BTC Extreme Funding Rate Contrarian Short (8h)

Hypothesis

A short-only single-instrument MEAN-REVERSION strategy on BTCUSDT perpetual futures (Binance USD-M) triggered exclusively by extreme positive 8-hour funding rates. When the most recent funding rate settles above a threshold indicating crowded long positioning, the strategy opens a short and holds until funding normalizes or a price-based exit fires. The strategy uses NO chart-based signals (no SMA, EMA, candlestick patterns, breakouts, or trend filters) — entirely funding-rate-driven, which makes it structurally orthogonal to every OHLCV-based strategy currently in the pipeline and to all 10 recent failure patterns. Only 3 parameters total (entry threshold, exit threshold, time-stop hours), keeping it robust against overfitting. Data requirements are minimal: 1H bars (for execution/exit checks) plus funding_rate_updates from the supplementary data store.