What positive and negative funding mean
On Hyperliquid, funding is paid hourly. When funding is positive, long positions pay short positions. When it is negative, short positions pay long positions. The payment mechanism helps keep the perpetual contract near its underlying spot reference, but the sign alone does not predict the next price move.
How PerpMetric labels funding
A label such as unusually low · 24h · bottom 5% means the current observation sits in the lowest part of that market's trailing 24-hour reference distribution. “Tail” identifies an extreme region of a distribution. The comparison is market-specific, because normal funding differs across instruments and regimes.
Example: low funding plus falling price and rising open interest describes a different condition from low funding during flat price and contracting open interest. PerpMetric keeps those measurements separate so the user can build the interpretation.
How to interpret an extreme reading
- Confirm the actual rate and whether it is positive or negative.
- Compare price and open-interest changes over the same period.
- Check whether the mark-oracle difference is also unusual.
- Inspect completed historical outcomes, sample size and the middle 50% range.
- Treat the result as context, especially when the current market regime differs from the sample.