# Funding Rates and Open Interest ## Funding Rates Funding rates are a cornerstone of the perpetual contracts market, ensuring the price of these contracts aligns with the underlying asset's spot price. These rates, which can be positive or negative, adjust based on the disparity between the perpetual contract price and the spot price. * **Positive Rates**: When the contract price exceeds the spot price, traders with long positions pay those with short positions. This discourages overly costly long positions. * **Negative Rates**: When the contract price falls below the spot price, solvers with short positions pay long position holders. This deters excessively costly short positions. LODE’s funding rates are determined by a 'solver-driven pricing' model. These rates are influenced by diverse market interactions, promoting competitive, market-reflective pricing. Understanding funding rates is essential for traders, as they directly affect the cost of maintaining positions and, by extension, trade profitability. ## Open Interest Open Interest (OI) is a vital indicator of market activity and liquidity, representing the total value of perpetual contracts on the platform. The OI ratio, calculated as current OI divided by available OI, provides insights into market activity and sentiment. ## Trading with Funding Rates and OI Strategic trading on LODE involves actively monitoring funding rates and OI. By understanding these metrics, traders can make informed decisions, optimizing their strategies to adapt to the dynamic nature of the market. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.lode.trade/the-trading-hub/trading-on-the-hub/funding-rates-and-open-interest.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.