Funding Rate vs Positioning Narrative

A periodic payment exchanged between long and short holders of a perpetual futures contract, calculated to keep the contract price anchored to the spot price; positive funding means longs pay shorts; negative funding means shorts pay longs; typically settled every 8 hours on major exchanges.

The Strategist agent's synthesis of the four DPF pillars into a coherent structural description of how leveraged market participants are positioned, included in per-asset analysis when derivatives data is present.