Glossary

The terms are listed the way the terminal names them. Where a feature belongs to a plan, the entry says so.

A

Aggregated

Combined across several exchanges. The top bar shows AGGREGATED with the number of exchanges. A click opens Exchange aggregation: there you choose the exchanges and the market (Spot, Perps, or Both). The selection applies to the chart, heatmap, order book, and trade tape. At least one exchange has to stay active. In panes and widgets, “Aggregated” is also a source: open interest and liquidations are then summed across the exchanges, and funding is averaged.

Anchored VWAP

A VWAP that starts not at the beginning of the day but at a candle you choose. You can set it by right-clicking the chart → Anchored VWAP from here. Up to three bands are added at one, two, and three standard deviations (±1σ and ±2σ are on by default).

Ask and bid

The ask is the sell offer in the order book, the bid the buy offer. The difference between the best ask and the best bid is the spread. In the heatmap's magnifier, liquidity above the candle's close is called “Ask liquidity”, and below it “Bid liquidity”.

B

Basis

The premium of a future or perp over the spot price. The Basis & term structure widget shows it per expiry as a premium and annualized (p. a.), for BTC and ETH on CME, Deribit, Binance, and OKX. The yellow dot is the perp's funding, also annualized. The price widget shows the Perp basis: how far the perp is above or below spot.

Buy pressure and sell pressure

In the price widget: the share of buys in the volume traded in the last minute, across all exchanges of the selected market.

C

Call wall and put wall

The strikes with the largest positive gamma exposure for calls (call wall) and the strongest negative one for puts (put wall). They often act like resistance and support. You'll find them in the options widget and as lines in the GEX profile.

CoinScript

The language for your own indicators in the MantaAi panel (top bar → MantaAi). A script can place lines, panes, and signals on the chart, be tested in the backtest, and trigger alerts. Script alerts and MantaAi belong to the Plus plan, backtest optimization to the Pro plan.

Contango and backwardation

Contango: futures contracts trade above the spot price, and the premium rises with maturity. Backwardation: they trade below it. The Basis & term structure widget tells you which case currently applies.

COT report

The weekly Commitments of Traders report from the US regulator CFTC. It shows how groups of traders are positioned in futures, such as asset managers and leveraged funds. The COT report widget shows net positions, the change from the previous week, and a 3-year index from 0 (low) to 100 (high). The data is from Tuesday and comes out on Friday.

CVD

Cumulative volume delta: the accumulated delta, meaning the running total of aggressive buys minus aggressive sells. If the price rises while the CVD falls, the rise isn't coming from aggressive buyers. In the pane, you choose Binance (taker volume) (the default) or Aggregated (all exchanges in your selection) as the source. Shown as candles or a line.

D

Delta

Aggressive buys minus aggressive sells in a candle, in coin. Aggressive means the order was executed immediately against the order book (see Taker). The Volume delta pane shows the delta per candle as bars, and the footprint also per price level.

DOM ladder

A price ladder with bid, ask, and the traded volume per price, plus the Pull/Stack column. Large levels (more than three times the average) are highlighted. Clicking a row offers an alert at that price.

E

ETF flows

The daily net inflows and outflows of the US spot ETFs on BTC and ETH. The ETF flows widget shows the last 30 trading days, the cumulative history, and the values per fund.

Expected move

How far the price is likely to move by an expiry, calculated from ATM volatility: price × IV × √(days / 365). There is a probability of about 68% that the price stays within this range. You'll find it in the options widget under Expiries.

F

Footprint

A chart type (ORDER FLOW group) that shows the buy and sell volume per price level in each candle. Shown as Bid × Ask, Delta, or Volume; the tick size is automatic or fixed. Each candle's POC has a yellow outline, imbalances are highlighted, and delta and volume appear below the candle. Zoom in with the mouse wheel so the numbers become readable. Belongs to the Pro plan.

Funding

The payment between long and short positions of a perp that keeps its price close to spot. If funding is positive, longs pay shorts. Most exchanges pay every 8 hours, some contracts every 4 hours, and some exchanges hourly. The Funding rate pane converts everything to “per 8 hours”, and you can switch to 1h or annualized. The derivatives widget shows the OI-weighted average and the countdown to the next payment.

G

Gamma flip

The price at which the dealers' net gamma changes sign, that is, flips between dampening and amplifying behavior (see GEX). A line in the GEX profile, a value in the options widget.

