Market and Risk Metrics
Besides price indicators, every contract in the terminal carries metrics about the market of the coin itself: funding, volume, turnover, project risk and volatility. They do not depend on the timeframe. In strategies they are used to decide which coins are suitable at all, before any indicator is checked.
Where the data comes from and when it is empty
Funding, volatility and the contract data come from the exchange. The 24h volume level, turnover level, risk level, rank and market cap come from CoinMarketCap. These CoinMarketCap metrics are empty when:
- the coin is not listed on CoinMarketCap — for example many tokenized stocks and funds, or a very fresh listing;
- the coin with the same ticker on CoinMarketCap is a different asset — it is priced noticeably differently from the pair on the exchange. Its data is then not used at all, so another coin's volume, rank or risk never ends up on the pair.
In addition, the volume level and the turnover level are empty when CoinMarketCap has no reliable 24h volume for the coin, and the turnover level is empty when CoinMarketCap gives no market capitalisation for it.
An empty value means "unknown", not the lowest level. A contract with an empty value does not pass a filter that has values selected — even if every level is selected. To keep such contracts, leave the field empty.
Funding level
What it is. Perpetual futures periodically exchange a funding payment between longs and shorts. A positive rate means longs pay shorts (the market leans long); a negative rate means shorts pay longs (the market leans short). Firedrake takes the latest funding rate from the exchange and groups it:
| Level | Funding rate (absolute value) |
|---|---|
| Low (+) / Low (-) | up to 0.01% |
| Medium (+) / Medium (-) | up to 0.05% |
| High (+) / High (-) | up to 0.5% |
| Extra High (+) / Extra High (-) | above 0.5% |
The sign in brackets is the direction of the rate. A zero rate counts as (+).
What it is for. High funding is a cost for the paying side and a sign of a crowded trade. Extreme funding often appears near local tops (very positive) or bottoms (very negative).
How to use it. For long strategies, allow Low and Medium of both signs and exclude High (+) / Extra High (+) — you avoid paying heavy funding and joining an overcrowded long. Some traders use Extra High (-) as a contrarian long filter: shorts are crowded and paying.
24h volume level
What it is. The coin's 24-hour trading volume across the market (CoinMarketCap data), grouped into levels: below 50M, 50M–100M, 100M–200M, 200M–300M, 300M–400M, 400M–500M, 500M–700M, 700M–1B, above 1B (USD).
What it is for. Volume is liquidity. Higher volume means tighter spreads, less slippage and indicators that behave more cleanly. Very low volume coins move erratically.
If CoinMarketCap has no reliable 24h volume for the coin, the level is empty (unknown), not "below 50M"; such a coin does not pass a Volume Weight filter.
How to use it. Most strategies start with 100M and above. Lower levels suit small position sizes and traders who accept erratic moves.
24h turnover level
What it is. Turnover is the 24-hour volume divided by the market capitalisation, in percent — how actively the coin is traded relative to its size.
| Level | Turnover |
|---|---|
| Low | up to 1% |
| Normal | 1% – 15% |
| Medium | 15% – 70% |
| High | 70% – 150% |
| Extra High | above 150% |
In the strategy form this setting is called Trade Score; the Low level is not offered there.
If CoinMarketCap gives no market capitalisation for the coin (for example, many tokenized stocks) or has no reliable volume for it, turnover cannot be calculated: the level is empty and such a coin does not pass a Trade Score filter. The screener then shows the turnover as 0% without a level — read it as "unknown", not as "no trading".
What it is for. High turnover means the coin is "in play": news, hype, speculative interest. It brings opportunity and also sharp reversals. Normal turnover is typical for established coins.
How to use it. Calm strategies: Normal and Medium. Momentum strategies looking for active coins: High and Extra High, usually with smaller sizes.
Risk level
What it is. A simple project-risk label:
- High — the project belongs to a high-risk category (meme, gaming, sports, play-to-earn and similar, based on CoinMarketCap categories);
- Medium — not in those categories, but the coin has had extreme price spikes in recent months;
- Low — the coin is on CoinMarketCap and none of the above applies.
A coin without CoinMarketCap data gets no risk level at all — the value is empty, not Low (see above).
What it is for. Meme and hype coins can move many times further than the indicators suggest. The risk level lets you keep them out of conservative strategies.
How to use it. Conservative strategies: Low (optionally Medium). Aggressive strategies may include High, with smaller sizes and wider protection in Bot Settings.
Volatility (coin activity)
The metric is called "volatility" for historical reasons, but it is not volatility in the classic sense. Classic volatility is the spread of price changes over a long period, from close to close. Firedrake uses its own algorithm: it measures how actively the price is moving inside short candles right now, and gives more weight to the last hours.
So the metric is best understood as coin activity: it rises quickly when the market turns its attention to a coin (news, a burst of trading, a breakout) and falls when the coin goes quiet. Two coins with the same "classic" volatility over a month can have very different activity today.
How it is calculated. The principle:
- the coin's 15-minute candles are used, including the one that is still forming;
- for each candle its range in percent — from low to high — is taken; rising and falling candles are counted separately, so moves in both directions weigh equally;
- two periods are looked at — the last half-day and the last few hours;
- the recent hours weigh more: when a coin suddenly "wakes up", the metric rises quickly without waiting for the whole half-day to reflect it.
Three values are shown:
- Volatility level — Low, Medium, High, Extra High;
- Volatility factor — the resulting number the level is based on: the higher, the more active the coin;
- Volatility rank — the position of the coin among all futures contracts of the exchange, where 1 is the most active.
The values are recalculated every few seconds together with the rest of the market state. For coins listed less than a day ago the metric is not calculated — such contracts do not pass a Volatility Score filter that has values selected.
What it is for. Activity shows how far the price usually travels right now: high activity gives bigger opportunities and bigger risks, low activity — calmer, slower deals.
How to use it.
- Take the level into account when choosing deal settings: the same settings behave differently on a calm coin and on a very active one.
- Many strategies use Medium and High as a balance between movement and control.
- When several contracts match a strategy at the same time, the platform considers the most active ones first (by volatility rank). Among contracts with the same volatility rank, the one with the larger 24h volume goes first, then by pair name.
The volatility level is not the same as the MRC width: the level compares coins with each other by the range of their candles over the last hours, while the MRC width compares a coin with its own recent past.
Other contract data
- Max leverage — the maximum leverage the exchange allows for the contract. In strategies Min leverage keeps only contracts that allow at least this much.
- Min order — the minimum order value for the contract (at the current price).
- Step size — the quantity step of an order.
- Listing — the date the contract was listed. In strategies it is used as a range "listed no earlier / no later than N days ago".
- Also trades on — whether the same contract is listed on the other exchange (Binance / Bybit) and its price there.
- Rank and market cap — the coin's CoinMarketCap rank and capitalisation. Without CoinMarketCap data (or when the coin has no rank there) the rank is shown as #99999 and the market cap as 0.