Trader Vaults
Trader Vaults are user-created copy-trading vaults: a leader trades a shared pool of USDC, depositors hold shares of it, and the leader earns 10% of any gains above the vault’s high-water mark. This page covers both sides — depositing into someone else’s vault, and running your own.
Trader Vaults are separate from the protocol’s Liquidity Vault. The Liquidity Vault is the counterparty to all trades on Noether; a Trader Vault is a pooled trading account managed by one wallet.
Beta accounting limitation. Leader-vault accounting currently counts only the USDC sitting in the vault. While the leader has open positions, the vault’s TVL, NAV, and P&L exclude the deployed capital — and withdrawing mid-trade forfeits your share of it. A contract fix is scheduled before mainnet. The app shows this banner on every vault page for a reason: check the vault’s open trades before you withdraw.
Mechanics at a glance
| Parameter | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Leader profit share | 10% | Only on gains above the high-water mark |
| Leader minimum holding | 5% of vault shares | Enforced on-chain after every deposit, withdrawal, and every position the leader opens |
| Max outside capital | 19x the leader’s own stake | Direct consequence of the 5% rule |
| Vault deposit / withdrawal fee | None | Trading fees still apply to the leader’s trades |
| Share pricing | Liquid NAV | First deposit: 1 USDC = 1 share |
| Leader trading limits | Same as normal trading | 1–10x leverage, 10 USDC minimum collateral, $100,000 max position size |
| Position style | Isolated margin, market orders (in the app) | Positions belong to the vault, not the leader’s wallet |
Trading fees on a leader’s trades are charged at the vault system’s own fee tier, not the leader’s personal wallet tier — the app notes this in leader mode.
For depositors
Browse the marketplace
Open Vaults in the header (or go to https://noether.exchange/vaults). The page opens with the protocol Noether Vault (the LP pool — see Liquidity Vault), followed by the Leader Vaults section. Each vault card shows:
- Name, the leader’s address (shortened), and the vault #id
- A Paused badge if the leader or admin has paused it (deposits, withdrawals, and leader trades are all blocked while paused)
- TVL (liquid) and Liquid NAV — the USDC actually sitting in the vault
- APY, Drawdown, Depositors, and Open trades
Base vault data is read directly on-chain, so the marketplace works even when the stats API is unavailable — aggregate figures then show ”—” rather than made-up numbers.
Click a vault to open its detail page: metrics, a PnL history chart, your own position, the leader’s trade history, deposit and withdrawal activity, and the leader’s past profit-share claims. The “How this vault works” section at the bottom restates the exact profit-share and minimum-holding terms for that vault.
Deposit
Open the deposit modal
On the vault’s detail page, click Deposit / Withdraw. The modal shows three stat tiles — Liquid TVL, Liquid NAV, and Shares out — with a Deposit | Withdraw toggle.
Enter an amount
Type a USDC amount (or use the Max button). The preview shows “You will receive ≈ N shares”. The first deposit into a vault is priced at 1 USDC = 1 share; after that, shares are minted at the vault’s current liquid NAV.
Sign once
Confirm in your wallet — one signature. Your USDC moves into the vault and shares are credited to your address. Your position appears in the My position section of the vault page.
If the leader has not seeded the vault with their own deposit yet, the modal warns you and the deposit will fail on-chain: an outside deposit into an unseeded vault would break the 5% leader-holding rule. Wait until the leader has skin in the game — that is the point of the rule.
Withdraw
Use the same modal with the Withdraw toggle. Enter a share amount (or Max); the preview shows “You will receive ≈ N USDC at liquid NAV”. One wallet signature burns your shares and pays out USDC.
If the leader has open positions when you withdraw, the modal shows a red warning with the number of positions and the approximate capital deployed. That capital is excluded from the liquid NAV your withdrawal is priced at — withdrawing now permanently forfeits your share of it, even if those positions later close at a profit. Unless you need out immediately, wait for the leader’s positions to close.