GEX

Gamma exposure: how many dollars dealers have to buy or sell on a 1% move to stay hedged, calculated from the options on BTC and ETH. Positive gamma means dealers trade against the move and dampen volatility. Negative gamma means they trade with the move, which can amplify swings. The options widget shows GEX on every plan; the GEX profile directly at the price on the chart belongs to the Pro plan.

H

Hyperliquid stop/TP map

An overlay that shows, for the largest Hyperliquid accounts, where their stop-loss (red), take-profit (cyan), and liquidations (yellow) sit, stacked per price level. The header gives the number of positions covered. Belongs to the Pro plan.

I

Imbalance

Two meanings:

• In the footprint: A price level where aggressive buy volume is at least 300% of the sell volume one level below (or vice versa), and which makes up at least 1.2% of the candle's volume. Toggle: Imbalances (300%).
• In the liquidity widget: the imbalance between bids and asks in a band around the price, (bids − asks) / (bids + asks) in percent. The heading always shows the ±1% band.

Initial Balance

In the TPO, the range of the first hour of a session, shown as a cyan bar on the profile.

Inverse contracts

Futures whose size is stated in dollars rather than in coin and that are settled in coin (coin-margined). The Inverse contracts in USD toggle in Exchange aggregation converts their volume so that it matches the other markets. It is on by default.

IV and IV smile

IV is implied volatility, the range of fluctuation the options market prices in. ATM IV is the IV at the money. The IV smile in the options widget shows the IV per strike for one expiry, optionally next to a second one for comparison. The put skew tells you by how many points the IV 10% below the price is higher than 10% above it.

J

Journal

The trading journal (top bar → Journal): record and evaluate trades with entry, exit, stop, and setup, with metrics, an equity curve, and a calendar. Closed paper trades land there automatically.

L

Layout

A saved desk with its own name, on the symbol you created it on. CtrlS saves to the open layout, + Create new layout… in the layout menu creates an empty one, and Open layout… shows all your layouts, in folders if you like. Under Discover layouts…, you'll find the official layouts from mantacharts. See also Workspace.

Liquidation

The forced closure of a leveraged position when the margin is no longer sufficient. A long liquidation is a forced sell, a short liquidation a forced buy. The Liquidations pane shows longs upward and shorts downward, and the widget shows the live feed.

Liquidation heatmap

An estimate of where positions opened in recent candles would be liquidated, broken down by leverage from 5x to 100x. A level disappears as soon as the price reaches it. These are not reported orders, which is why the legend says “estimated”. Belongs to the Plus plan.

Long/short positioning

The widget shows what share is long and what share is short, per exchange and over 24 hours. The Basis setting lets you choose what is counted: Accounts, Top traders (accounts of the largest traders), or Positions (position size of the largest traders).

M

Magnifier

The magnified view of the order book heatmap under the mouse pointer. It shows the exact liquidity for seven price levels and three candles. Turn it on and off in the heatmap's settings.

MantaAi

The mantacharts assistant, in the left sidebar and as the first tab of the MantaAi panel. It reads the terminal’s data, explains features and prepares indicators, layouts, alerts and watchlist changes as drafts that you confirm. Runs on your own API key for Claude or GPT, see MantaAi.

Mark price and index price

The index price is a spot reference price across several exchanges; the mark price is the fair price an exchange uses to calculate a perp's profits, losses, and liquidations. The price widget shows both in the Perpetual market and names the exchange.

Max pain

The strike at which all open calls and puts would pay out the least in total at expiry, calculated from their open interest. A value in the options widget, a line in the GEX profile.

N

Non-time-based

Chart types in which a new candle forms not by time but by movement or activity: Renko, range bars, Line Break, Kagi, point & figure, tick bars, and volume bars. The box size follows volatility, and the time axis shows the real time of each candle.

O

Open interest

The sum of all open futures positions. When it rises, new positions are being opened; when it falls, positions are being closed. The pane shows it in USD or coin, aggregated or per exchange, as candles or a line. In the derivatives widget and the scanner, it appears as “OI”, and the change over 24 hours as “OI 24h”.

Order book

The list of all resting buy and sell orders on an exchange. The Order book widget shows bids and asks with size and cumulative depth, optionally aggregated across exchanges, and can be grouped into blocks.

Order book heatmap

The liquidity in the order book over time: the brighter a spot, the more orders were there. Large walls continue to the right of the last candle. Threshold and Ceiling set from what point a spot lights up and from what point it is fully saturated; by default this is automatic. Turn it on and off with AltM. Belongs to the Plus plan.

P

Paper trading

Simulated trading without real money, in the Paper trading widget: market and limit orders, leverage up to 50×, take profit and stop loss, starting with $10,000. Positions and orders appear as lines on the chart.

