Been trading perpetual futures for a while now and still trying to wrap my head around how much funding rates actually eat into profits.
Sometimes I’m paying, sometimes I’m receiving. Anyone else track this closely or just factor it in as cost of doing business?
Used to ignore funding rates completely when I started with crypto futures. Big mistake.
Now I actually build them into my position sizing. If I see funding at 0.05% or higher, I either reduce my position or look for a quick exit before the next payment.
The crazy part is how they flip during volatile periods. Made decent money last month just from positive funding on short positions during that Bitcoin dump. Sometimes the funding income almost matched my price gains.
What really helped was setting alerts on TradingView for when funding hits extreme levels. Those moments often signal good entry or exit points anyway.
Funding rates can stack up over time. If you hold positions for days or weeks instead of just scalping, they really add up.
I check the rates before longer-term trades since some coins have high funding that can make positions less profitable even when the price moves in your favor.
For short-term trades, I view it as a normal cost, but anything over eight hours deserves more attention.
Track it. Adds up fast on overnight positions.
Check funding rates before bigger trades. Anything below 0.02% isn’t worth worrying about.