{"podcast":{"title":"Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)","slug":"complex-systems-with-patrick-mckenzie-patio11-6944962","podcast_index_feed_id":6944962,"rss_url":"https://feeds.transistor.fm/complex-systems-with-patrick-mckenzie-patio11","website_url":"https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com","image_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/daBTNOHQVDwsyvBT5Y1dmtX8J3KGSjYDycHstNU2MOw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8zMzM5/OTY4ZTE5ODVjZjk0/MzhhZWEzMjRmZjdm/ZWNhYS5wbmc.jpg","author":"Patrick McKenzie","episode_count":97,"summary":"We live in a world where our civilization and daily lives depend upon institutions, infrastructure, and technological substrates that are _complicated_ but not _unknowable_. Join Patrick McKenzie (patio11) as he discusses how decisions, technology, culture, and incentives shape our finance, technology, government, and more, with the people who built (and build) those Complex Systems.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-16T16:19:13.615743+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/complex-systems-with-patrick-mckenzie-patio11-6944962"},"episode":{"title":"Understanding perpetual futures","slug":"understanding-perpetual-futures","published_at":"2025-12-11T08:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/complex-systems-with-patrick-mckenzie-patio11-6944962/understanding-perpetual-futures","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/complex-systems-with-patrick-mckenzie-patio11-6944962","url":"https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/understanding-perpetual-futures/","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/media.transistor.fm/31a45332/937566fe.mp3","summary":"In this episode, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) walks through how perpetual futures work, from funding rates to liquidations to the surprise of automatic deleveraging. Perps are the dominant trading mechanism in crypto (6-8X larger than spot volume) and exist primarily to let exchanges and market makers run casinos more capital-efficiently. He explains why this intellectually interesting innovation probably won't escape crypto, despite what crypto enthusiasts might expect. – Full transcript available here: www.complexsystemspodcast.com/understanding-perpetual-futures/ – Sponsor: Framer is a design and publishing platform that collapses the toolchain between wireframes and production-ready websites. Design, iterate, and publish in one workspace. Start free at framer.com/design with code COMPLEXSYSTEMS for a free month of Framer Pro. – Links: Bits about Money, Perpetual futures, explained www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/perpetual-futures-explained/ – Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:36) Beginning with the problem (06:49) Perps predate crypto but found a home there (08:19) Multiple settlements a day (10:30) Convergence in prices via the basis trade (13:44) Sponsor: Framer (15:11) Leverage and liquidations (18:46) We have altered the terms of your unregulated futures investment contract (21:50) An aside about liquidations (25:14) Will crypto successfully \"export\" perps","meta_description":"In this episode, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) walks through how perpetual futures work, from funding rates to liquidations to the surprise of automatic dele…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1571,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/complex-systems-with-patrick-mckenzie-patio11-6944962/episodes/understanding-perpetual-futures/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/complex-systems-with-patrick-mckenzie-patio11-6944962/understanding-perpetual-futures.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}