LINK Perp 4H Funding-Extreme Momentum Continuation (Single-Instrument USD-M, Long-Short, Validated-Edge Decorrelated Sleeve)

A long-SHORT, SINGLE-INSTRUMENT, single-venue MOMENTUM-CONTINUATION strategy on LINKUSDT.BINANCE USD-M perpetual futures using 4-HOUR bars, completing a decorrelated multi-asset sleeve of the ONE edge validated this session — funding-LEVEL-Z-extreme momentum-follow (SOL version advanced at PF 1.30). Funding is a SIGNAL only (never credited as a cash flow; P&L is fully price-based and creditable). Thesis: a relative (z-scored) funding EXTREME marks strong, persistent leveraged-positioning demand that CONTINUES in price; the session proved FADING it loses (SOL fade -58%), FOLLOWING the LEVEL extreme works (SOL PF 1.30), the funding DERIVATIVE is anti-predictive (AVAX acceleration PF 0.78), and the settlement-clock variant is fee-dominated (ETH PF 0.88). LINK is chosen deliberately for TWO-SIDED funding: its oracle/DeFi-infrastructure catalyst cycles drive frequent funding SIGN-FLIPS (both extreme-positive and extreme-negative episodes), which keeps the long-short book genuinely two-sided — directly avoiding the funding-sign-asymmetry degeneration (near-one-sided book) that sank the ETH settlement strategy where funding is almost always positive. Its catalyst timing is idiosyncratic relative to the SOL (L1) / DOGE (meme) / XRP (payments) / BTC (major) members of the pending validated-edge book, so it adds a decorrelated sleeve rather than redundant exposure. It stays on the only confirmed-testable substrate (OHLCV + funding, both dense across full history) on the clean single-instrument USD-M MARGIN path, avoiding every structural blocker (NOT supplementary-data-gated/OI/liq/options recent-only, NOT BINANCE_SPOT CASH, NOT COIN-M, NOT cross-venue/HL, NOT multi-instrument pair, NOT funding-carry, NOT breakout, NOT funding-veto overlay, NOT funding-derivative, NOT slow-regime). It is the validated SOL construction (4H funding-Z-extreme, FOLLOW direction) — distinct from the failed funding-fade/acceleration/settlement/regime/veto variants. META-NOTE FOR FACTORY: the OHLCV+funding substrate is now saturated with this edge across 5 assets; unlocking genuinely new mechanism families requires the data layer to backfill multi-year OI/liquidations/options history. Kept to ~4 parameters.