A retail account can now reach instruments that did not exist on a phone a few years ago: a tokenized stock, a perpetual contract on a share, a token created this morning. Each has its own detailed checklist. This one comes first. It is for the moment you meet a kind of instrument you have never traded.
What it is, and who stands behind it
First, say in one sentence what you would hold. A share is ownership in a company. A stock token is a contract on a chain. A stock perp is a contract that follows a price and holds no shares. A chain token may be nothing more than a contract and a pool. If you cannot finish the sentence, stop there.
Second, find the issuer or the venue. Robinhood issues its stock tokens. A stock perp is listed by a team on a venue. A token on Robinhood Chain may have been created by anyone for about a dollar. The answer tells you whose documentation to read, and whether there is any.
The clock it runs on
Third, ask when it trades and when its reference trades. A token or perp on a stock runs while the exchange is shut. In those hours its price has less to lean on. Know what the price means at the hour you are looking at it.
What it costs to get in and out
Fourth, count every cost: spread, markup, funding, and the price you move by trading. On a pool the last one dominates. A leveraged contract adds a running charge. Costs on the way out are often higher than on the way in, and the way out is the one that matters.
What can force you out, and how much money is in it
Fifth, some instruments can close or freeze your position without you. A leveraged perp can be liquidated. A stock token has a halt flag. A chain token’s contract may restrict selling, as honeypots and unsellable tokens describes. Know the forced exits before you need one.
Sixth, read the size of the market against the size of your trade. Open interest for a perp. Tokenized value for a stock token. Pool depth for a chain token. If your order would be a meaningful share of it, the market is too small for that order.
What you can read about it
Seventh, find out which facts are public and whether anyone keeps their history. An instrument with a readable supply, depth or funding rate can be checked. One with only a name and a price cannot.
Then the specific list
Once the kind is clear, move to the detailed version: what to read on a stock token, a checklist for any stock perp, or what to check on a token you just found. Terms, fees and eligibility are in the issuer’s own documentation, and that is the place to confirm them.
The Crypto Market Map shows the readings for the sixth and seventh questions on its Stocks On-Chain and Robinhood tabs. It answers none of them for you.