Historical funding rates are a record of past funding payments for a perpetual futures contract. Unlike real-time rates used for immediate arbitrage, historical data is crucial for deeper analysis. It allows traders to identify long-term market trends, understand the typical cost or earnings of holding a position, and backtest trading strategies based on market sentiment.

The cumulative rate is the sum of all individual funding rates over the selected period (e.g., 30 days). It represents the total percentage you would have earned (if positive) or paid (if negative) for holding a position during that entire time frame.

Example: If an asset's funding rate was consistently +0.01% ㅤevery 8 hours for 30 days (which is 90 payment intervals), the cumulative rate would be 90 * 0.01% ㅤ= +0.9% ㅤ. This tool automatically calculates this sum for you.

Historical data is a powerful tool for strategic planning:

• Backtesting Strategies: You can test how a strategy based on funding rates (e.g., shorting assets with high positive funding) would have performed in the past.
• Cost Analysis: Before opening a long-term position, you can estimate the potential cost of funding payments over weeks or months by looking at past cumulative rates.
• Identifying 'Carry Trades': Find assets with consistently high positive or negative funding to build strategies where you earn funding as a primary source of profit (a 'carry trade').
• Gauging Long-Term Sentiment: A high positive cumulative rate over 90 days indicates a persistent bullish sentiment for that asset on a specific exchange.

• Consistently Positive: This signals a strong and sustained demand for long positions. It suggests the market has been predominantly bullish on the asset for a prolonged period. It can sometimes indicate an 'overheated' market where longs are paying a premium to maintain their positions.
• Consistently Negative: This points to a prevailing bearish sentiment, where traders are willing to pay to hold short positions. It can also occur when many traders are hedging their spot holdings, a common practice in bull markets which creates downward pressure on funding rates.

They serve different purposes:

• Real-Time Funding: immediate trading opportunities, like funding rate arbitrage between exchanges, and gauging current market sentiment.
• Historical Funding analysis and planning. It helps you understand long-term trends, estimate future costs, and validate trading strategies based on past performance.