Gmx Trading

GMX Trading Skill

Overview

GMX V2 is a decentralized perpetual and spot exchange using oracle-based pricing (Chainlink Data Streams) instead of AMM curves. Traders get CEX-like execution with onchain settlement.

Supported chains:

Two integration paths:

• SDK (@gmx-io/sdk) — Full read + write: fetch markets, create orders, manage positions
• REST API — Read-only: prices, markets, positions, trade history

Trading modes:

• Classic — User signs each transaction directly
• Express — Gelato relay pays gas, user signs EIP-712 message (frontend only)
• Express + One-Click — Subaccount delegates signing for instant execution (frontend only)

SDK Quick Start

Install the SDK:

npm install @gmx-io/sdk viem

Import note: The SDK's ESM build has broken imports (missing file extensions). Use CommonJS require or configure your bundler to resolve extensionless imports. In Node.js scripts, use const { GmxSdk } = require("@gmx-io/sdk").

Create an SDK instance:

const { GmxSdk } = require("@gmx-io/sdk");

const sdk = new GmxSdk({
  chainId: 42161,
  rpcUrl: "https://arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc",
  oracleUrl: "https://arbitrum-api.gmxinfra.io",
  subsquidUrl: "https://gmx.squids.live/gmx-synthetics-arbitrum:prod/api/graphql",
});

Chain configuration:

Set up a wallet for write operations:

const { createWalletClient, http } = require("viem");
const { privateKeyToAccount } = require("viem/accounts");
const { arbitrum } = require("viem/chains");

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.PRIVATE_KEY);
const walletClient = createWalletClient({
  account,
  chain: arbitrum,
  transport: http("https://arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc"),
});

const sdk = new GmxSdk({
  chainId: 42161,
  rpcUrl: "https://arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc",
  oracleUrl: "https://arbitrum-api.gmxinfra.io",
  subsquidUrl: "https://gmx.squids.live/gmx-synthetics-arbitrum:prod/api/graphql",
  account: account.address,
  walletClient,
});

Lightweight alternative (read-only, no RPC needed):

const { GmxApiSdk } = require("@gmx-io/sdk/v2");

const apiSdk = new GmxApiSdk({ chainId: 42161 });
const markets = await apiSdk.fetchMarketsInfo(); // Returns array-like of MarketInfo objects
// Access: markets[0].marketTokenAddress, markets[0].indexTokenAddress, etc.

Order Helpers

The SDK provides convenience methods that handle amount calculation and transaction submission automatically.

Important: Never hardcode market or token addresses. Always fetch them dynamically — addresses differ per chain and can change between deployments.

Step 1: Resolve market and token addresses

// Fetch all markets and tokens
const { marketsInfoData, tokensData } = await sdk.markets.getMarketsInfo();

// Find ETH/USD market by index token symbol
// Note: On Arbitrum, perpetual markets use "WETH" as the index token symbol.
// Markets with symbol "ETH" are spot-only swap pools.
const ethUsdMarket = Object.values(marketsInfoData).find(
  (m) => tokensData[m.indexTokenAddress]?.symbol === "WETH" && !m.isSpotOnly
);

// Get token addresses from market
const marketAddress = ethUsdMarket.marketTokenAddress;
const longToken = ethUsdMarket.longTokenAddress;   // e.g., WETH
const shortToken = ethUsdMarket.shortTokenAddress;  // e.g., USDC

// Find a token by symbol
const usdcAddress = Object.values(tokensData).find((t) => t.symbol === "USDC")?.address;

Step 2: Place orders

Open a long position:

await sdk.orders.long({
  marketAddress,                         // from step 1
  payTokenAddress: usdcAddress,          // token you're paying with
  collateralTokenAddress: longToken,     // WETH as collateral for longs
  payAmount: 100000000n,                 // 100 USDC (6 decimals)
  leverage: 50000n,                      // 5x leverage (basis points)
  allowedSlippageBps: 100,               // 1% slippage
});

Open a short position:

await sdk.orders.short({
  marketAddress,
  payTokenAddress: usdcAddress,
  collateralTokenAddress: shortToken,    // USDC as collateral for shorts
  payAmount: 100000000n,
  leverage: 50000n,
});

