Perpetual futures
- A perpetual-futures contract is a derivative with no fixed expiration date.
- A periodic funding payment applies between long and short holders.
- Every price on StockTicker24 is a perpetual-futures reference value, not a share price or an official index level.
Perpetual futures, funding and reference values on StockTicker24.
Definition
A perpetual-futures contract (often searched as "perps") is a derivative that has no fixed expiration date. A dated futures contract converges with the spot price because it settles on a set date. A perpetual-futures contract has no such date, so it uses a funding rate instead.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission described this structure in its Policy Statement Concerning the Listing of Perpetual Contracts, adopted May 29, 2026. The statement says perpetual contracts rely on a periodic funding rate to keep relative price parity with the spot price. The statement also says it imposes no obligation and creates no right enforceable at law.
The contract issuer for the board's equity, index, commodity and foreign-exchange cards is trade[XYZ]. Its documentation states that margin and settlement are in USDC, a crypto asset linked to the U.S. dollar. The oracle price and the profit-and-loss calculation are in USD.
The chart line is solid while the related cash market is open and dashed while it is closed.
no expiry date; funding takes the place of expiry-based convergence.
How it appears on StockTicker24
The large number on each card is the mid price of the perpetual-futures contract. When the mid price is unavailable, the card uses the mark price.
The site retrieved its production board snapshot (/api/board-snapshot) at Oct 10, 2026, 05:01:18 UTC. The snapshot's capturedAt field reads Oct 10, 2026, 05:01:10.627 UTC, a Saturday, when the U.S. and Japanese cash markets were closed.
| Card | Mid price | Mark price | Oracle price |
|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,820.35 | 7,820.4 | 7,818.5 |
| Nikkei 225 | 68,900.0 | 68,900.0 | 68,867.0 |
| NVIDIA | 230.315 | 230.34 | 230.35 |
These are observations of perpetual-futures values on a Saturday. The S&P 500 index itself has no Saturday session. On the chart, these hours appear as a dashed line.
Cards also carry a display class. Below 10,000 USD is the Reference value class (Reference (index) for an index); 50,000 or more is the price-discovery class. Between those thresholds the prior class remains. The close tooltip can read "Close basis: Oracle value". The 24-hour comparison is vs. previous-day reference (prevDayPx). Open interest in U.S. dollars (open interest × mark price) below 10,000 gives a gray "Reference value" badge. At 50,000 or more the card is a price-discovery card. In the same snapshot, S&P 500 open interest was 47,706.09 contracts, or USD 373,080,706 at the mark price.
the card shows the contract's mid price; the line style shows whether the cash market is open.
Examples from the current board
Saved observation:
Tables scroll horizontally. Values use each contract’s quoted unit; no currency conversion.
| Symbol / contract | Unit | Price (mid; mark if missing) | prevDayPx | Difference vs. prevDayPx | Change vs. 24h earlier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARB/USDARB | USDC | 0.17926 | 0.1913 | −0.01204 | −6.293779% |
| PUMP/USDPUMP | USDC | 0.004328 | 0.004566 | −0.000238 | −5.21244% |
| ENA/USDENA | USDC | 0.186965 | 0.19712 | −0.010155 | −5.151684% |
| Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETFxyz:SOXL | USDC | 89.729 | 93.925 | −4.196 | −4.467394% |
| kPEPE/USDkPEPE | USDC | 0.003838 | 0.004016 | −0.000178 | −4.432271% |
Price = mid price, or mark price when mid is unavailable. Difference = price − prevDayPx; change vs. 24h earlier = (price ÷ prevDayPx − 1) × 100. Funding rate (%) = hourly decimal × 100. Calculated values are rounded to six decimal places.
Data: our board (perpetual-futures reference values), observed
No matching numeric example is available in this snapshot; the related board card is shown below.
Price: mid price (mark if missing) · perpetual futures / vs. 24h earlier / / Saved / stale
Data: our board (perpetual-futures reference values), observed
Questions
Is the price on a stock card the company's share price?
No. It is the price of a perpetual-futures contract that references the share. The share price is set on the stock exchange.
With no expiry, is holding a position the same as holding the share?
No. A perpetual-futures position pays or receives funding every hour. A share has no funding payment.
Does the dashed line show an after-hours share quote?
No. The dashed segment is the same perpetual-futures contract during hours when the cash market is closed.
Related
- Funding rate
- Mid price
- Mark price
- Price discovery
- Futures
- What a perpetual future is, and how funding works
- How to read a StockTicker24 card
- S&P 500 symbol page
- Nikkei 225 symbol page
- BTC/USD symbol page
Sources
The production API examples are a fixed historical snapshot. Building this page does not fetch new prices.
External source titles and URLs were checked on Oct 11, 2026. The historical content retrieval dates are listed below.
- U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Policy Statement Concerning the Listing of Perpetual Contracts (adopted May 29, 2026; content retrieved Aug 23, 2026, as cited on the Japanese page).
- trade[XYZ] (contract issuer), Perpetuals — https://docs.trade.xyz/perpetuals.md (content retrieved Aug 23, 2026, as cited on the Japanese page).
- StockTicker24 production API
/api/board-snapshot, retrieved Oct 10, 2026, 05:01:18 UTC.