I only realized today how shallow my understanding of funding fees really is.

I used to think it didn't matter—after all, it's just a small position of 30U, opening a 1x short, with a 2% hourly fee. It wasn't until I manually calculated the 24-hour cost that I was shocked by the numbers. A 30U position ends up costing 16U in funding fees in a single day. From another perspective, it means my principal has to pay over half of the fee, and the profits I make can't even cover this black hole of costs.

Many people probably have this misconception too—they think opening small short positions isn't a burden. In reality, when the funding fees keep rising, even a small principal can accumulate enough costs to wipe out all gains. Now, I've changed my strategy: during high-fee periods, I simply pass on such trades and avoid these kinds of shorts. Instead of struggling to survive in a high-cost environment, it's better to wait for the right opportunity to make a move.