Swap tokens:

const arbAddress = Object.values(tokensData).find((t) => t.symbol === "ARB")?.address;
const linkAddress = Object.values(tokensData).find((t) => t.symbol === "LINK")?.address;

await sdk.orders.swap({
  fromTokenAddress: arbAddress,
  toTokenAddress: linkAddress,
  fromAmount: 1000000000000000000n, // 1 ARB (18 decimals)
  allowedSlippageBps: 100,
});

Limit orders — add limitPrice for positions or triggerPrice for swaps:

await sdk.orders.long({
  marketAddress,
  payTokenAddress: usdcAddress,
  collateralTokenAddress: longToken,
  payAmount: 100000000n,
  leverage: 50000n,
  limitPrice: 3000000000000000000000000000000000n, // $3000 (30 decimals)
});

Key parameters:

• leverage — In basis points: 10000n = 1x, 50000n = 5x, 1000000n = 100x
• allowedSlippageBps — Default 100 (1%). Range: 1-500
• payAmount — Pay this much collateral. Alternative: use sizeAmount to specify position size
• fromAmount / toAmount — For swaps, specify input or desired output amount

Step 3: Close a position

There is no convenience close() method. Closing requires computing decrease amounts via getDecreasePositionAmounts() from @gmx-io/sdk/utils/trade, then calling createDecreaseOrder().

Important: Always re-fetch marketsInfoData and tokensData right before closing. These contain oracle prices that go stale within seconds — using old data produces an acceptablePrice the keeper will reject.

const { getDecreasePositionAmounts } = require("@gmx-io/sdk/utils/trade");

// 1. Fetch FRESH market data (prices go stale quickly)
const { marketsInfoData, tokensData } = await sdk.markets.getMarketsInfo();

// 2. Get the position to close
const positionsInfo = await sdk.positions.getPositionsInfo({
  marketsInfoData, tokensData, showPnlInLeverage: false,
});
const position = Object.values(positionsInfo).find(
  (p) => p.marketAddress === marketAddress && p.isLong === true
);

// 3. Compute decrease amounts
const marketInfo = marketsInfoData[position.marketAddress];
const collateralToken = tokensData[position.collateralTokenAddress];
const { minCollateralUsd, minPositionSizeUsd } = await sdk.positions.getPositionsConstants();
const uiFeeFactor = await sdk.utils.getUiFeeFactor();

const decreaseAmounts = getDecreasePositionAmounts({
  marketInfo,
  collateralToken,
  isLong: position.isLong,
  position,
  closeSizeUsd: position.sizeInUsd,   // Full close. Use a smaller value for partial close.
  keepLeverage: false,
  userReferralInfo: undefined,
  minCollateralUsd,
  minPositionSizeUsd,
  uiFeeFactor,
  isSetAcceptablePriceImpactEnabled: false,
});

// 4. Submit the decrease order
await sdk.orders.createDecreaseOrder({
  marketInfo,
  marketsInfoData,
  tokensData,
  isLong: position.isLong,
  allowedSlippage: 300,    // 3% — use higher slippage for decrease to avoid keeper rejection
  decreaseAmounts,
  collateralToken,
});

SDK Modules

Typical read flow:

const { marketsInfoData, tokensData } = await sdk.markets.getMarketsInfo();
const positionsInfo = await sdk.positions.getPositionsInfo({
  marketsInfoData, tokensData, showPnlInLeverage: false,
});
const { ordersInfoData } = await sdk.orders.getOrders({
  marketsInfoData, tokensData,
});

Convenience vs Low-level Methods

The SDK has two tiers for order creation:

Convenience methods — handle amount calculation, execution fee, and tx submission automatically. Use these for opening positions and swaps:

Low-level methods — require you to pre-compute amounts, provide full market/token objects, and handle execution fees. Required for closing positions (no convenience close() method exists):

Key gap: There is no sdk.orders.close(). To close a position, use getDecreasePositionAmounts() from @gmx-io/sdk/utils/trade + createDecreaseOrder(). See Step 3: Close a position for the full pattern.

