Account Model

This page dives deep into how Drift tracks positions, manages orders, and calculates collateral onchain. For account type definitions and structure, see Program Structure.

Overview

Drift’s account model is built around a few key principles:

Key Design Principles

• Cross-margin - All positions within a wallet share collateral
• Subaccounts - Each wallet can have multiple isolated trading accounts (0, 1, 2…)
• Interest-bearing - Spot balances accrue interest via scaled balance mechanism
• Inline orders - Orders are stored directly in UserAccount (no separate order accounts)
• Account size limits - Fixed limits (8 perp, 8 spot, 32 orders) keep transactions predictable

Position accounting

PerpPosition

Tracks long/short exposure in perpetual futures markets.

Key mechanics:

• Position size: baseAssetAmount (positive = long, negative = short)
• Entry price: quoteEntryAmount / baseAssetAmount
• Unrealized PnL: (oraclePrice - entryPrice) x baseAssetAmount
• Funding payments: Tracked via lastCumulativeFundingRate

Order locking:

• openBids - Notional value locked in buy orders
• openAsks - Notional value locked in sell orders

Liquidity provision:

• lpShares - If providing liquidity to the AMM

SpotPosition

Represents deposits (positive) or borrows (negative) in spot markets.

Interest accrual:

• Uses scaledBalance mechanism
• Real balance = scaledBalance x cumulativeIndex
• Avoids per-user interest calculations onchain
• Interest compounds automatically

Balance types:

• DepositBalance - You’ve deposited/lent tokens
• BorrowBalance - You’ve borrowed tokens

Order locking:

• Tokens locked in open spot orders tracked separately

Order mechanics

Orders are stored inline in UserAccount (no separate order accounts). Up to 32 orders per user including both resting orders and trigger orders.

Order types

Limit orders - Resting orders at a specific price

• postOnly - Only execute as maker (reject if would take)
• immediateOrCancel - Fill immediately or cancel

Market orders - Execute immediately at best available price

Oracle orders - Price moves with oracle: oraclePrice + oraclePriceOffset

• Useful for market makers who want to maintain a spread without constant updates
• Price automatically adjusts as oracle updates

Trigger orders - Activate when oracle price crosses trigger price

• triggerMarket - Becomes market order when triggered
• triggerLimit - Becomes limit order when triggered

JIT auctions

Every order goes through a Just-In-Time (JIT) auction to improve price:

• auctionStartPrice - Most aggressive price
• auctionEndPrice - Least aggressive price (limit price)
• auctionDuration - Slots for auction to run
• Price linearly improves from start to end over the duration

This gives better prices while maintaining MEV resistance. See JIT Auctions for details.

Order flags

• reduceOnly - Order can only reduce position size, not increase or flip it
• postOnly - Order must be maker, rejected if would match immediately
• immediateOrCancel - Fill what you can immediately, cancel the rest

Collateral and margin

Total collateral calculation

Your collateral is calculated across all spot positions:

Total Collateral =
  Σ (spot deposits x asset weight)
  - Σ (spot borrows x liability weight)
  + unrealized perp PnL

Asset weights (< 1.0)

• Safety buffer for deposits used as collateral
• Example: SOL might have 0.9 weight (90% of value counts)
• Protects against price volatility

Liability weights (> 1.0)

• Extra buffer for borrowed funds
• Example: Borrowed SOL might have 1.1 weight (110% of debt counts)
• Accounts for repayment risk

Margin requirement

Position margin requirements sum across all positions:

Margin Requirement = Σ (position notional x initial margin ratio)

Initial margin ratio

• Determines minimum collateral to open a position
• Varies by market (e.g., 5% for BTC-PERP = 20x max leverage)
• Higher for riskier/less liquid markets

Maintenance margin ratio

• Lower threshold that triggers liquidation
• Typically ~half of initial margin
• Example: 2.5% maintenance if 5% initial

Account health

Health = Total Collateral / Margin Requirement

Health states:

• > 1.0 - Healthy, can open new positions
• < 1.0 - Liquidation eligible
• < 0.0 - Underwater (negative collateral)

When health drops below 1.0, liquidators can close your positions to bring the account back to health.

Cross-margin and subaccounts

All subaccounts under the same wallet share collateral for cross-margin benefits:

How it works:

• Each wallet can create multiple subaccounts (0, 1, 2, …)
• Deposits in subaccount 0 can back positions in subaccount 1
• Total collateral and margin requirement are calculated across ALL subaccounts
• Liquidation considers all subaccounts together

Benefits:

• Capital efficiency - Don’t need to split funds across accounts
• Flexible organization - Separate strategies in different subaccounts
• Shared margin pool - Winning positions support losing ones

SDK usage (TypeScript example , Python and Rust SDKs have equivalent methods):

// Switch between subaccounts
await driftClient.switchActiveUser(1); // Switch to subaccount 1
await driftClient.placePerpOrder(/* order params */); // Order goes to subaccount 1

Important:

• Each subaccount has its own positions and orders
• But they all share the same collateral/margin pool
• Liquidation affects all subaccounts if total health drops below 1.0

State transitions

Deposit

Adds collateral to your account:

1. Transfers tokens from wallet to Drift vault
2. Increases spot position scaledBalance
3. Updates cumulative deposit tracking
4. Improves account health

Interest starts accruing immediately on deposits

Withdraw

Removes collateral from your account:

1. Checks account health allows withdrawal
2. Decreases spot position scaledBalance
3. Transfers tokens from vault to wallet
4. May require settling PnL first

Can’t withdraw if it would make health < 1.0

Place order

Adds a new order to your account:

1. Adds Order to orders array (max 32)
2. Increases openBids or openAsks on position
3. Locks collateral for the order
4. Checks account health
5. Starts JIT auction

Order appears on DLOB immediately

Order fill

When an order matches:

1. Updates position baseAssetAmount and quoteAssetAmount
2. Reduces openBids or openAsks
3. Marks order as filled (not removed)
4. Emits OrderFillRecord event
5. Updates account health

Filled orders remain for history tracking

Settle PnL

Converts unrealized perp PnL to realized:

1. Calculates unrealized PnL from perp positions
2. Moves quote from perp to spot balance
3. Updates settledPerpPnl tracking
4. Makes profit/loss withdrawable

Required before withdrawing perp profits

Liquidation

When health < 1.0, liquidators can:

1. Close perp positions at oracle price
2. Reduce borrows by seizing collateral
3. Earn liquidation fee (2-5%)
4. Bring account back to health
5. Remaining positions stay open

Partial liquidations are common

Account size limits

Drift enforces fixed limits to keep account size manageable and transaction costs predictable:

Perp positions

Maximum: 8 positions

Opening a 9th market fails unless you close an existing position first.

Spot positions

Maximum: 8 positions

Includes both deposits and borrows across all spot markets.

Orders

Maximum: 32 orders

Includes both resting orders and trigger orders combined.

Why limits?

• Keeps account data size predictable
• Ensures transaction compute fits in Solana limits
• Makes liquidation calculations feasible
• Prevents account bloat

Workaround:

• Use multiple subaccounts for more positions
• Each subaccount has its own 8/8/32 limits
• Still shares margin across all subaccounts

Related

• Program Structure - Account types and PDAs
• SDK Internals - How SDK reads and interprets account data