Analyzing a setup: rate history, intervals and price spread
The table shows the rate right now, but you will earn on the rates of the coming days. The pair page shows how stable the difference is, what entry costs and whether the setup hides a trap: different intervals, stale data, the same ticker for different coins.
You have shortlisted candidates from the table (lesson 4). Before opening positions, click Details: the pair page shows where the income comes from and how stable it is.
Leg cards and the center
- LONG and SHORT cards. Price, funding rate, countdown to the payment, funding time in UTC and interval. In the top right corner is the quote age: “18 sec.” means the data was updated 18 seconds ago. If a quote is several minutes old, trust neither the price nor the rate.
- Expected funding profit. What one payment brings: the long on Binance receives 0.5501%, the short on Bitget pays 0.0158%, about +0.53% in total.
- Price spread. −1.0531%: the long is bought at 948.89, the short is sold at 938.9. If prices converge by the time you exit, this costs two payments. If the spread is the same at exit, it costs nothing. If it flips in your favor, it adds to income.
- Bell and star. An alert on the spread narrowing or the price moving, and adding the pair to favorites.
The rate history chart
The blue and red lines are the rates on the two exchanges; the green line is their difference — your profit per payment. On the BWETUSDT chart both rates sat near zero until October 5, then the difference jumped several times from +0.7% to −0.3% and back. So “+0.53% per payment” is a fresh imbalance, not a stable setup: entering it means betting that it persists, and you may catch payments with the opposite sign.
The settlement table
- Settlements only / Every 15 min. The first mode keeps only payment moments — they are what brings money. The second shows how the rate moved between payments.
- Range. Over 12 payments the rate difference ranged from zero to +0.3737%. Five payments brought almost nothing, and one row has no Bitget data (“—”): the quote did not arrive at that moment.
- Sum and average. The sum of spreads over the 11 payments with data is about +1.29% of position size over two days before fees, but the income is uneven. The AVERAGE row is the average over the history period (here +0.1246%). Calculate break-even from the average, not the best payment.
Different intervals and payment times
If one exchange pays every 4 hours and the other every 8, you cannot compare the rates directly: over 8 hours the first leg gets or pays two payments, the second only one. Convert both rates to the same period, for example a day: multiply the 4-hour leg’s rate by 6 and the 8-hour leg’s by 3. If payment times differ, between them the position lives with one leg “settled” while the price can move. That is why the scanner’s default filter shows only pairs with the same interval and time.
Red flags
| Sign | Why it is dangerous | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The rate appeared recently and jumps around | The imbalance may vanish or reverse before the first payment | Wait until the difference holds for at least several payments in a row |
| Different intervals or payment times | The legs get a different number of payments; comparing rates head-on misleads | Convert both rates to a day or skip |
| The quote is stale | The price and rate on screen are no longer what the exchange shows | Check the order book and the rate on the exchange itself |
| An extreme rate on an illiquid coin | Thin order book, slippage, squeezes, delisting risk | Cut the size or pick a large coin |
| The same ticker for different coins | The legs do not hedge each other: they are two different assets | Compare the project name and contract on both exchanges’ pages |
| A large negative price spread | The entry cost eats several payments | Count how many payments it takes to cover the spread |
The calculator on the pair page
Below the chart there is a calculator: amount, leverage and holding time in hours. It counts the number of payments, funding income, the entry cost from the price spread and the total. Use a realistic holding period and remember that the calculator does not include trading fees or slippage: subtract them yourself, as in lesson 3. Do not treat an annualized return (APR) calculated from a single day as a forecast — it simply scales a short period to a year.
Frequently asked questions
Why look at history if the table shows the current rate?
Money comes from future payments, not the current rate. History shows whether the rate difference holds or flips through zero. A fresh imbalance often disappears before the first payment.
What does a −1.05% price spread on the pair page mean?
You buy the long 1.05% higher than you sell the short. If prices on the two exchanges converge by the time you exit, that gap comes out of profit. If the spread is the same at exit, it costs nothing.
Why are there dashes in the settlement table?
A dash means one exchange’s quote did not arrive at that moment. Such rows are not used to calculate the rate difference.
How do I compare rates if the intervals differ?
Convert them to the same period. For a day, multiply the rate of an exchange that pays every 4 hours by 6, every 8 hours by 3, and hourly by 24.
Sources
- 1.P2P.Army: funding rate arbitrage scannerP2P.Army10/31/2026official
- 2.Introduction to Binance Futures Funding RatesBinance3/6/2026
- 3.Perpetual funding fee mechanismOKX10/28/2026
- 4.
About the author
Crypto expert, arbitrage trader and investor
Crypto expert and hands-on crypto arbitrage trader, investor and software developer with over 20 years of experience. On the P2P.Army blog he covers exchange news, P2P and cross-exchange arbitrage.
- Crypto arbitrage
- P2P arbitrage
- Cross-exchange arbitrage
- Crypto exchanges
- Investing
- Software development