Order Types

Trigger conditions:

• Long Limit: oracle price <= trigger price (buy the dip)
• Long Stop-Loss: oracle price <= trigger price (exit on drop)
• Long Take-Profit (LimitDecrease): oracle price >= trigger price (exit on rise)
• Short Limit: oracle price >= trigger price (sell the rally)
• Short Stop-Loss: oracle price >= trigger price (exit on rise)
• Short Take-Profit (LimitDecrease): oracle price <= trigger price (exit on drop)

Auto-cancel limits: Maximum concurrent auto-cancel orders per position: 11 on Arbitrum, 6 on Avalanche and Botanix.

Sidecar orders: Stop-loss and take-profit orders can be attached to increase orders via createSltpEntries, cancelSltpEntries, and updateSltpEntries parameters in createIncreaseOrder().

TWAP orders: Split a large order into 2–30 parts executed over a configurable duration. TWAP utilities (getTwapDurationInSeconds, getIsValidTwapParams) are exported from @gmx-io/sdk/utils/twap but full TWAP order creation is only available via the frontend UI.

Fees

Position fees:

• Opening/closing: 0.04% if the trade balances long/short OI, 0.06% if it imbalances
• Applied to position size (notional value)

Swap fees:

• Standard pairs: 0.05% (balancing) / 0.07% (imbalancing)
• Stablecoin pairs: 0.005% (balancing) / 0.02% (imbalancing)

Funding rate:

• Adaptive rate that flows from the larger open interest side to the smaller side
• Rebalances long/short exposure over time
• Accrues continuously, settled on position changes

Borrowing rate:

• Kink model: low rate below utilization threshold, steep above
• Approximately 45–55% APR at 75% utilization
• Paid by all positions proportional to size

Execution fee:

• Covers keeper gas cost for executing the order onchain
• Paid upfront in native token (ETH/AVAX/BTC)
• Surplus refunded after execution
• Use sdk.utils.getExecutionFee() to estimate

REST API

Oracle Endpoints

Base URL: https://{network}-api.gmxinfra.io

All endpoints are served from the Oracle base URL above. The legacy gmx-api-{network}.gmx.io domain is no longer available.

GraphQL (Subsquid)

Base URL: https://gmx.squids.live/gmx-synthetics-{network}:prod/api/graphql

Example — fetch recent trade actions:

query {
  tradeActions(
    where: { account_eq: "0x..." }
    orderBy: timestamp_DESC
    limit: 10
  ) {
    id
    eventName
    orderType
    sizeDeltaUsd
    timestamp
    transactionHash
  }
}

Fallback URLs

Key Concepts

Oracle-based pricing: GMX does not use an AMM. Prices come from Chainlink Data Streams, giving traders zero-slippage execution at the oracle price (subject to price impact from pool utilization).

Two-phase execution: Orders follow a create → execute pattern. The user submits an order transaction, then a keeper executes it with fresh oracle prices. This typically takes 1–5 seconds.

BigInt amounts: All amounts use BigInt. Prices are scaled to 30 decimals (1 USD = 10^30). Token amounts use their native decimals (e.g., USDC = 6, ETH = 18).

Stale data: marketsInfoData and tokensData contain oracle prices at fetch time. These go stale within seconds. Always re-fetch fresh data before operations that depend on current prices — especially createDecreaseOrder(), which computes acceptablePrice from the data you provide. Using stale prices causes keeper rejection.

Multicall batching: The SDK batches RPC calls automatically. Production chains use batchSize: 1024 * 1024 bytes per multicall with no waiting. This is configured per-chain in BATCH_CONFIGS.

GMX Account: Cross-chain trading from Ethereum, Base, or BNB Chain via LayerZero/Stargate bridge. Users can trade on Arbitrum/Avalanche without bridging manually.

Subaccounts: Delegate trading to a subaccount address for one-click trading. The subaccount can execute orders without requiring the main wallet signature each time.

Full Example: Open → Monitor → Close

End-to-end flow that opens a long position, monitors it, and closes it.

const { GmxSdk } = require("@gmx-io/sdk");
const { getDecreasePositionAmounts } = require("@gmx-io/sdk/utils/trade");
const { createWalletClient, http } = require("viem");
const { privateKeyToAccount } = require("viem/accounts");
const { arbitrum } = require("viem/chains");

// ─── Setup ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.PRIVATE_KEY);
const sdk = new GmxSdk({
  chainId: 42161,
  rpcUrl: "https://arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc",
  oracleUrl: "https://arbitrum-api.gmxinfra.io",
  subsquidUrl: "https://gmx.squids.live/gmx-synthetics-arbitrum:prod/api/graphql",
  account: account.address,
  walletClient: createWalletClient({
    account, chain: arbitrum, transport: http("https://arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc"),
  }),
});

