Margin ratio is your early-warning gauge
Liquidation rarely surprises traders who watch their margin ratio — it climbs steadily as losses mount and size grows. This tool shows the ratio, the cushion in dollars and the move that would wipe you. Pin down the exact price on the liquidation calculator.
The gauge that hits 100% at liquidation
Margin ratio is the exchange's health bar for your position: maintenance margin requirement divided by your current equity, expressed so that 100% = liquidation. At 20% you're comfortable; at 80% you're one adverse candle from the end. Different exchanges display it slightly differently (some invert it), but the 100%-means-dead convention is the common one on Bybit-style interfaces.
What moves it: losses raise it (equity shrinks), added margin lowers it, and on cross margin, every other position's PnL feeds into the same equity pool — a winning ETH long can be quietly keeping your SOL short's margin ratio survivable, until you close the winner and the ratio jumps.
Practical thresholds: below 30%, position sizing is doing its job. 50% is the review line — reduce or accept you're now trading on hope. Watching the ratio creep from 60 to 90% while "waiting for the bounce" is the standard prelude to liquidation; the ratio was designed to interrupt exactly that story.