Leverage is rented, and the rent never stops
Financing accrues every day regardless of the outcome, so long holds at high leverage bleed edge before price moves. Compare it with the perpetual funding stream on the funding-rate APR calculator and the shorting cost on the borrow cost calculator.
The meter running on borrowed margin
Spot margin borrows charge interest hourly, and the quoted rates weaponize smallness: 0.005%/hour reads like nothing and compounds to 44% a year. The cost formula is simple — borrowed amount × hourly rate × hours — and the surprise is always the annualization.
Worked example: borrow $8,000 USDT at 0.003%/hour for a three-week swing trade. That's $0.24/hour, $121 over 21 days — 1.5% of the borrow, before the trade's own fees and spread. Your entry needed to be 1.5% better than a cash buyer's just to tie.
Rates float with demand: bull-market USDT borrow costs routinely triple as everyone leverages long simultaneously, and the position you costed at 1.5% carry quietly becomes 4%. Two disciplines cover it: check the current rate — not last month's — the day you borrow, and put a calendar line on every margin trade past a week, because the meter's whole strategy is being forgotten.