TradeWize · Blog

Investing, explained in plain English.

Everything you need to understand investing and keep up with the markets.

Derivatives11 min read

How to Read the Coinbase Premium

The gap between bitcoin's dollar price and its Tether price is sold as a window on American demand. Here is what it has actually been since 2017, hour by hour, and what it measures once you take Tether out.

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Derivatives12 min read

How to Read Options Skew and the Put/Call Ratio

Puts dearer than calls means the market is afraid. That's the reading. Here's what the reading actually marked, on every day since 2021.

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Derivatives11 min read

How to Read Spot vs Perp Volume

Everyone says the perpetual is where the market is. Here is the ratio that measures it, what moved it most, and whether 'spot-led' and 'perp-led' ever meant anything.

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Derivatives12 min read

How to Read Implied Volatility

The options market publishes a forecast every day. Here is its report card: how often it was right, by how much it overpaid, what it looked like on the day it was most wrong, and which way price was going when it jumped.

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Derivatives12 min read

How to Read Order-Book Depth

Every exchange draws the green and red mountains. Here is how much money is actually in them, when it is there, what it does when price moves, and why a buy wall is yesterday's candle rather than tomorrow's support.

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Derivatives12 min read

How to Read the Basis

Every futures contract trades a little above or below the coin itself. Here is what that gap is made of, what it has paid, how it compares with a T-bill, and why the extremes matter more than the level.

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Derivatives11 min read

How to Read the Taker Buy/Sell Ratio

Every exchange tells you how much of today's volume was buyers hitting the offer. Here is what that number is made of, what it has been worth, and why the tape now agrees with the candle almost every day.

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Derivatives11 min read

How to Read the Long/Short Ratio

Every exchange publishes how many of its traders are long. Here is what the number is actually made of — and which of the two things everyone does with it the data will pay for.

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Derivatives12 min read

How to Read a Liquidation Cascade

There is no liquidation feed. There is a footprint, it is free, and it says three things almost nobody repeating the word actually believes.

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Derivatives13 min read

How to Read Open Interest

It is not a direction indicator and it never was. It is a size indicator, it only speaks at one end of its range, and that one reading is worth having.

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Derivatives12 min read

How to Read the Funding Rate

Everyone quotes it as a sentiment gauge. It is much better than that at one job and much worse at the other, and the difference is worth real money.

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Derivatives11 min read

What Is a Perpetual Future? The Contract That Never Expires

Delete the expiry date from a futures contract and you get the most-traded instrument in crypto. You also get two clocks running against you at once, and most people only ever look at one of them.

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