# What is Contango?

Contango is a unique decentralized market offering expirables, contracts to buy or sell an asset at a set price and date in the future. Contango achieves that without order books or liquidity pools. When a trader opens a position, the protocol borrows on the fixed-rate market, swaps on the spot market, then lends back on the fixed-rate market. Contango offers physical delivery and a minimal price impact for larger trades.

![Opening an expirable position on Contango](https://11462415-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FlYcfaHqcHo4hLwj7Q5M7%2Fuploads%2FqG4gX80Y8u16ZYjhmSKb%2FProtocol_architecture_light%20\(1\).png?alt=media\&token=d6c06f2a-4b9e-4a0e-84b4-68ea2e39d8e3)

### **Contango main features**

#### [🔁](https://emojipedia.org/repeat-button/) Long or short - with an expiry

Choose an instrument and a side (long/short), pick an [expiry date](https://contango-2.gitbook.io/exchange/resources/glossary#expiry-date), define leverage and forget about the unpredictable costs of [funding rates](https://contango-2.gitbook.io/exchange/resources/glossary#funding-rates).

#### [🤓](https://emojipedia.org/nerd-face/) Synthetic contracts

Contango borrows on the [fixed-rate market](https://contango-2.gitbook.io/exchange/resources/glossary#fixed-rate-market), swaps on the [spot market](https://contango-2.gitbook.io/exchange/resources/glossary#spot-market), and lends back on the fixed rate market to replicate the cash flow of an expirable position.

#### 🌊 Minimal price impact

Contango doesn’t need its own liquidity pool. Instead, it takes advantage of the deep [liquidity pools](https://contango-2.gitbook.io/exchange/resources/glossary#liquidity-pools) of underlying protocols to offer a minimal [price impact](https://contango-2.gitbook.io/exchange/resources/glossary#price-impact) for any trade size.

#### [🛠️](https://emojipedia.org/hammer-and-wrench/) DeFi composability

Every position is tokenized as an [NFT](https://contango-2.gitbook.io/exchange/resources/glossary#tokenized-nft-position) enabling other projects to easily build on top of Contango.

#### :handshake: Delivery

At expiry, Contango allows traders to have their position physically delivered or to settle it through cash (i.e. cash settlement).