Funding Rates
Perpetual futures never settle, so their price can drift away from the underlying market price. Funding rates are a small payment exchanged between longs and shorts to keep the two in line.
When longs dominate and the perp trades above spot, longs pay shorts. When shorts dominate and the perp trades below spot, shorts pay longs. Either way, holding the more crowded side costs a little more, which nudges the price back toward the real market value.
How it works on Symmio
Every symbol on Symmio has its own funding rate, applied at the end of fixed periods called epochs. When an epoch ends, positions pay or receive funding. On the contracts, the cycle length is fundingRateEpochDuration, and solvers charge funding during the symbol's fundingRateWindowTime, a short window on either side of the epoch flip.
{
"symbolId": "1",
"name": "BTCUSDT",
"isValid": true,
"minAcceptableQuoteValue": "120000000000000000000",
"minAcceptablePortionLF": "3000000000000000",
"tradingFee": "3800000000000000",
"maxLeverage": "100000000000000000000",
"fundingRateEpochDuration": "14400", // <- 4 hours
"fundingRateWindowTime": "420" // <- 7 minutes
}There are two ways funding can be applied.
The older method adjusts the openedPrice of your position to simulate the charge. If you're long and paying funding, your open price nudges up slightly, giving you a worse entry. No tokens move. This is still used for symbols that haven't migrated to the newer system.
The newer method tracks funding as a weighted average at the symbol level instead of touching each position. When a solver sets a rate, it blends into a running average; when funding is charged, it's deducted directly from your allocated balance rather than shifting your open price. That makes it a visible line item instead of a subtle price change, and it's far more efficient, since the solver no longer has to update every open position at each epoch.
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