Funding rate, open interest and long/short positioning across the perpetual futures market — the leverage and crowding signals that sit underneath price.
Last updated —
Long/short ratio is the split of open positions betting the price goes up (long) versus down (short), from exchange account data. A heavy skew either way — above 75% or below 25% — means the crowd is leaning hard one direction, which is often when a squeeze in the opposite direction becomes more likely, not less.
Open interest is the total value of all open futures contracts on a market. Rising open interest alongside a rising price usually means new money is entering the trend; a rising price on falling open interest often means it's short-covering rather than fresh conviction.
Funding rate is the fee longs and shorts pay each other every few hours to keep the futures price tethered to spot. A positive rate means longs are paying shorts — the market is leaning bullish and paying for the privilege; a persistently high positive rate is a cost that can eventually squeeze longs out. The annualised figure is just that rate compounded across a year so it's comparable across markets.