Index futures are the instrument equity traders already use to hold the S&P 500 with leverage outside cash hours. An index perp does a similar job on a different venue. A trader who knows one can learn the other quickly, as long as the four real differences are clear.
Expiry
An index future has a date. On that date it settles against the index and stops existing. A trader who wants to stay in has to sell the expiring contract and buy the next one, which is the roll described in futures roll week. An index perp has no date. There is nothing to roll and no settlement day. A position stays open until the trader closes it or runs out of margin.
How the carry is paid
A future trades at a small gap to the index that reflects interest rates and expected dividends up to expiry. That gap shrinks to nothing as the date arrives. The cost of carry is built into the price and realized slowly.
A perp has no date to converge on, so it uses funding. A payment passes between longs and shorts every hour to keep the perp near its reference. The carry is paid as you go and it changes with positioning. Dated basis and funding compares the two for crypto, and the logic carries over.
Hours
Index futures trade almost around the clock on weekdays, as the overnight futures session explains. They stop on Friday evening and restart on Sunday evening. An index perp trades through that gap. For those two days it is a live market on the index when the futures are not.
Where the money sits
A future is held through a futures broker and cleared by a clearing house, with margin in dollars. An index perp on Hyperliquid’s builder books settles in a stablecoin and holds no shares. Margin, profit and loss are all in that stablecoin. Maximum leverage varies by market and is set by the venue. These are different arrangements with different risks, and a trader should know which one a position is in.
Size and what it means
Index futures are among the deepest markets in the world. The index perps are far smaller. On 4 October 2026, a Sunday, the S&P 500 perp held about $349 million of open interest. That is real weight for a weekend market. It is small beside the futures market that reopens on Sunday evening, and when the two disagree the deeper market tends to have the larger say.
Using them together
The practical reading is by the clock. While futures trade, they are the main read on the index outside cash hours. While futures are shut, the perp is a market price on another venue. NoVo’s Trader dashboard shows the index perps’ move since the last cash close while the cash market is shut, on its Perps & Futures tab, as set out in the implied open.