Here's what I constantly see in chats — people confuse funding with just exchange fees. In reality, it's more interesting.

Funding is the money traders pay to each other, not to the exchange. The mechanism is simple: if the majority are in longs, long traders pay short traders to hold their positions. And vice versa. This is not a coincidence but a system that ties the futures price to the spot price.

When funding is positive — it means the market is overbought. The crowd is in longs, and the system makes it costly. When funding turns negative — on the contrary, everyone is afraid and selling in shorts. That's when the system starts pressuring short sellers.

Why is this important to me? Because funding is an indicator of crowd sentiment. When it spikes, I know that the majority is rarely right in the long run. It's a warning to be cautious. And when funding is strongly negative, I understand that panic has already been beaten, and fear has sold positions cheaper than they are worth.

I look at TWT, XRP, BCH — on these assets, funding often fluctuates. When you see extreme values, it's time to think about which way the market might turn. Not advice, just observation.