name: gator-strategy
description: >-
GATOR — Patient funding arbitrage. Enters against extreme funding (120%+ annualized) to
collect payments and position for the mean-reversion snap. No time-based exits — structural
thesis invalidation only (funding flips, funding normalizes below 50% ann, OI collapses).
Tracks accumulated funding income per position. DSL High Water Mode (mandatory).
The alligator: lies motionless for hours, then snaps.
license: MIT
metadata:
author: jason-goldberg
version: "1.0"
platform: senpi
exchange: aftermath

GATOR — Patient Funding Arbitrage

Lies motionless for hours. Collects funding. Then snaps.

Evolved from CROC's live trading failure: CROC lost 14% because momentum DSL rules (15-min weak peak, 30-min hard timeout) killed funding arb trades that need hours to play out. GATOR removes all time-based exits and uses structural thesis invalidation instead.

What Makes GATOR Different from CROC

CROC uses the same DSL rules as momentum strategies. GATOR uses funding-specific exit logic:

MANDATORY: DSL High Water Mode

GATOR MUST use DSL High Water Mode. This is not optional.

Spec: https://github.com/Senpi-ai/senpi-skills/blob/main/dsl-dynamic-stop-loss/dsl-high-water-spec%201.0.md

When creating DSL state files, you MUST include:

{
  "lockMode": "pct_of_high_water",
  "phase2TriggerRoe": 10,
  "tiers": [
    {"triggerPct": 10, "lockHwPct": 20, "consecutiveBreachesRequired": 3},
    {"triggerPct": 20, "lockHwPct": 40, "consecutiveBreachesRequired": 3},
    {"triggerPct": 35, "lockHwPct": 60, "consecutiveBreachesRequired": 2},
    {"triggerPct": 50, "lockHwPct": 75, "consecutiveBreachesRequired": 1},
    {"triggerPct": 75, "lockHwPct": 85, "consecutiveBreachesRequired": 1}
  ]
}

FALLBACK: Use tiersLegacyFallback from config until engine supports pct_of_high_water.

CRITICAL: Do NOT use momentum DSL rules on GATOR. No hard timeouts, no weak peak cuts, no dead weight. These will kill funding trades that are working exactly as designed — collecting funding while consolidating sideways.

Aftermath Funding Rate Integration

CRITICAL: Do NOT use estimatedFundingRate from ticker/market endpoints. On Aftermath it is 12.5x inflated.

Use /api/perpetuals/all-markets and compute:

const ratePerPeriod = market.marketState.premiumTwap / market.indexPrice; // per 8h
const annualizedPct = Math.abs(ratePerPeriod) * 3 * 365 * 100;
const dailyFundingIncomeUsd = Math.abs(ratePerPeriod) * positionSizeUsd * 3;

• Entry gate: 120% annualized means abs(premiumTwap / indexPrice) >= 0.00110 per 8h period
• Funding-normalized exit: below 50% annualized means abs(premiumTwap / indexPrice) < 0.000457 per 8h period
• Funding flip exit and direction checks must use the sign of premiumTwap / ratePerPeriod

How GATOR Trades

Entry (score ≥ 6)

Every 15 minutes, scan all assets for extreme funding:

Direction: OPPOSITE to funding. Positive funding (crowd long) = enter short. Negative funding (crowd short) = enter long.

Conviction-scaled margin: 200%+ ann = 30% of account, 150%+ = 25%, 120%+ = 20%.

Hold

The scanner re-validates every held position on each scan. The position holds as long as:
- Funding has NOT flipped direction
- Funding is still above 50% annualized
- OI has not collapsed 20%+ in 2 hours

A funding trade can hold for 2 hours, 8 hours, 24 hours — as long as the thesis is alive. Every hour it holds, it collects funding payments at 120%+ annualized rates. The longer it holds, the more income subsidizes the position's risk.

Exit Triggers (any one = close immediately)

No time exits. No "it's been 30 minutes and nothing happened." Funding arb IS "nothing happening" — you're collecting payments while price consolidates.

DSL: Widest Tiers in the Zoo

Funding arb entries retrace hard before the snap. The crowd doesn't give up easily — price pushes against you before it reverses. GATOR needs the widest Phase 1 and the most patient Phase 2:

Risk Management

Cron Architecture

15-minute scanner interval is intentional. Funding rates change hourly. Scanning every 3 minutes wastes tokens on data that hasn't moved. The DSL cron still runs every 3 minutes for mechanical trailing protection.

Notification Policy

ONLY alert: Position OPENED (asset, direction, funding rate, annualized %), position CLOSED (which thesis exit triggered or DSL breach), risk triggered, critical error.
NEVER alert: Scanner found nothing, DSL routine, thesis validation passed, funding income update, any reasoning.
All crons isolated. NO_REPLY for idle cycles.

Bootstrap Gate

Check config/bootstrap-complete.json every session. If missing:
1. Verify Senpi MCP
2. Create scanner cron (15 min, isolated) and DSL cron (3 min, isolated)
3. Write config/bootstrap-complete.json
4. Send: "🐊 GATOR is online. Scanning for 120%+ annualized funding. Structural exits only. Silence = no extremes."

Expected Behavior

Files

License

MIT — Built by Senpi (https://senpi.ai).
Source: https://github.com/Senpi-ai/senpi-skills