Perp

Short for perpetual: a futures contract without expiry that is kept close to the spot price through funding. In the terminal, “Perp” or “Perps” stands for these markets, “Spot” for direct trading of the coin.

POC

Point of Control: the price level with the most volume, marked in yellow. In the footprint per candle, in the Volume Profile and Session Volume Profile per profile, and in the TPO the level with the most time.

Prediction markets

Betting markets where people trade on events, such as whether Bitcoin closes above a certain level. The price corresponds to the priced-in probability. The widget shows odds on BTC and macro events, and the Prediction markets at price overlay draws Bitcoin levels as lines on the chart.

Pull/Stack

In the DOM ladder: how the resting size at a price level has changed within the selected time window (5, 10, or 30 seconds). Plus means orders were added (stack), minus means they were withdrawn (pull).

Put/Call

The ratio of the open interest of all puts to that of all calls. Values above 1 mean more puts are open than calls.

R

R

In the journal, a trade's result in multiples of the risk taken: profit or loss divided by the amount the stop would have cost. +2 R means you won twice your risk. Without a stop, it shows “–”.

Ratio

A calculated symbol made of two symbols divided by each other, for example ETH/BTC. Type two symbols with / in the symbol search. Suggestions are listed under Ratio & spread.

Replay

Plays the chart back candle by candle from a point in time you choose, as if it were live. With speeds from 0.5× to 10× and jump targets such as the London open or New York open. Shift→ and Shift← go one candle forward or back. Belongs to the Plus plan.

RVOL

Relative volume: the current volume relative to its average. In the scanner, it is the 24h volume divided by the average of the last 30 days, and from 1.8× a market counts as a volume outlier. In the alert builder, it is the volume of the last candle divided by the average of the 20 candles before it.

S

Scanner

The Market scanner in the top bar shows the perps of all crypto symbols as a table with price, change, volume, RVOL, open interest, funding, and liquidations, with filters such as Top gainers, High funding, or OI increase. Clicking a market opens the chart. The heatmap view belongs to the Plus plan.

Snapshot

An image of the chart with symbol, price, date, and logo, to download, copy, or share (top bar → Snapshot). Without a watermark from the Plus plan on.

Spot

Buying and selling the coin directly, without leverage and without expiry. The counterpart to the perp.

Spread

Two meanings:

• In the order book: the distance between the best ask and the best bid, in dollars and in basis points.
• As a symbol: the difference between two symbols, for example BTC-ETH. Type two symbols with - in the symbol search.

T

Taker

Someone who executes an order immediately against the order book, meaning they “take” a resting order. Taker buys and sells are the aggressive trades that delta and CVD are built from.

Tick bars

A non-time-based chart type: each candle covers a fixed number of trades, which the terminal chooses automatically. With a lot of activity, many candles form; in quiet phases, few. They are built from the trades of the last hour and all those added since the chart was opened.

TPO / Market Profile

A chart type (ORDER FLOW group) that shows how much time the price spent at each level. Each period (30 minutes or 1 hour) gets a letter. In addition, there are the POC, Value Area, Initial Balance, and Single Prints (levels touched by only a single period). Only works with intervals up to 1h. Belongs to the Pro plan.

Trade bubbles

Large market orders as circles on the chart, with the size of the circle following the volume. By default from $250,000, optionally only buys or only sells.

Trade tape

The widget with all executed trades in real time, with buy and sell, exchange, and time. You can set a minimum size, highlight large trades, and hear each trade as a sound.

V

Value Area, VAH, and VAL

The price range in which a set share of the volume was traded, 70% by default. VAH is the upper edge (Value Area High), VAL the lower edge (Value Area Low). Shown as dashed lines in the Volume Profile.

Volume bars

A non-time-based chart type: each candle covers a fixed trading volume, which the terminal chooses automatically. Like tick bars, they are built from the trades.

Volume Profile (VPVR)

The volume per price level in the visible range, as bars along the edge of the chart, with POC, VAH, and VAL. The Session Volume Profile draws one profile per session: per day for candles up to 1h, per week up to 4h, per month above that.

VWAP

The volume-weighted average price. It restarts according to the Anchor setting, by default automatically based on candle width: daily up to 15 minutes, weekly up to 4 hours, monthly or yearly above that. See also Anchored VWAP.

W

Workspace

Your complete desk with chart, drawings, indicators, heatmap, and widgets. It is saved automatically. The former nine workspace slots no longer exist: named workspaces are layouts, and CtrlS (Mac: CmdS) saves to the open layout.