Lesson 1 of the GOGA Academy concept series. Spot and futures are the two basic ways to act on a crypto price. This lesson explains the difference, what leverage actually does, and why GOGA blocks leverage above 5× for live accounts. It pairs with the free Academy modules on risk and entries.
Spot: you own the coin
When you buy on the spot market, you own the asset. The logic is simple: you buy, you hold, and you sell when the price suits you. If the price falls and you do not sell, you still hold the coin — your position is not closed for you.
Spot is the baseline of crypto trading: no borrowed money, no forced liquidation, and no shorting unless you already hold and sell first.
Futures: a contract on the price
A futures position is a contract based on the price of an asset, not ownership of the coin itself. Two properties matter:
- You can go short — you can position for a price fall, not only for a rise.
- You can use leverage — the exchange lets a small margin control a much larger position.
Leverage is the reason futures are faster and the reason they are more dangerous.
What leverage actually does
Leverage multiplies both sides of the trade:
| 杠杆 | Price moves 1% against you | Result on your margin |
|---|---|---|
| 1× (no leverage) | −1% | You lose 1% |
| 5× | −1% | You lose 5% |
| 10× | −1% | You lose 10% |
| 100× | −1% | 强平 — the margin is gone |
A liquidation is not a temporary loss. The exchange closes the position and you lose the margin you put up. The higher the leverage, the smaller the adverse move that ends the trade.
Where GOGA draws the line
GOGA's readiness gate blocks leverage above 5× for live accounts by a fixed rule in code, not by a human mood. In the paper floor and the terminal you can study higher-leverage scenarios; the live cap exists because history keeps showing what the table above implies: high leverage turns small moves into account-ending events.
Where to try it. Open a demo terminal session and compare a spot view with the futures order book, or run a strategy on the paper floor and watch how the gate verdict changes when you raise leverage past 5×. The full curriculum is in the GOGA Academy, and the method behind the gate is explained in GOGA如何分析加密策略.