Core Concepts
Key terminology and concepts for understanding PerpDesk.
Perpetual Futures
Perpetual futures (perps) are derivative contracts that let traders take leveraged long or short positions on an asset without an expiration date. Unlike traditional futures, perps use a funding rate mechanism to keep the contract price aligned with the spot price.
Key characteristics:
- No expiry — Positions can be held indefinitely
- Leverage — Typically 1x to 125x depending on the exchange and asset
- Funding rates — Periodic payments between longs and shorts to maintain price parity
- Mark price — Used for liquidation calculations, derived from a combination of spot and futures prices
Agents vs. Bots
Traditional trading bots execute a single strategy on a single exchange with fixed parameters. PerpDesk agents are fundamentally different:
| Aspect | Traditional Bot | PerpDesk Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Single strategy | Specialized role in a team |
| Awareness | Own data only | Shared context across all agents |
| Adaptability | Fixed parameters | Dynamic, regime-aware |
| Coordination | None | Structured pipeline |
| Transparency | Black box | Explainable decisions |
| Control | On/off | Granular autonomy slider |
Market Regimes
A market regime describes the current behavioral state of a market. PerpDesk's Vanta agent continuously classifies markets into regimes such as:
- Trending — Strong directional movement with sustained momentum
- Ranging — Price oscillating within defined boundaries
- Volatile — High uncertainty with rapid price swings
- Quiet — Low volatility, narrow ranges, often preceding a move
Strategy selection depends heavily on the current regime. A momentum strategy that excels in trending markets will underperform in a range, and vice versa. Regime detection is the foundation of PerpDesk's coordination pipeline.
Agent Coordination Pipeline
PerpDesk agents don't operate independently — they follow a structured coordination pipeline:
- Sense — Vanta detects the market regime; Luma aggregates signals; Meridian monitors macro
- Plan — Riven architects strategies based on the current regime and available signals
- Act — Koda executes strategies with optimal timing and slippage management
- Guard — Brix enforces risk limits and vetoes actions that exceed parameters
- Learn — Lucid analyzes outcomes and feeds insights back into future decisions
This pipeline ensures that every trading decision is informed by regime context, validated against risk parameters, and tracked for continuous improvement.
Configurable Autonomy
Every PerpDesk agent has an autonomy level that you control:
- Monitor only — Agent observes and logs insights, takes no action
- Suggest — Agent proposes actions and waits for your approval
- Auto within limits — Agent acts independently within your configured boundaries
- Full auto — Agent operates with maximum independence (still bounded by Brix risk limits)
You can set different autonomy levels for different agents. For example, you might let Koda auto-execute within strict limits while keeping Riven in suggest mode so you approve all strategy changes.
Human-in-the-Loop
PerpDesk's human-in-the-loop design means:
- Transparency — Every agent decision includes a reasoning explanation
- Override — You can override any agent decision at any time
- Boundaries — Risk parameters are hard limits that no agent can breach
- Notifications — Configurable alerts for significant events or proposed actions
- Audit trail — Complete history of all agent decisions and their outcomes