# What is Perpetual Trading?

### **What are Perpetuals?**

Perpetuals, perpetual swaps, or perps are a special type of futures contract without an expiration date.

Futures trading allows users to enter positions on margin (leverage) using borrowed funds to optimize capital. Using leverage allows a user to enter a position with a larger size than their account balance. For example, a user could take 10× leverage and trade 100 CAKE for the price of 10 CAKE — in this case, the initial margin would be 10 CAKE, used to collateralize the leveraged position.

In addition to leverage, futures open the possibility of trading in both directions — buying (long) and selling (short). Perpetual contracts don't expire and allow the holder to trade the price action of an underlying asset without owning it.

### **Perpetuals on PancakeSwap**

PancakeSwap has offered perpetuals trading since V1. Our latest version — PCS Perps — is powered by Aster's orderbook infrastructure and represents a full rebuild of the experience: CEX-grade execution, up to 200× leverage, and a PCS-native frontend accessible directly from your wallet.

Previous versions (V1 and V2) are now legacy products.