For a person who's used to trading futures, I find margin trading pretty boring on top of having small leverage (Most assets offer only 3x) and sometimes when the market is volatile you won't be able to borrow
I think thats why he's look for other derivatives options
Never mind Binance that offers 3x for cross margin trades, but it offers 10x for isolated margin trades. On OKX that I just check their margin trading right now, it offers 10x for both cross and isolated margin trades. 10x is even getting higher and liquidation risks is higher. Trading is fun with low leverage, I have even gone from 3x BTC/USDT pair to 1x or 2x which have been helping me to make profit unlike before that I panic close position or my asset got liquidated easily.
He is not looking for derivatives. He is experienced in spot trading and now he is looking for a way to open short position and don't know how because derivatives are banned in UK. Margin trading looks perfect for him because he is inexperienced in leverage and trading in both directions (he created thread to find a way to short). Binanace allow 10x leverage in margin trading and its more than enough.
I know that derivatives trading is more exciting, faster, more convenient but i if you are not a scalper its much better to go for legal margin trading rather than doing KYC with fake documents, using VPN to fake location and risking having fund locked due to TOS violation.
I was using Binance to practice margin trading like a year or 2 years ago, so complicated for me and I used future derivatives which is much simpler. Surprisingly, I did not know I can use margin to also short and long position until I saw your post today, I went to OKX BTC/USTD margin pair and I was able to short or long and not different in layout with their future trading. If mckenzie126 can be able to use margin trading for it, It would be a good alternative, but I will advice him not to go more than 1x leverage which he has been doing with spot trading.