Core concepts & glossary

Carbon inherits its vocabulary from the SYMM protocol. These are the terms that appear across the API.

The two parties

Every position is a bilateral contract between two parties.

Term	Also called	Who
PartyA	Trader, user	You — the account opening the position.
PartyB	Solver, market maker	The counterparty that quotes and fills your trade.

Objects carry partyA (your subaccount) and partyB (the solver address).

Solvers

A solver is a PartyB that prices your RFQ and settles against you on-chain. Target one via the solver parameter, or let Carbon route to the best available.

Solver	Notes
PERPS_HUB	Crypto perps & 24/7 RWAs
NOXRWA	Real-world assets (equities, commodities)

Solver liquidity, caps, and funding are exposed under /v1/solvers/....

Positions and orders

• Quote / quoteId — the on-chain object representing a position. In SYMM a position is a quote; quoteId is its canonical id.

• Order type — MARKET (fill now, bounded by slippage) or LIMIT (fill at limitPrice or better).

• Position type — LONG or SHORT.

Margin fields

When a position opens, collateral is locked on both sides. These appear in position/balance payloads:

Field	Meaning
cva	Credit Valuation Adjustment — covers counterparty credit risk.
lf	Liquidation Fee — reserved to pay whoever liquidates the position.
partyAmm / partyBmm	PartyA / PartyB maintenance margin.
lockedValues	The bundle of the above locked for a position.

Balance fields

Field	Meaning
allocatedBalance	Balance allocated in the subaccount. Considered in equity of the account
equity	Balance adjusted for unrealized PnL.
freeBalance	Free collateral in the account. When trading isolated, the parent subaccount contains the free balance, then it's allocated into VAs
availableForOrder	What you can commit to a new order now.
upnl	Unrealized PnL across open positions.
maintenanceMargin	Collateral that must stay locked to keep positions solvent.

Account hierarchy

Level	What it is
Account	Your wallet — the owner identity that signs in.
Subaccount	An on-chain PartyA under your wallet. Positions live here.
Virtual Account (VA)	A margin-isolated container inside a subaccount, for isolated (tradfi) positions. They are threated as a subaccount

Cross positions share a subaccount's margin; isolated positions each get a VA. Controlled by isolate, isolationType, and parentSubaccount. See Accounts & trading modes.

Funding

Perps have no expiry, so a funding rate periodically transfers value between longs and shorts. Current rates come from /v1/solvers/funding-info and /v1/pricing/...; realized funding from /v1/public/.../funding-history.

Prices

• Mark price — used to value positions and compute PnL / liquidations.

• Index / last price — the underlying's reference price.

Both under /v1/pricing/....

Key identifiers

Identifier	What it is
tempId	Client-side handle returned immediately on a trade submit, before it's on-chain. Poll status with it.
quoteId	The on-chain position id, assigned once confirmed.
marketId / symbol	Numeric id / human name of a market.
subaccountAddress	The PartyA a request acts on.
chainId	42161 (Arbitrum).
batchId	Groups the results of a batch operation.
apiKeyIdentifier	Public identifier of an API key, used in delegations.

The tempId → quoteId transition is explained in How trading works.