the position's quote asset value.
 $1,000
Entry Price
means the average price paid (cost basis) for acquiring position.
$200
Exit Price
means the average price realised if closing entire position.
$200
Liquidation Price
means the soft estimate of price where liquidation of the account will occur.
None
P&L (Profit & Loss)
means the Profit and/or Loss of position.
Calculated on difference between EXIT PRICE and ENTRY PRICE.
$0
Action
﻿Opens modal for reducing/closing position.﻿
ClosePosition
Term
Description
Example
Total Collateral
means the total available USD value of weighted collateral and P&L for margin trading
101.01
Unrealised P&L
means the sum of P&L available in all open positions that have not been realised (settled) by the user yet. 
1
Unrealised Funding P&L
means the unrealised amount collected/paid for funding payments. (will be automatically realised upon next user action)﻿
.01
Free Collateral
means the value of collateral that can be used to open new risk-increasing positions.
0.5
Leverage
means Total Notional Position Size / Total Collateral.
5x
Margin Ratio
means Total Collateral / Total Notional Position Size.
20%
Maintenance Margin Req.
is the margin ratio at which users will liquidate back up to the liquidation buffer.
5%
maintenanceRatio
maintenanceMarginReq / Total Collateral
﻿
AMM Specific 
 Term
Definition
K
is the curve invariant, currently for constant product.
k = base_asset_reserve * quote_asset_reserve
Base Asset Reserve
means the virtual base reserves for a market (SOL reserves).﻿
Quote Asset Reserve
means the virtual quote reserves for a market (e.g. USDC reserves in a SOL/USDC virtual pool). 
Peg Multiplier
means the magnitude of the quote asset reserve. For instance, one virtual quote asset reserve is a peg multiplier amount of the quote asset. 

A peg multiplier ensures that the base asset reserve and the quote asset reserve are balanced at the initialisation of the curve while ensuring that the starting price of the pool is equivalent to the oracle price of the base asset at initialisation.
Reserve Price
in the AMM, is defined as (quote_asset_reserve * peg_multiplier)  / base_asset_reserve. It is the true reserves price prior to any spread logic.
Bid Price
is the Price available to sell from the AMM, before slippage.
Ask Price
is the Price available to buy from the AMM, before slippage.
﻿Mark Price﻿
means the Market Price. Average of current Bid and Ask Price.
﻿Oracle Price﻿
means the latest composite price from oracles. Oracle price is interchangeable with index price. 
Repeg
means modifying the peg multiplier which means re-pegging the curve such that the mark price is closer to the oracle price.
Adjusting K
means modifying the curve's invariant k by scaling the base/quote asset reserves. For instance, this modifies the default slippage of a swap. 
Terminal Price 
means the mark price if all users atomically closed their positions and no repegs/k adjustments occurred (should be equal to the peg multiplier if all k adjustments were done during a balanced market).﻿
Users
Term
Definition
﻿base asset amount﻿
The amount of base currency (e.g. SOL-PERP) held by a single user.
﻿net user position ﻿
Current longs - shorts in a given market.
﻿

Updated 21 Feb 2023

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Term	Definition
Clearing House	margin/accounting engine of the protocol
AMM	means an Automated Market Maker is Drift's source of constant liquidity that is based on the constant product formula x*y=k balancing the reserves.
Keeper Network	refers to the network of Keeper Bots on Drift that facilitates the exchange of liquidity. For more information, read Keeper Bots
JIT	means to Just-In-Time.
JIT Auction	a "Just-in-Time" Auction refers to the dutch auction mechanism that lets Market Makers provide liquidity to Takers. a "Just-in-Time" auction refers to the dutch auction mechanism that lets Market Makers provide liquidity to Takers a "Just-in-Time" auction refers to the dutch auction mechanism that lets Market Makers provide liquidity to Takers a "Just-in-Time" auction refers to the dutch auction mechanism that lets Market Makers provide liquidity to Takers
Market Makers / Makers	refers to parties on the platform that provides liquidity to the exchange. Liquidity 'provided' by Market Makers can be 'taken' by Takers. Market Makers includes parties that place orders on Drift with the 'Post-Only' function. This means the order will be placed on the decentralised orderbook and will only add to the liquidity available. Market Makers also include parties that provide liquidity via the JIT mechanism.
Takers	refer to users on the platform that 'take' liquidity from the exchange. Takers take liquidity made available by Market Makers or Drift's AMM.
LPs	Liquidity Providers (LPs) are users who hold LP Shares in a particular Perpetuals Market and increase the AMM's liquidity. These users receive positions pro-rate: e.g. their share amount of the AMM's constant product invariant (k). Adding/Removing LP shares increases/decreases the AMM's k
Longing	means you are speculating on the price of the asset going up.
Shorting	means you are speculating on the price of the asset going down.
TWAP	means Time Weighted Average Price which is the average price of the Oracle over a specified period of time. This approximation is calculated on-chain during program interactions with the account.

Term	Description	Example
Index / Oracle Price	is the price of the underlying asset (currently: as reported by Pyth).	$201.01
Mark Price	is the price of the relevant market.	$201.05
Funding Rate	refers to 1/24 the average premium every hour. if positive, longs pay shorts. if negative, shorts pay longs. see for more details	.0012%
Open Interest	refers to the total size of all positions (long and short) in the relevant market.	181 SOL
24h Volume	refers to the total volume traded in the past day in the relevant market.	$1.04M

Term	Definition
K	is the curve invariant, currently for constant product. k = base_asset_reserve * quote_asset_reserve
Base Asset Reserve	means the virtual base reserves for a market (SOL reserves).
Quote Asset Reserve	means the virtual quote reserves for a market (e.g. USDC reserves in a SOL/USDC virtual pool).
Peg Multiplier	means the magnitude of the quote asset reserve. For instance, one virtual quote asset reserve is a peg multiplier amount of the quote asset. A peg multiplier ensures that the base asset reserve and the quote asset reserve are balanced at the initialisation of the curve while ensuring that the starting price of the pool is equivalent to the oracle price of the base asset at initialisation.
Reserve Price	in the AMM, is defined as (quote_asset_reserve * peg_multiplier) / base_asset_reserve. It is the true reserves price prior to any spread logic.
Bid Price	is the Price available to sell from the AMM, before slippage.
Ask Price	is the Price available to buy from the AMM, before slippage.
Mark Price	means the Market Price. Average of current Bid and Ask Price.
Oracle Price	means the latest composite price from oracles. Oracle price is interchangeable with index price.
Repeg	means modifying the peg multiplier which means re-pegging the curve such that the mark price is closer to the oracle price.
Adjusting K	means modifying the curve's invariant k by scaling the base/quote asset reserves. For instance, this modifies the default slippage of a swap.
Terminal Price	means the mark price if all users atomically closed their positions and no repegs/k adjustments occurred (should be equal to the peg multiplier if all k adjustments were done during a balanced market).

Term	Definition
base asset amount	The amount of base currency (e.g. SOL-PERP) held by a single user.
net user position	Current longs - shorts in a given market.

Drift Protocol v2

Glossary