Reference / Glossary
Glossary
The vocabulary of a perp exchange, translated for people who came from skins, and the vocabulary of skins, translated for people who came from perps.
Trading terms
| Term | What it means on CSL |
|---|---|
| Perpetual (perp) | A position on a skin's price with no expiry date. Hold it for a minute or a month. |
| Long | You profit when the skin's price rises. |
| Short | You profit when it falls. Impossible on any marketplace — the reason CSL exists. |
| Mark price | CSL's official price for a market. Every PnL and liquidation is measured against it. |
| Index / spot | The aggregated marketplace price the mark is anchored to. |
| Collateral | The USDC you put behind a position. Your maximum loss. |
| Notional | Collateral × leverage — the size you actually control. |
| Isolated margin | Each position is walled off. A liquidation on one cannot touch another or your free balance. |
| Liquidation price | The mark at which your collateral is exhausted and the position is force-closed. |
| Maintenance margin | The thin buffer that must remain for a position to stay open. |
| Funding rate | Hourly payment between longs and shorts that keeps the perp anchored to the index. |
| Taker fee | The fee charged on notional when a position opens. |
| Open interest | Total notional currently open on a market. |
| Unrealized PnL | Profit or loss on paper, moving with the mark. |
| Realized PnL | What actually hit your balance when a position closed. |
Skin terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Wear | The condition tier of a skin. It is part of the item's identity — a Field-Tested Dragon Lore and a Factory New one are different assets with different prices. |
| FN / MW / FT / WW / BS | Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn, Battle-Scarred. |
| Float | The 0–1 number behind the wear tier. Lower is cleaner. |
| Trade lock | The days a freshly traded skin cannot move. Irrelevant on CSL — you never hold the item. |
| Market hash name | The item's exact Steam identifier, wear included. It is what CSL tracks. |
i
Every CSL market is pinned to one specific wear — the tier that actually trades. The badge next to each market name (FT, FN…) tells you which one the price follows. See Markets.
Platform terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| USDC | The dollar stablecoin CSL settles in, on Solana. |
| Vault | The pool that stands on the other side of trades and absorbs PnL. |
| Deposit address | Your personal Solana address for funding the account. |
| $CSL | The protocol token. See $CSL Token. |