The Kalshi platform has started trading perpetual futures on individual US stocks. The first contracts were Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) shares. The estimated leverage on them came out to about 5:1.
What a perpetual future is. This is a contract without an execution date. You can hold it for as long as you like; there is no expiration in the calendar.
Why this matters to a trader. A new way to hold a directional position in a stock has appeared. But the legal basis for such contracts is being challenged in court right now.
Where did this market come from?
The format came from crypto. Until now, perpetual futures were a crypto market story. That is precisely where contracts without expiration became the main speculative instrument.
Now the same format has appeared on individual US stocks. The two most liquid securities were the first to enter the order book.
- November 3 - the CFTC approved perpetual futures on stocks for the first time
- 55 securities - the approved list
- up to 6:1 - the maximum leverage per the regulator's decision
The CFTC is the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
What changes for a trader?
Position rollover disappears. You can hold a directional bet on a stock without rolling between futures series. There is also no execution date in the calendar.
- Leverage of about 5:1. A position worth $10,000 requires roughly $2,000 in margin.
- Risk grows proportionally. A move of a few percent in the security hits the account several times harder.
- Calculate before entering. The instrument is worth sizing to your deposit, not to the position's notional value.
Key point: the approval went from a document to a working market in a matter of days, and the legal dispute around it is not yet closed.
What happens next?
The main question is now a legal one. The lawsuit targets the very regulatory basis of perpetual futures on stocks.
- The CFTC's position - if it does not hold up, the question will extend to contracts already being traded
- The list of 55 securities - its fate depends on the same decision
- Market dates - it is convenient to keep events in the economic calendar
Have you sized 5:1 leverage against your account?
The first thing you do with a new instrument is size it to your account. With a deposit of a couple of thousand, even five times the notional gives you a position where a 3% move in Apple turns into taxi money. In prop trading, the company provides the notional: a paid test of discipline and loss limits, then trading its account for an agreed share of the result. It is worth looking at how such access is structured and what is required in return.