GlossaryOrder book heatmap
Order book heatmap
The order book heatmap shows where limit orders are waiting in the order book and how long they stay there. Each column is a candle, each row a price level, and the color is the liquidity: bright bands are “walls”, dark areas a thin book. This lets you see whether a wall holds, gets pulled or is worked through by the price.
How to read it
- Wall holds: The price runs into a bright band and turns, and the band stays bright. The limit orders have absorbed the pressure.
- Wall gets worked through: The band gets darker while the price trades in it and disappears on the breakout.
- Wall gets pulled: The band disappears before the price reaches it. Such orders were often only meant to make an impression.
- The heatmap does not show whether anything actually traded at a wall. For that, combine it with the footprint, trade bubbles or Volume Delta.
Tip For a calm image, set the wall filter higher or use the sensitivity Less. For individual amounts: style Classic, Show values on, and zoom in.
Limitations
- The scale is relative to the visible area. The same wall can look brighter or darker in a different view; only compare brightness within one view and read amounts in the magnifier.
- The average over the candle smooths away short-lived orders. On long candles, even large but brief walls are only faintly visible.
- The book is captured up to about 5% above and below the price at the time. Orders further away are missing.
- Shaded areas are missing data, not an empty book.
- The heatmap is only available for cryptocurrencies.