// ─── 1. Resolve addresses ───────────────────────────────────────────────────

const { marketsInfoData, tokensData } = await sdk.markets.getMarketsInfo();

const ethMarket = Object.values(marketsInfoData).find(
  (m) => tokensData[m.indexTokenAddress]?.symbol === "WETH" && !m.isSpotOnly
);
const marketAddress = ethMarket.marketTokenAddress;
const usdcAddress = Object.values(tokensData).find((t) => t.symbol === "USDC").address;

// ─── 2. Open long ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

await sdk.orders.long({
  marketAddress,
  payTokenAddress: usdcAddress,
  collateralTokenAddress: usdcAddress,
  payAmount: 10_000000n,   // 10 USDC
  leverage: 30000n,        // 3x
  allowedSlippageBps: 100,
  skipSimulation: true,
});

// ─── 3. Wait for position to appear (keeper executes in 1-30s) ──────────────

let position;
for (let i = 0; i < 40; i++) {
  await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 3000));
  const info = await sdk.positions.getPositionsInfo({
    marketsInfoData, tokensData, showPnlInLeverage: false,
  });
  position = Object.values(info).find(
    (p) => p.marketAddress === marketAddress && p.isLong === true
  );
  if (position) break;
}
if (!position) throw new Error("Position did not appear within 120s");

console.log("Position opened:", {
  sizeUsd: position.sizeInUsd.toString(),
  leverage: position.leverage.toString(),
  entryPrice: position.entryPrice.toString(),
});

// ─── 4. Close position (re-fetch fresh data first!) ─────────────────────────

const fresh = await sdk.markets.getMarketsInfo();
const freshPositions = await sdk.positions.getPositionsInfo({
  marketsInfoData: fresh.marketsInfoData,
  tokensData: fresh.tokensData,
  showPnlInLeverage: false,
});
const pos = Object.values(freshPositions).find(
  (p) => p.marketAddress === marketAddress && p.isLong === true
);

const marketInfo = fresh.marketsInfoData[pos.marketAddress];
const collateralToken = fresh.tokensData[pos.collateralTokenAddress];
const { minCollateralUsd, minPositionSizeUsd } = await sdk.positions.getPositionsConstants();
const uiFeeFactor = await sdk.utils.getUiFeeFactor();

const decreaseAmounts = getDecreasePositionAmounts({
  marketInfo, collateralToken, isLong: pos.isLong, position: pos,
  closeSizeUsd: pos.sizeInUsd, keepLeverage: false,
  userReferralInfo: undefined, minCollateralUsd, minPositionSizeUsd, uiFeeFactor,
  isSetAcceptablePriceImpactEnabled: false,
});

await sdk.orders.createDecreaseOrder({
  marketInfo, marketsInfoData: fresh.marketsInfoData, tokensData: fresh.tokensData,
  isLong: pos.isLong, allowedSlippage: 300, decreaseAmounts, collateralToken,
});

console.log("Close order submitted — keeper will execute in 1-30s");

Limitations

• GM pool deposits/withdrawals: See the gmx-liquidity skill for contract-level operations. SDK convenience methods not yet available.
• GLV vault operations: See the gmx-liquidity skill for contract-level operations. SDK convenience methods not yet available.
• Express orders: Frontend-only via Gelato relay. Not exposed in the SDK.
• TWAP orders: Utility functions available (@gmx-io/sdk/utils/twap) but no SDK method to create TWAP orders programmatically.
• Order updates: Orders cannot be modified. Cancel and recreate instead (sdk.orders.cancelOrders()).
• Trade simulation: The skipSimulation parameter exists but simulation is deprecated. Set skipSimulation: true.

References

• SDK Reference — Full module and method documentation
• API Endpoints — Oracle, OpenAPI, and GraphQL endpoint details
• Contract Addresses — Deployed contracts per chain
• Order Types — Detailed order type behavior and trigger logic
• GMX Documentation — Official protocol documentation
• GMX App — Trading interface
• @gmx-io/sdk on npm — SDK package
• gmx-io/gmx-interface — Frontend source code