What a signal message gives you
A crypto futures signal is a trade idea written as a short list of numbers. A complete one carries these items:
- Direction and pair. For example a long or a short on a named perpetual contract.
- Entry. The price, or area, where the idea starts.
- SL. The stop loss: the price at which the idea is wrong and the trade is closed.
- TP1 and TP2. Two take-profit targets, the first closer than the second.
- Leverage. The leverage shown for the trade.
- A risk line. In Darwin's VIP signals, a line showing the position size that matches a 1% loss if the stop is hit.
On Darwin, the full levels (entry, SL, TP1, TP2 and the risk line) come in VIP signals. Posts in the free channel show the pair and the direction only.
A signal with only a pair and a direction is not a plan. Without a stop and a size you cannot know what you are risking. For the wider picture of what a signal is and how to judge a provider, see what is a trading signal.
Step 1: place the stop first
The stop loss goes on the exchange the moment you open the position. Not after you check the chart again, not when you have a minute. A stop that lives in your head is not a stop, because the moment it matters is also the moment you are least likely to obey it.
The reason is liquidation. One Darwin member was liquidated on a −4.2% move at about 24x leverage, with no stop. The arithmetic is plain: at about 24x, a move of about 4.2% against you uses up roughly the whole margin (24 × 4.2% is about 100%). A stop placed before that point would have closed the trade at a loss you chose in advance, instead of at one the exchange chose for you. The mechanics are covered in crypto futures explained and crypto leverage explained.
A useful rule: no stop, no trade. If you cannot place the stop, you do not open the position.
Step 2: size from the stop, not from the leverage
Most beginners start from leverage: "I will use 20x." That is backwards. The number that controls your loss is the position size and the distance to the stop. Leverage only decides how much margin you lock to hold that size.
The method has three parts.
- Decide the share of your account you accept to lose if the stop is hit. A common beginner convention is a small fixed fraction, such as 1%.
- Measure the stop distance as a percentage of entry.
- Divide.
Risk amount = Account x Risk %
Stop distance % = |Entry - Stop| / Entry
Position notional = Risk amount / Stop distance %
Worked example. The numbers are hypothetical and chosen for easy arithmetic.
- Account: 1000 USDT. Risk: 1%, so the risk amount is 10 USDT.
- Entry: 100. Stop: 95. The stop distance is 5 / 100 = 5%.
- Position notional: 10 / 0.05 = 200 USDT.
If the stop is hit, the loss is 5% of 200 USDT, which is 10 USDT, exactly the 1% you chose (before fees and slippage). Holding a 200 USDT position takes 20 USDT of margin at 10x, or 100 USDT at 2x. The loss at the stop is the same in both cases. That is the point: leverage changes how much margin is tied up, not how much you lose. One limit still applies, though. Your stop must sit well before your liquidation price, otherwise the exchange closes you first. See stop-loss and take-profit explained and risk management in crypto trading for how to place stops and choose a risk.
A tighter stop means a bigger position for the same risk, and a wider stop means a smaller one. If the honest stop distance makes the position too large for your account, the answer is a smaller risk or no trade, not a tighter stop.
You do not have to do this by hand. Darwin's bot has a command for it. Send /size capital risk% entry stop to @DarwinOPBOT, for example /size 1000 1 100 95, and it returns the size for your own numbers.
Step 3: what if the price has already moved?
Signals are read late. By the time you see one, price is rarely exactly at the entry. Three cases cover it.
- It already touched the stop or TP1. The signal is over. Skip it. Entering now would mean taking a trade whose idea has already been proven wrong or has already paid.
- It is still between the stop and TP1. You can enter, but keep the signal's stop and target prices and recompute your size with your actual entry. Your distance to the stop has changed, so the size that fit the original entry no longer fits.
- It has covered more than half the way to TP1. This is a rule of thumb, not a measured result. Skip it. You would be risking the full stop for what is left of the move.
A hypothetical example. A long signal has entry 100, stop 95 and TP1 110. Half the way to TP1 is 105.
- Price is at 104. The stop is now 9 away (about 8.7% of 104), so a 10 USDT risk gives a notional of about 116 USDT, not 200. The move left to TP1 is 6, against 9 at risk.
- Price is at 106. It is past the halfway point of 105, so the rule of thumb says skip: 11 at risk for 4 left to TP1.
Notice that the stop did not move. Dragging the stop closer to the new price to keep the old size is how a plan becomes a different trade.
Step 4: follow the plan for TP1 and TP2
R:R, short for risk-to-reward, compares what you stand to lose with what you stand to gain. With entry 100, stop 95 and a target at 110, you risk 5 to make 10, a ratio of 1 to 2. Targets matter, but only alongside the stop and the size.
In Darwin's paper plan the exits work like this:
- TP1 closes 50% of the position and the stop moves to the entry price. From then on the remaining half cannot turn into a loss on price alone (fees and slippage still apply).
- TP2 closes the rest.
- Some VIP signals carry a time stop. When a VIP signal shows one and TP1 is not reached in time, the stop tightens.
The closes are posted in the channel as they happen, so a follower can see which stage a trade is at. The plan is only worth anything if you run the same one every time. Changing it mid-trade because of a feeling is the usual way a sound plan gets broken.
Step 5: where to trade it
Darwin's VIP signals are written for Binance Futures, USDT-M, using the same pairs as the signals. If Binance is restricted where you live, Bybit USDT perpetuals are the alternative. Whichever you use, check that the pair exists, read the contract's fees, and place the stop with the order type your exchange documents for it. Tax and leverage rules for derivatives vary by country, so check yours before you start.
A short checklist before every signal
- Do I know all five numbers: direction and pair, entry, SL, TP1, TP2?
- Is the price still between the stop and TP1, and short of halfway to TP1?
- What share of my account do I lose if the stop is hit?
- What size follows from that, and is the stop well inside my liquidation price?
- Is the stop placed on the exchange, not in my head?
- What do I do at TP1, and at TP2?
What these signals are, and what they are not
Darwin Lab's signals are paper trades. They are simulated, not placed on a real account, and no edge is proven yet. Each VIP signal shows its champion's own record, net of fees, and the fee-inclusive record is public at /track-record/. To understand what a paper record can and cannot tell you, read paper trading explained.
You act on a signal yourself, on your own exchange, with your own size. Treat it as an input to your own risk management, never as a replacement for it.
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This article is educational and not financial advice. Trading crypto futures carries a high risk of loss, and you should never trade money you cannot afford to lose.