Mark price is an exchange-calculated value for a perpetual futures contract that is derived from a spot price index rather than the contract's own last traded price. Most exchanges compute it as a weighted average of spot prices across several reference venues, sometimes with a smoothed premium or basis component added to account for the spread between the contract and its underlying index. The exact formula varies by exchange.
Exchanges use mark price — not last price — to calculate unrealized profit and loss and to determine when a position's margin has fallen below the maintenance threshold that triggers liquidation. Because the last traded price can be moved by a single large order or a temporary wick, relying on it for liquidation calculations would expose traders to forced closes caused by fleeting, artificial moves. Mark price filters out that noise.
The gap between mark price and last price is usually small in liquid conditions but can widen during periods of low volume, market dislocation, or sharp volatility. Traders monitoring positions near their liquidation level watch the mark price, since that is the figure the exchange uses for risk calculations — not the price showing on the candlestick chart.
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