The Order Book Depth (OBD) widget is a tool that provides insights into the buy and sell orders at different price levels. By viewing the depth of the order book, you can estimate market liquidity, identify Support and Resistance zones, and gauge market sentiment. This tool is especially powerful in understanding the activity in Spot and Perpetual markets, which are both key to analyzing cryptocurrency trends and deciding on entry/exit points for trades.
Spot Markets Trading here involves the direct exchange of cryptocurrency assets, impacting real-time demand and supply for an asset.
Perpetual Markets These are derivative markets where contracts don’t have an expiration date. Traders often use perpetual markets to speculate on price movements without holding the asset. Liquidity and demand in perpetual markets provide insights into trader expectations about short-term price movements and are particularly valuable for active, short-term traders.
Understanding both markets provides a full picture: Spot often indicates longer-term demand, while Perpetual shows speculative or leveraged trading interest.
You can see the selection line on the selected asset. If you click on another asset, for example in the "Spot" section, this will affect the information in the other four widgets:
Main Chart
Order Book
Order Book Changes
Trades
Selecting different assets in Order Book Depth is a good way to understand if the coin has support or resistance on different exchanges and assets.
The OBD widget allows you to see how many orders are concentrated within a certain price range around the current market price. The following ranges are typically displayed:
0% - 1% Shows orders very close to the current price. This range is crucial for understanding immediate liquidity and is most important for intraday scalping trading, where prices may react to small, quick shifts in demand.
1% - 2.5% Indicates liquidity just outside the closest price range. This can be important for accurately tracking price reversals.
2.5% - 5% Shows slightly larger order clusters that can act as stronger support or resistance zones, which might absorb more significant price movements.
5% - 10% Represents larger clusters of orders that generally indicate longer-term support/resistance, with traders willing to buy/sell at a discount or premium.
10% - 25% Farther away from the current price, these levels indicate broader market expectations or long-term buy/sell interest.
Scalping Focus on ranges from 0% to 1% and 1% to 2.5% for immediate liquidity insight. This helps understand immediate demand or resistance, essential for scalping.
Intraday Trading Focus on ranges from 1% to 2.5% and 2.5% to 5% for a wider insight. This helps understand short-term demand or resistance, essential for intraday trading.
Swing Trading Look at broader ranges, like 1% to 10%, which show stronger support and resistance levels. These are key in identifying likely price reversal points and significant movement zones for medium-term trades.
The widget allows several customization options to suit your trading needs:
Ratio / Total
Ratio Shows the relative concentration of buy and sell orders at each price level, giving a quick view of the balance between demand and supply. The ratio formula is: (bids - asks) / (bids + asks)
Meaning it can range between -100 and +100 at any given time.
Total Displays absolute volume numbers, which is useful when you need a sense of the actual number of coins or USD within each range.
Attention: The Spot OBD widget section shows totals as a COIN quantity, while the Perpetuals section shows totals as a total USD quantity.
Cumulative / Noncumulative
Cumulative Shows an accumulation of buy/sell volumes as you move away from the current price, helpful for visualizing total demand or supply within each range.
Noncumulative Displays individual buy/sell volumes (or ratios) per range, useful for spotting specific zones of interest without layering.
Ratio Filter
Filters buy/sell ratios. This is useful when you want to see only the largest imbalances in demand and supply, allowing for more focused analysis. The space between the filtered bid and ask values is shaded with red or green color, indicating which side has the advantage.
Mix Quotes (BTC + USD)
Mix Quotes On Combines BTC and USD quotes for a blended view, giving a sense of demand/supply across both base and fiat equivalents.
Mix Quotes Off Separates BTC and USD quotes, helpful if you’re focused on trading in one pair.
Exchange Selection
Choosing the right exchanges is key for reliable data. High-liquidity exchanges (like Binance, Bybit, Coinbase Pro, OKX, or Kraken) are generally most influential in cryptocurrency pricing and volume. Prioritize exchanges that handle significant trading volume for the asset you’re analyzing, as they better represent real market trends.
Spot, Perpetual, Futures Switches
Select between Spot, Perpetual, and Futures markets, or combine them to get a broader overview.
Spot reflects real asset demand, helpful for swing or position trades.
Perpetual shows speculative interest, useful for assessing short-term sentiment and intraday moves.
Futures data gives insight into traders’ longer-term expectations.
Compare Spot and Perpetual data: if Spot has strong bids but Perpetuals don’t, it may mean real demand is strong but speculative interest is lacking, or vice versa. This can signal whether an asset’s price movement is primarily driven by real demand or speculative trading.
Using this setup and analysis strategy will help you maximize the effectiveness of the Order Book Depth (OBD) widget. By focusing on the right ranges and settings for your trading style, you can better understand market sentiment, identify key support and resistance levels, and anticipate potential price movements.
