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Documentation Index

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Auto-Deleveraging (ADL) is the final stage of the WhiteBIT futures liquidation flow. Activation occurs only when standard market liquidity cannot fully absorb a liquidated position. ADL closes a portion of profitable counterparty positions on the opposite side of the market at a calculated price, ensuring no user balance becomes negative.

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How liquidation reaches ADL

WhiteBIT futures liquidation runs in two stages:
  • Stage 1 — Market liquidity. The liquidation order matches against existing order-book depth, primarily liquidity-provider depth. Under normal market conditions Stage 1 absorbs the order, and the position closes without engaging counterparty user positions.
  • Stage 2 — ADL. When Stage 1 cannot fully absorb the liquidation order, ADL activates to close the residual portion. ADL never runs before Stage 1 is exhausted.

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How ADL closes the residual position

ADL places post-only limit orders in the order book at the bankruptcy price — the level at which the liquidated user’s collateral approaches zero without crossing into negative. Order properties:
  • Owner. Each ADL order is owned by the selected counterparty’s user account, not by the platform, an insurance fund, or the liquidated user.
  • Type. Post-only limit orders. Public order-book visibility applies while the orders are unfilled, although the small price offset usually results in fast fills.
  • Volume per order. Every ADL order matches the full counterparty position size, except the last selected order, which may be smaller to match the exact required volume.
ADL fills appear in standard order history and are identifiable by:
  • source: "adl"
  • clientOrderId: "adl_<orderId>"
  • Terminal status: FILLED
  • reduceOnly: false — even though the order reduces the counterparty’s position
Integrators identifying ADL fills in a counterparty account must use the source field. The reduceOnly flag remains false on ADL-inserted orders despite the position-reducing effect.

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How counterparties are selected

Selection runs on per-market lists, separately for the long and short sides:
  • A Short liquidation draws counterparties from the Long list.
  • A Long liquidation draws counterparties from the Short list.
Selection rules:
  • Hedge Mode. A user holding both long and short positions on the same perpetual market receives a Grade computed independently for each side. Selection on one side never considers the other.
  • Positive Rating only. Only positions with a positive Rating are selected as counterparties. Losing positions are filtered out at selection time.
  • Highest first. Selection walks the list from highest Rating downward until cumulative volume covers the liquidated position.

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Rating formula

Each candidate position receives a Rating value. Higher Rating means earlier selection. 
Rating = % profit × effective leverage

% profit            = unrealized PnL / |position size in money|
effective leverage  = |position size in money| / account equity
Account equity refers to the user’s collateral-account equity figure as defined in Balances. Negative-Rating positions are still ranked and receive a Grade for the indicator (see ADL Grade), but selection filters them out — only positive-Rating positions become ADL counterparties.

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Execution price

ADL fills execute at a price derived from Last Price (not Mark Price). The formula: 
d = Margin Fraction − 2 × taker_fee_rate

Long  position : Price_ADL = LastPrice × (1 − d)
Short position : Price_ADL = LastPrice × (1 + d)
Where:
  • LastPrice — the current last-traded price at the time of liquidation.
  • Margin Fraction — the system parameter from the published execution-price formula. The canonical publication is the WhiteBIT help-center article on ADL.
  • taker_fee_rate — the liquidated user’s taker fee rate.

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Worked example

A 10 BTC short position on a perpetual market is liquidated at LastPrice = $42,000. The system computes Ratings for the long-side candidates:
TraderRatingPositionPnLSelection result
A0.265 BTC+$35,000Full position closed (5 BTC)
B0.1678 BTC+$8,000Partial close (5 BTC) — 3 BTC remain open
C−0.056 BTC−$3,000Not selected — losing position
Price calculation for the Short liquidation:
  • Margin Fraction (of liquidated position) ≈ 0.02
  • taker_fee_rate = 0.0005 (0.05%)
  • d = 0.02 − 2 × 0.0005 = 0.019
  • Price_ADL = 42,000 × (1 + 0.019) = $42,798
Source: WhiteBIT help-center article.

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ADL Grade

ADL Grade is an indicator value from 0 to 4 reflecting a position’s place in the per-market ranking. Higher Grade signals higher likelihood of selection as an ADL counterparty. Computation:
  • Position lists are ordered ascending by Rating.
  • Each position’s index converts to k = i / n, where i is the 1-based position in the list and n is the list size.
  • Grade is assigned by the threshold table below.
Range of kGradeRisk
k < 0.50Minimal
k < 0.731Low
k < 0.872Medium
k < 0.953Elevated
k ≥ 0.954Highest priority
Grade depends on Rating and on the number of other traders on the same market. As prices and unrealized PnL change, Grade values update accordingly.

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Grade 4 in thin markets

Grade 4 corresponds to the asymptotic top 5% of ranked positions on the market. For thin markets, the actual Grade 4 fraction is (n − ⌈0.95n⌉ + 1) / n:
List size nGrade 4 count% of list
10110%
10066%
1000515.1%
Integrators modeling ADL base rates numerically should account for thin-market discretization rather than assuming a flat 5%.

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What happens when ADL closes a position

Effects on the selected counterparty:
  • The position closes at Price_ADL.
  • A notification is delivered with the closure details (volume and price).
  • All open orders on the affected market are cancelled.
  • Pending reduce-only orders auto-cancel with the existing AUTO_CANCELED_REDUCE_ONLY status. No ADL-specific cancel status was introduced.

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Reducing ADL exposure

Three approaches lower a position’s ADL exposure:
  • Reduce leverage. Lower configured leverage reduces effective leverage, which reduces Rating and therefore Grade.
  • Use stop-loss. Losing positions are excluded from selection. Setting a stop-loss to convert a profitable position into a losing one before potential ADL selection removes the position from the queue.
  • Maintain margin. Adequate collateral reduces the user’s own liquidation risk, which limits exposure to the market conditions under which ADL activates.

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What’s Next

Futures Trading

Perpetual contracts up to 100x, Hedge Mode, funding rates.

Order Types

All order types and execution flags, including reduce-only.

Glossary

Definitions for ADL, ADL Grade, and effective leverage.