Field notes

Notes from the desk.

How the agent thinks. What we read in market structure. Why we shipped what we shipped. Long enough to be useful, short enough to read on the way out the door.

Market·Jun 17, 2026

What a basis trade looks like on Hyperliquid.

A basis trade is the cleanest way to harvest funding on Hyperliquid — and the cleanest way to lose money if you misread the venue. How the trade actually works, why the venue's quirks change the math, and the three failure modes that take a working basis trade and turn it into a slow drain.

8 min read
Strategy·Jun 16, 2026

What a regime gate actually does for your P&L.

Most strategies have an entry block and a sizing block and stop there. The regime gate is the third — a small condition that decides when not to run, and on a Hyperliquid trading strategy it usually saves more risk than the signal block earns. What it actually does, with numbers, and how to write one you can edit.

8 min read
Strategy·Jun 14, 2026

Sizing positions by Kelly versus fixed-fractional, in practice.

Kelly and fixed-fractional are the two sizing rules every perp trader has heard of and almost no one runs verbatim. What each one actually says, why the real answer is a compromise, and how to express it in a strategy file you can edit.

8 min read
Market·Jun 10, 2026

Open interest as a signal: when it works, when it lies.

Open interest is one of the most-quoted numbers in perp trading and one of the most misread. A field guide to what OI on Hyperliquid actually measures, the three ways it lies, and the only way we trust it inside a strategy file.

8 min read
Market·Jun 7, 2026

Reading the liquidation map: what it tells you and what it doesn't.

Liquidation maps on Hyperliquid look like X-ray vision into where leveraged perp traders will get blown out next. They are useful — and they hide more than most readers notice. A field guide to reading them without overreading them.

8 min read
Essays·Jun 6, 2026

Why every backtest you've ever seen is too optimistic.

Three structural reasons a crypto strategy backtest beats the live version — the universe the backtest got to pick, the costs it quietly skipped, and the fills it never had to fight for. What to look for, and what to demand before you trust a curve.

9 min read
Market·May 8, 2026

Funding rates on Hyperliquid: a field guide for the merely curious.

How funding works on Hyperliquid: the only perp fee that pays one side at the other's expense, and how to read the regimes that matter.

9 min read
Strategy·May 5, 2026

Writing your first strategy, line by line.

A walkthrough of Funding Harvester, the simplest profitable strategy we publish. The four blocks, what each does, and the two failure modes to design out.

12 min read
Essays·May 1, 2026

The case for transparent agent trading.

Most automated trading is sold as a black box. Why we built Engine the other way around, and what transparency means in practice.

8 min read