Oh.. you were betting on longs more than 1:1 because you wanted to get richie faster..
Yes.
don't you still have to pay for how long your short is open?
Only if
A. You use perpetuals as opposed to ordinary expiring futures
B. Funding rate is positive
A _and_ B
So let's say that
when the BTC price was around $27k in October 2023, you decided to short
You put 0.5 BTC on your bet which would be equivalent of $13.5k
if he closes it at $88k, then he would still get back 0.1534 BTC? plus some kind of fee? what is the fee?
short (virtual sell) 13500 1$ contracts @27k btc price = 0.5
BTCclose position: re-buy the same 0.5 btc @88k btc price = $44000
So you're down ($44000 - $13500) = $27500,
in btc = -$27500 * (1
BTC / $88000) = -0.292
BTCNote that if it's a long that goes belly up, it's worse.
long (virtual buy) 13500 1$ contracts @88k btc price = 0.153
BTCclose the position: sell the same 0.153 btc @27k price ~ $4150
So you're down ($13500 - $4150) = $9350,
in btc = -$9350 * (1
BTC / $27000) = -0.346
BTCThat's why these inverse futures (perpetual or expiring) are good for shorting, not for longing. Carry trade and all that.
In the case of expiring futures, that's it. In the case of perpetuals, if shorting in positive funding rate conditions you'd have got some funding to soften the blow. The funding does not go to the exchange but to other traders: Longs pay shorts if positive (more common), shorts pay longs if negative (uncommon).
Do you recommend that I should learn about employing this tactic?
No.
it is offsetting your longs then you might just be emotionally neutral about it?
I have done that in times of sideways in the past to profit from up-down volatility, but you must close long legs and short legs separately of course, closely following the ups and downs. It's a full time job and a risky one, because the long leg can always get liquidated if the price moves against you (downity). As i said, the short leg won't - as long as it isn't leveraged above 1.
but yeah, I suppose that it is best if you have some kind of a target price to close it?
This time the closing target price was obtained by a sophisticated SOMA model fed with recent sentiment data (been gainz, so now she takes a break). I tried to let it ride, but number went back up, so thanks to my protective stop placed near my shorting price (but still below it, meaning in positive territory), I managed to pull off a lobster before I pulled out.