How the leader gets paid
The leader’s only compensation is the profit share: 10% of gains above the high-water mark (HWM), measured on the vault’s NAV per share.
- The HWM starts at a NAV of 1.0 and only moves up.
- Example: if NAV rises from 1.0 to 1.2 on a vault with 1,000 shares outstanding, the gain is $200 and the leader can claim $20.
- After a claim, the HWM resets to the post-payout NAV — the leader can never charge twice on the same gain.
- If NAV is at or below the HWM (the vault is underwater), there is nothing to claim. The leader must first recover past losses before earning anything new.
Claims appear in the Leader Fee Claims table on the vault’s detail page.
For leaders
Create a vault
Open the create modal
On the Vaults page, click the create-vault button in the Leader Vaults section. The Create vault modal has one field: Vault name (1–64 characters).
Read the terms
The modal spells out what you are signing up for: you become the vault leader, you take 10% of gains above the high-water mark, and you must hold at least 5% of the vault’s shares at all times.
Sign and seed
One wallet signature creates the vault. Then make the first deposit yourself before sharing the vault — outside deposits into an unseeded vault fail on-chain. Once you’ve seeded it with your own USDC, outsiders can deposit up to 19 times your stake (at that point you hold exactly 5%).
The 5% rule is enforced on-chain after every deposit, withdrawal, and every position you open. You cannot withdraw your own stake below 5% of the outstanding shares, and a deposit that would dilute you below 5% is rejected. If you want to grow the vault’s capacity, add more of your own capital first.
Trade the vault
There are two ways to trade vault funds. Both require the vault to be unpaused and the connected wallet to be the leader.
Manage page — a dedicated leader console at /vaults/{id}/manage (append /manage to your vault’s URL — there is no button for it in the app yet; non-leaders see a “Leader-only page” notice). It has three cards:
- Open position — pick an asset (BTC, ETH, or XLM only in this panel — a current limitation; the full pair list is available in leader mode on the trade page), choose Long or Short, enter collateral in USDC, and set leverage with the 1–10x slider (default 2x). One signature opens the position with the vault’s USDC.
- Close position — enter the position id and sign once.
- Claim profit share — pulls the vault’s 10% share of any liquid-NAV gain above the high-water mark to your wallet, then resets the HWM.
Leader mode on the trade page — click Trade as leader → on your vault’s detail page (or pick the vault in the leader selector on the trade page). The order panel switches to leader mode: an amber banner shows which vault you are trading and its USDC balance, collateral is drawn from the vault, and all 13 listed pairs are available. Leader mode supports market orders and isolated margin only — limit, stop-limit, and trailing orders, cross margin, and take-profit/stop-loss are hidden. See Trading for the general order flow.
Positions you open this way belong to the vault, not your personal wallet. After every open and close, the vault’s accounting resyncs from its actual on-chain USDC balance, so PnL lands in the vault automatically.
Pausing
A leader can pause their own vault (and the protocol admin can pause any vault). While paused, deposits, withdrawals, and leader trades are all blocked, and the marketplace card shows a Paused badge.
What can go wrong (common on-chain rejections)
| Situation | Result |
|---|---|
| Outsider deposits before the leader seeds | Rejected — 5% leader-holding rule |
| Leader withdraws below 5% of shares | Rejected |
| Opening a position with more collateral than the vault holds | Rejected — insufficient vault balance |
| Claiming profit share while NAV is at or below the HWM | Rejected — nothing to claim |
| Any action on a paused vault | Rejected |
Everything here runs on the Stellar testnet with test USDC — funds are play money, and testnet resets can wipe state. Copy-trading also carries inherent design risk: depositors are trusting one wallet’s trading decisions with pooled funds.
Next steps
- Getting started — connect a wallet and get test USDC
- Trading — order types, fees, and liquidation
- Liquidity Vault — the protocol LP pool (a different product)