DEEPFLOW RESEARCH

The research playbook

01—06

Six ideas. A stronger routine.

Read one, put it into practice, then return to your workspace.

MARKET BASICS01

What funding actually tells you

Funding is a recurring transfer between long and short perpetual positions. A positive rate normally means longs pay shorts; a negative rate reverses the direction. The scanner shows the primary perpetual feed’s current hourly rate as a percentage. A high rate can indicate crowded positioning, but it is not a reversal signal by itself.

Put it into practice

Compare funding with price structure and open interest. Write down what would invalidate your interpretation before taking a position.

ORDER FLOW02

How to read an order-book heatmap with DeepFlow

The order book shows resting bids and asks at one moment. Orders may be cancelled, moved, hidden, or filled before you react. Our depth panel adds the first 12 returned price levels on each side. The resulting percentage describes that sample of displayed liquidity; it is not executed order flow or a prediction.

Put it into practice

Use depth to investigate execution conditions. Confirm with completed trades and price behaviour before making a directional judgment.

RISK FIRST03

Size the idea around the invalidation

Choose an invalidation price before choosing position size. In the calculator, risk dollars equal paper equity multiplied by the risk percentage. Quantity is risk dollars divided by stop distance plus estimated entry and stop-exit fees per unit. A tight stop can imply a surprisingly large position.

Put it into practice

Check implied account exposure. Allow for slippage, funding, gaps, and liquidity; an actual stop may execute at a worse price than planned.

ON-CHAIN RESEARCH04

How to track large-wallet activity without guessing

An address with many tokens may be an exchange, market maker, bridge, team wallet, or liquidity pool. A transfer is not necessarily a purchase. Reliable holding duration requires transaction history and clear treatment of partial sales, transfers between owned wallets, and missing history. Trading volume alone cannot establish any of these facts.

Put it into practice

Verify the address identity, cost-basis assumptions, remaining holdings, and transaction history. Treat unknown information as unknown.

BUILD A HABIT05

Turn each trade into a useful observation

Before a paper trade, record the setup, planned entry, invalidation, target, and why you believe the idea is worth testing. After closing it, review both the result and whether you followed your plan. One win does not validate a strategy; one loss does not invalidate it. Look for repeatable patterns across comparable market conditions.

Put it into practice

Review your journal once a week. Separate strategy quality, execution mistakes, fees, and market conditions. Keep losing trades in the record.

ADVANCED CONCEPTS06

Why gamma exposure needs a label

A gamma-exposure estimate combines an option sensitivity with open interest, contract specifications, and an assumed position sign. Public open interest does not reveal which side dealers own. Recent trade direction also cannot reconstruct their entire inventory. A sign assumption can materially change the conclusion.

Put it into practice

Before using a GEX chart, inspect contract units, expiries, volatility, and position-sign assumptions. Treat estimated dealer exposure as a model, not observed inventory.

Primary references

Perpetual exchange funding documentation perpetual market-data definitions GeckoTerminal API guide

Educational material. Examples and heuristics are not personalised investment advice.