What is unsettled P&L?

Settling P&L

Settling P&L refers to settling the total funds available in the per-market P&L Pool — see Introduction to Profit & Loss for how Unrealised, Settled, and Claimable/Unsettled P&L relate, and Accounting & Settlement for how the P&L Pool is funded.

In short: for each dollar withdrawn from realised profits, there must be a corresponding dollar of realised losses sitting in the P&L Pool. If a profitable position’s realised P&L exceeds what’s currently settled in the pool, the excess is unsettled P&L until the pool is replenished by other users’ settled losses. See P&L Pool for what happens when there isn’t enough Settled P&L.

Margining of Unsettled P&L

If positive P&L is unsettled, it may account for less initial margin for trading perpetuals than USDT. Please see the treatment of non-USD assets here Cross-Collateral Deposits.

Each market has a maximum imbalanced P&L limit. When the net user P&L in a market breaches the limit, the asset weight will be decreased. Additionally, P&L in excess of the limit is subject to deficit resolutions from the Insurance Fund (up to the market’s max insurance fund limit).

Discounting the unsettled P&L lowers the maximum leverage extended for users (and only decreases a user’s initial margin).

These guards don’t lower the maintenance margin weights and are not relevant for liquidations.

Withdrawals

Only the lesser value of your Free Collateral and Asset Balance will be available for withdrawal (without opening a borrow). Realising positive unrealised P&L (by reducing/closing positions) will allow for that P&L to be settled to your Asset Balance for withdrawal.

A suggestion for users that want to stay in their position and withdraw unrealised profits in excess of their asset balance is to reduce/close then reopen the position.