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Relative value
Is collecting the funding rate an arbitrage that ignores direction?
Funding-rate collection · Perpetual funding carry
What it bets
Perpetual funding keeps the same sign for a stretch. Standing on the side that receives it, the payments add up enough to cover price movement and fees.
How the rule is written
When the funding rate is positive, longs pay shorts. When the rate is negative, the payments reverse. The side that collects holds the matching direction on the perpetual, and often hedges the price with spot or another contract. With no hedge, this is a directional position that also pays or receives a fee. The rate can change sign. The hedge leg and the perpetual leg will not rise and fall together forever.
When it fails
The rate flips, the hedge leg stops tracking the perpetual, or one price jump is larger than the fees already collected. The result is not a locked return.
Do not confuse it with
A spot-futures basis relies on convergence at expiry. Funding relies on a scheduled transfer, and a perpetual does not expire. The two can exist at the same time. They are not the same spread.