Hyperliquid Take Profit and Stop Loss Guide: TP/SL and OCO Orders

What price triggers Hyperliquid TP/SL orders?

Hyperliquid uses mark price to trigger take-profit and stop-loss orders. It does not use one isolated last trade as the trigger. Mark price is a robust fair-value estimate built from oracle and market inputs, and it is also used for margining, liquidations and unrealized profit and loss.

This explains why a chart candle or recent trade can appear to touch a stop while the order remains inactive: the mark price may not have crossed the trigger. The opposite can also happen when mark price reaches the trigger but the eventual execution differs from the number visible on the chart. Check the mark-price field and order history before concluding that the trigger failed.

Should you use a market or limit TP/SL order?

Hyperliquid's current documentation states that market TP/SL orders use a 10% slippage tolerance. That is a protective boundary, not a prediction that slippage will be 10% and not a promise that every position will close. A large order in a thin book may consume several price levels or fail to complete within the allowed range.

A limit exit gives more price control. For a long stop, placing the limit below the trigger makes the sell order more aggressive and more likely to fill after a sharp drop. For a short stop, placing the limit above the trigger makes the buy order more aggressive. A limit equal to the trigger can be too restrictive if price gaps through both levels.

The choice is therefore between execution certainty and price certainty, neither of which is absolute. A market stop usually gives a stronger chance of closing but weaker control over price. A stop limit protects the price boundary but can leave the position open during the exact move it was intended to manage.

How do you add TP/SL to an existing Hyperliquid position?

Position TP/SL is the simpler setup because it is associated with exposure that already exists. When the default entire-position option is used, the order attempts to close the position size that exists at trigger time. If a specific amount is entered, that amount stays fixed even if the position later grows or shrinks.

How do Hyperliquid OCO orders work?

An OCO, or one-cancels-other, setup links a take-profit child and a stop-loss child to the same parent entry order. If one child fills, the other can be cancelled as its sibling. This prevents both exits from acting on the same completed trade. Hyperliquid calls this parent-associated TP/SL, and it follows stricter activation rules than position-level protection.

What happens when the parent order fills only partially?

If the parent fills completely at placement, its TP and SL children are placed immediately. If the parent remains unfilled or partially filled, the children stay untriggered rather than becoming ordinary live exits. Cancelling an unfilled parent also cancels the children.

The dangerous case is a manual cancellation after a partial fill. Hyperliquid's documentation says both children are fully cancelled, so the filled portion becomes a position without those attached exits. The trader must add separate position TP/SL orders for that remaining exposure.

There is a special exception when a partially filled parent is cancelled because of insufficient margin: the documentation says the TP/SL orders are placed as though the parent were fully filled. Review the resulting active orders and current position immediately instead of assuming the sizes line up with the partial fill.

What does a TP/SL setup look like in practice?

Consider an illustrative one-unit long entered at $2,000. The trader chooses a $2,200 take-profit trigger and a $1,900 stop-loss trigger. If mark price rises to the take-profit condition, the closing sell is activated. If mark price falls to the stop condition first, the stop exit is activated. The example shows mechanics only; it is not a recommended price or risk level.

If the market falls directly from $1,920 to $1,850, the $1,900 stop with a $1,870 sell limit may trigger but remain unfilled because bids are already below the acceptable price. A market stop has a better chance of executing through the available bids, but its average fill can be much lower than $1,900. The order book determines the result after triggering.

How can a stop price inform position size?

One basic planning method starts with the amount that can be lost, then divides it by the distance between entry and stop. If a trader limits the planned price loss to $50 and the entry-to-stop distance is $50 per unit, the initial calculation produces one unit of size. Fees, funding and slippage make the realized loss larger, so this is only a starting estimate.

Leverage does not reduce the dollar exposure represented by the position. It changes the margin posted and how close liquidation may be. A stop should be considered alongside liquidation price, maintenance margin and available liquidity; placing it beyond liquidation cannot protect the trade from liquidation first.

Can a Hyperliquid stop loss prevent liquidation?

A stop loss can reduce liquidation risk when it is placed before the liquidation level and fills in time, but it cannot guarantee that outcome. Hyperliquid uses mark price for both TP/SL triggers and liquidation calculations. During a fast move, the exit may suffer slippage, a stop-limit may not fill, or liquidation conditions may be reached before the position is fully closed.

The practical buffer depends on leverage, margin mode, position size, book depth and volatility. A stop sitting only slightly before liquidation leaves little room for mark-price updates and execution. Reducing leverage or position size creates a more meaningful margin buffer than relying on a narrowly placed stop as a guarantee.

Do Hyperliquid TP/SL orders pay fees?

A pending trigger does not create a trade. Trading fees apply when the activated closing order fills. A market TP/SL normally removes liquidity and pays the applicable taker fee. A triggered limit order may execute immediately against the book or rest first, so its eventual maker-or-taker treatment depends on how the fill occurs.

Include opening and closing fees, possible funding payments and slippage when estimating the break-even take-profit level. A trigger above entry can still produce a poor or even negative net result if execution is weak, costs are high or only part of the position closes.

Why did a Hyperliquid TP/SL order not execute as expected?

Start with order history rather than the chart alone. Record the order ID, trigger, limit, side, size, timestamps and fill prices. Those fields show whether the issue occurred at placement, trigger or execution. Anyone offering to recover a trading loss through a direct message should be treated as a scammer.

How are TP/SL orders represented in the Hyperliquid API?

At the API level, a trigger order contains a trigger price, an isMarket choice and a tpsl value identifying take profit or stop loss. The order action also uses a grouping value: normalTpsl for an entry-linked group, positionTpsl for position protection, or na for orders without that grouping. TP/SL requests must use reduce-only closing logic.

Automation should query frontend open orders or order status after submission instead of assuming a signed request became active. The response can identify trigger orders, their parent or children, position-level TP/SL and cancellation reasons. Use the official SDK for signing, test group behavior on testnet and reconcile open positions after every partial fill or reconnect.

What should you check before confirming a TP/SL order?

• The order belongs to the intended market, wallet and subaccount.
• The take-profit and stop-loss triggers are on the correct sides of the current mark price.
• The closing side is correct for a long or short position.
• The size covers the intended amount and is not an outdated fixed quantity.
• The order is market or limit by deliberate choice, not by default oversight.
• A limit exit has enough distance from the trigger to remain useful during a fast move.
• The stop is meaningfully before liquidation if liquidation avoidance is part of the plan.
• Any entry-linked children are actually active after the parent order's fill status.
• The order appears in open orders after the wallet confirmation succeeds.

The bottom line

Hyperliquid TP/SL orders are two-stage instructions: mark price triggers them, then a market or limit order must execute. Market exits favor completion but can slip. Limit exits protect price but can remain open. That trade-off matters more than the visual position of a line on the chart.

Use position-level TP/SL when protecting exposure that already exists. Use entry-linked OCO only after understanding how full fills, partial fills and parent cancellations control the children. After any position change, verify the live orders again; risk protection is only useful when its side, size and activation state still match the position.