Weekly market analysis, a full derivatives curriculum, and deep-dive lessons from high-volume market makers and traders with TradFi roots operating in crypto. Free. No course fees. No fluff.
How it works
A Sunday night setup and Thursday night debrief every week. What moved, why it moved, and what it means for your positions.
A foundational derivatives curriculum covering the full basics, plus a growing library of lessons spun off from weekly market events.
Real-time Q&A and direct desk access with the Harmonic team. Coming with exchange distribution partnerships.
Layer 1: Weekly brief
Two pieces per week. Sunday night sets the frame, Thursday night closes it.
A Treasury bond buyback decision did what the Fed minutes couldn't. Bitcoin surged 15%, Ethereum 23%, and the largest single day of short liquidations on record accelerated the move.
Read → NO. 21Rate odds kept climbing over the weekend. Bitcoin didn't follow. Fed minutes Wednesday and the first August activity read Friday are the two events that test whether the disconnect closes or extends.
Read → NO. 20Both inflation reports landed soft. Stocks rallied. Bitcoin fell anyway, after Strategy disclosed a second straight week of selling and ETF buyers reversed course.
Read → NO. 19Two weak jobs reports flipped the Fed's calculus back to holding. Iran looks worn out, not just paused. Two inflation prints land back to back this week while rates sit near a coin flip.
Read → NO. 18The hike scare that opened the week unwound on weak hiring. AMD and SpaceX both beat and both got sold. Iran made real progress without a deal. The CLARITY Act is down to a procedural coin flip.
Read → NO. 17Two macro engines pushing risk assets lower, Iran as the release valve for both. Oil fell on the pause, hike odds jumped anyway, and the dollar stayed below 100.
Read → NO. 16Five of six calls landed. Japan broke the dollar below 100. Microsoft and Amazon collected. Meta paid. Bitcoin held through $494M of outflows and barely moved.
Read → NO. 15Diplomacy held over the weekend. Oil dropped $8 from $92 to $84. September rate-increase odds moved one point. The Fed meets Wednesday. Netanyahu meets Trump today.
Read → NO. 14Houthi rebels hit two Saudi tankers. Brent crossed $100. Tesla missed badly. Alphabet beat and fell. Intel broke the pattern. Bitcoin moved $457 on the week.
Read → NO. 13Oil is up $10 from last Sunday's open. The Nasdaq broke below 29,000. Bitcoin is at $64,580. Three weeks into the rotation signal, the divergence is widening.
Read → NO. 12CPI came in at 3.5 percent, well below consensus. Rate increase odds for July 29 collapsed from 33.7 to 10.2 percent within hours. Then three more tests hit. Bitcoin passed all of them.
Read → NO. 11Four rounds of strikes, oil up $2, rate increase odds at 33.7 percent. The market has priced Iran. CPI Tuesday decides whether the rotation gets its green light.
Read → NO. 10Two shocks, two recoveries, and $875 million in liquidations. Bitcoin finished the week within $700 of where it started. Here is what held and what Tuesday CPI decides next.
Read → NO. 09BTC at $63,867, STRC at $87.87, ETF inflows returning. Three conditions from the closer moved in the right direction. Here is what to watch this week and how to think about your position.
Read → NO. 08STRC jumped 21% on the week, MSTR crossed $100, NFP missed badly at 57,000 jobs, and gold ripped $175 off its low. Here is what moved and what to watch next.
Read → NO. 07STRC dividend deadline tomorrow, jobs number Thursday, July 4 weekend Friday. Here is what to watch and how each scenario plays out.
Read → NO. 06STRC under investigation, PCE confirmed the hike narrative, $10.6B in options expired worthless, and BTC broke below $60K for the first time since October 2024.
Read → NO. 05Three weeks ago Saylor sold 32 BTC and the market freaked out. Here is the full story behind why, and why the machine he built to buy Bitcoin is currently switched off.
Read → NO. 04How the week closed after the Fed held rates, what the dollar strength means for BTC, and where the market is positioned heading into next week.
Read → NO. 03BTC at $66,500 after the Iran deal. ETF buyers are driving the move, not leveraged perp longs. Here is what the funding data is actually saying.
Read → NO. 02How the week resolved, where open interest landed, and the carry trade setup heading into next week.
Read → NO. 01A liquidation cascade week, a funding rate story, and what the data says about who actually got wrecked.
Read →Layer 2: Lesson library
Each lesson spins off a market event covered in the weekly brief. More added as the blog grows.
Calendar spreads, pairs trades, cross-asset spreads, construction, monitoring, and carry.
Spun off from: Trump Paused the Strikes, Jul 26
Available nowBinary risk, open-ended risk, demo trading, win rate, and sizing for an uncertain environment.
Spun off from: Crude at $84 on Iran News, Jul 20
Available nowStrike selection, expiry, position sizing, rolling rules, and managing the trade in a market that stabilized but has not confirmed direction.
Spun off from: The Headwinds Are Starting to Shift, Jul 6
Available nowThe framework for reading macro signals — rates, dollar, risk sentiment — and translating them into a directional thesis before the move is obvious.
Spun off from: The Six Headwinds Are Still Blowing, Jun 29
Available nowHow to compare perp funding to expiration basis, calculate BNOC, put on a delta-neutral spread, and borrow dollars against your crypto without a lender.
Spun off from: The Trade of the Week Is Already in Motion, June 15
Available nowHow the funding rate is actually calculated, what the four regimes mean, and how to read it as a structural signal before every trade.
Spun off from: The Trade of the Week Is Already in Motion, June 15
Available nowThe Understand / Apply / Case Study breakdown of what cascade mechanics look like in real data and how to position around the recovery.
Spun off from: When The Market Shakes You Out, June 8
Layer 2: Reference
Every term used in the weekly briefs, lessons, and curriculum, explained in plain language. No jargon left undefined.
Layer 2: Core curriculum
Eight modules plus a capstone. The foundational groundwork on how derivatives markets actually work. Built by Joe Perry and Jason Thelen from 45+ years of institutional derivatives experience.
How perpetuals, futures, and options are structured. How funding rates work and how to use them as a strategic input. How to size a position around volatility, read open interest as a map of participant behavior, and construct trades with defined risk. The full picture, from mechanics to execution.
What derivatives are, why they exist in crypto markets, and the liquidation mechanism behind the majority of retail losses.
How expiry futures are priced, how basis forms, and what contango and backwardation mean for anyone trading carry.
Calls, puts, strike selection, and how options let you define your maximum loss before the trade is on.
How binary event contracts price probability and what they reveal about institutional positioning ahead of macro events.
How to hold market exposure while eliminating directional risk through delta-neutral construction.
Spreads, straddles, and combination plays that express a view without unlimited downside.
Reading price, volume, and open interest as signals of participant behavior — not pattern recognition.
Position sizing, volatility-adjusted stops, and building a framework that survives consecutive losing trades.
Apply every concept from the series to a live market scenario — from reading the setup to sizing and executing the trade.
Every lesson, the full Derivatives Mastery curriculum, and the glossary live inside the community alongside weekly brief discussions, live broadcast events, and recorded podcasts. One place for everything.