Maverickprotocol liquidity modes keep bins fixed or move them with the pool's price signal

Price Ticks and the Active Trading Range

A Maverick V2 tick identifies a price range, and a bin holds liquidity of a particular mode within that range. Up to four bins can occupy the same tick, one for each kind. The active tick contains the bins available for trading at the current pool price. A tick, its bin identifiers, and the provider's share therefore describe different properties.

Trading changes token reserves and can carry price into another tick. Liquidity outside that trading range doesn't earn swap fees while it remains unused. A moving mode can relocate eligible liquidity toward its governing price signal. Static liquidity stays at its assigned ranges, where it becomes available again only if trading reaches them.

Pool Compatibility Before Mode Selection

A V2 pool's enabled modes are a prerequisite for configuring liquidity. A familiar token pair doesn't establish that every pool supports the same choices.

Enabled Movement Kinds

The pool exposes its supported modes through kinds() , a bitmap configured at deployment. A position's requested kind must belong to that set. The protocol's four mode names describe available mechanisms across its pool design; they don't establish that every deployed pool enables all four.

Providers can use different supported modes within one pool. Selecting Right for an individual allocation doesn't switch other providers' liquidity to Right. Their bins retain their own rules, even where they share a price tick with that allocation.

Pool Parameters

Bin width and lookback belong to the pool configuration. Different V2 pools for the same pair can have different fees, tick spacing, lookbacks, and enabled kinds. Changing the position's distribution doesn't change those underlying parameters or the movement rule that another kind follows.

Mode Right and Mode Left

Right and Left are directional strategies defined against the pool's price axis. When that axis expresses quote tokens per base token, rightward movement means the base token's relative price rises. Leftward movement means it falls. The displayed orientation matters when translating a view about one asset into a movement direction.

Rightward Following

Mode Right allows liquidity to follow eligible rightward price movement. A common arrangement places quote-token liquidity immediately left of the active range. That placement leaves liquidity available for trades during retracements. A reversal to the left doesn't make Right bins follow leftward; trading can instead change their inventory as price crosses them.

Leftward Following

Mode Left applies the opposite rule, with a common arrangement placing base-token liquidity immediately right of the active range. It follows eligible leftward movement and leaves bins in place during rightward movement. Both directional choices can leave the position concentrated in a relatively weaker asset after an adverse move. Directional following doesn't preserve the original token quantities.

Mode Both and Direction Reversals

Mode Both supports eligible movement in either direction, allowing liquidity to follow a changing trend. During a reversal, swaps can trade through the position before the AMM begins following from the opposite side. The inventory change comes from those swaps; relocation then changes where that inventory becomes available. A Mode Both bin can hold a single asset between periods of active trading.

Mode Static and Initial Distributions

Mode Static fixes liquidity at selected price ranges until the provider changes the allocation. Its distribution presets arrange liquidity within those ranges without enabling automatic following.

Exponential

An Exponential distribution concentrates liquidity around the starting pool price and allocates progressively smaller amounts farther away. The outer bins extend coverage while the central bins receive greater weight. Their original locations remain fixed as the pool price changes.

Flat

A Flat distribution allocates liquidity evenly across its selected range. Covering more ticks spreads the allocation across more price intervals. The provider can customize individual bin amounts after choosing the preset, so the preset name doesn't fully describe an edited distribution.

Single Bin

The Single Bin preset initially concentrates liquidity in the active bin. It retains Static's fixed-location rule after price leaves that range. A single-bin allocation and a moving allocation may initially occupy the same range while responding differently to subsequent price changes.

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TWAP Lookback and Movement Timing

TWAP is a pool-specific price signal that moderates the effect of immediate price changes. Maverick V2 exposes the lookback period and a current time-weighted price value. The factory's creation parameter expresses seconds on a two-decimal scale, which matters when interpreting its raw integer value. Its movement logic also considers the active ticks around a swap and a boundary governing how far movement must progress within a tick.

These conditions don't translate into one universal waiting period. Swaps drive the evaluation of movement, and low trading activity can leave relocation infrequent.

Fee Capture and Repositioning Costs

Trading fees accrue when swaps use the liquidity, with a provider's share tied to their ownership within the relevant bin. Fees accumulate in bins, increasing the token value represented by bin LP balances. Keeping liquidity closer to trading can increase its opportunities to participate, while the actual fee income still follows executed swaps and the applicable pool fees.

Native automatic movement doesn't require the liquidity provider to submit and pay for a separate repositioning transaction. Adding or removing liquidity still incurs network transaction costs. A broad Static distribution can also cost more gas to establish because it involves more bins. Those costs are separate from the swap fee that traders pay.

Permanent Loss and Static Liquidity

Mode Both's repeated repositioning creates a reserve-loss risk during reversals. Following price can make liquidity available at newly reached ranges, then expose it to trades in the opposite direction.

A Mode Both position can lose reserve value through repeated buying high and selling low. Returning to an earlier market price doesn't necessarily restore that lost inventory. This differs from merely comparing a position's current market value with the value of holding its initial tokens.

Wider bins require larger price swings before this loss pattern emerges, but width alone doesn't prevent it. Static liquidity also supports arbitrage and price discovery around the active range. Insufficient background liquidity can expose moving positions to unwanted movement when the pool's price signal is manipulated.

The relevant constraint is the pool's ability to sustain price-correcting trades, including their gas costs. Bin width, available Static liquidity, and trading conditions affect that ability. Token incentives can attract deposits without removing this underlying exposure. Comparing fee income with reserve changes is therefore necessary when assessing how a movement strategy performed.

Moved Bins, Merge Records, and Withdrawals

Maverick V2 can merge moving bins of the same kind while relocating them. A bin's mergeId records the bin into which it merged. The initial identifier alone may therefore give an incomplete picture of the liquidity's present location. Pool state and the associated merge records distinguish movement from the disappearance of a provider's claim.

Deeply merged bins also create a withdrawal prerequisite. Liquidity can leave an unmerged bin or a bin whose merge target is unmerged. A bin merged more than one level deep must first migrate up the merge stack. This is accounting within the pool, rather than a transfer to another network. The actual calls depend on the position-management interface.

For NFT-held V2 liquidity, the pool records the Position contract as owner and the NFT's token ID as subaccount. Reading balances for the wallet alone can therefore miss that allocation. Mode choice and ownership records answer different questions: where liquidity moves, and which position controls its claim.

Preset Positions and the Limits of Mode Choice

A Boosted Position packages a defined liquidity configuration that other providers can share through ERC-20 LP tokens. Its movement mode belongs to that configuration. Joining the position doesn't create a separate personal movement rule for each depositor. Incentive eligibility and the reward-contract arrangement remain separate from the bins' relocation behavior.

MAV staking supplies voting power through veMAV; it doesn't substitute for selecting a liquidity distribution. Likewise, a single-token deposit describes initial funding without fixing later token exposure. If the objective requires liquidity to remain at specified price ranges, automatic following changes that placement as its movement conditions are met.