An options trader reading the S&P 500 perp on a Sunday usually looks at one number: the move since the cash close. There is a second number next to it that says something the first cannot. Funding shows which side is paying to hold the position, hour by hour, through the weekend.
The short version of funding
Funding is a payment between longs and shorts on a perp. Positive means longs pay shorts. Negative means shorts pay longs. On Hyperliquid it is charged hourly. The annualized figure is the hourly rate multiplied out over a year, a unit conversion with no compounding. Funding on a stock perp covers the mechanics in full.
A weekend is a lot of hours
From Friday’s cash close to Monday’s open there are more than sixty hourly charges. A trader who holds the index perp across that stretch pays or receives every one. So the rate over a weekend is a running record of what holders were willing to bear while the stock market was shut.
When funding is at rest
On 4 October 2026 most large markets on the venue showed the same funding, about 5.5% a year. That is the formula’s resting value. A perp at the resting value is telling you nothing about crowding. Longs pay a small standing rate and nobody is being pushed. A weekend move that happens with funding at rest is a move without a visible lean.
When funding is away from rest
Funding well above the resting value means longs are paying extra to stay long. Read beside a perp that is up since the close, it says the buyers are still there and are paying for the position. Funding below rest or negative, beside a perp that is down, says the same of the sellers. Funding as a crowding gauge sets out the idea for crypto, and it carries over unchanged.
The mixed cases are worth a second look. A perp that is up while funding has turned negative has shorts paying to lean against the rise. That is disagreement inside the market, visible in a way a price alone does not show.
What it does not tell you
Funding is not direction. A crowded side can stay crowded and keep being right. It describes the cost of holding and who bears it. It also belongs to one book. The same index can list on more than one, each with its own rate, and the rates are never averaged together.
Funding has no link to dealer gamma. It will not move the flip or a wall on SPY. It is a read on the perp’s own holders, and the dealer map remains the read on what a level means for options.
Where to see it
The Stocks On-Chain tab on the NoVo Crypto Market Map shows funding now and its recorded average for every index and stock perp. NoVo has recorded it on every pass since 4 October 2026, and the average is labeled with the span the record really covers.