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:

Aspect	CROC	GATOR
Min funding	20% annualized	120% annualized — absolute extremes only
Weak peak cut	15 min (or widened by agent)	Disabled
Hard timeout	30 min (or widened by agent)	Disabled
Primary exit	Time-based (DSL Phase 1 timeout)	Structural (funding flips = exit)
Funding flip exit	Not implemented	Instant — funding reverses direction = thesis dead
Funding normalize exit	Not implemented	Funding drops below 50% ann = arb is over
OI collapse exit	Not implemented	OI drops 20%+ in 2h = chaotic unwind, take what you have
Funding income tracking	None	Tracks income per position
Phase 2 trigger	+7% ROE	+10% ROE — funding arb is slower
Stagnation TP	30 min	180 min — funding trades are slow by design

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.

How GATOR Trades

Entry (score ≥ 6)

Every 15 minutes, scan all assets for extreme funding:

Signal	Points
Funding ≥ 200% annualized	4
Funding ≥ 150% annualized	3
Funding ≥ 120% annualized	2
Deep OI (> $20M)	2
Moderate OI (> $10M)	1
SM aligned with entry direction	1
Trend confirms entry direction	1

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)

Trigger	What It Means
Funding flips direction	The crowd unwound. Thesis is dead.
Funding drops below 50% ann	The extreme normalized. The arb is over.
OI collapses 20%+ in 2h	Chaotic unwind. Take what you have.
DSL breach	High Water stop hit — mechanical exit.

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:

Setting	Value	Compare to FOX
Floor base	3.5% notional	FOX: 1.5%
Phase 2 trigger	+10% ROE	FOX: +7%
T1 lock	20% of HW	FOX: 40%
85% trail at	+75% ROE	FOX: +20%
Stagnation TP	15% ROE, 180 min	FOX: 10%, 45 min

Risk Management

Rule	Value
Max positions	3
Max entries/day	4 (base 3, dynamic to 5)
Daily loss limit	8%
Max drawdown	20%
Max single loss	10%
Cooldown	120 min after 2 consecutive losses

Cron Architecture

Cron	Interval	Session	Purpose
Scanner	15 min	isolated	Funding scan + thesis validation for held positions
DSL v5	3 min	isolated	High Water Mode trailing (safety net)

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

Metric	CROC	GATOR (expected)
Trades/day	5-10	2-4
Avg hold time	15-30 min (killed by timeout)	2-8 hours
Win rate	~35-40%	~55-65%
Avg winner	10-20% ROE	15-40%+ ROE
Avg loser	-3 to -8% ROE (many small)	-15 to -25% ROE (fewer, bigger)
Funding income/trade	Minimal (15 min holds)	Significant (hours at 120%+ ann)
Fee drag/day	$30-50	$5-15

Files

File	Purpose
scripts/gator-scanner.py	Funding scan + thesis validation + funding income tracking
scripts/gator_config.py	Shared config, MCP helpers
config/gator-config.json	All variables with thesis exit config + DSL High Water

License

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