Perpetual futures

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In finance, perpetual futures, also known as perpetual swaps or colloquially as perps, are contract agreements to non-optionally buy or sell an asset at an unspecified point in the future. Perpetual futures are cash-settled, and they differ from regular futures in that they lack a pre-specified delivery date and can thus be held indefinitely without the need to roll over contracts as they approach expiration. Payments are periodically exchanged between holders of the two sides of the contracts, long and short, with the direction and magnitude of the settlement based on the difference between the contract price and that of the underlying asset, as well as, if applicable, the difference in leverage between the two sides. Perpetual futures were first proposed by economist Robert Shiller in 1992, to enable derivatives markets for illiquid assets. Perpetuals serve the same function as contracts for difference (CFDs), allowing indefinite, leveraged tracking of an underlying asset or flow, but...

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