Order Book Setup in Secret Terminal: Feature Overview

Video overview of order book settings in the terminal

The order book in Secret Terminal is more than just a table of bids and asks. It's a live trading field where you see real supply and demand in the moment: where liquidity sits, where a large player has stacked a density level, where price might be pulled next. But to make all of this work for you, the order book needs to be properly configured for each specific coin and your trading style.

This guide walks through everything in order — from opening the window to ready-made presets for scalping.

How to Open and Pin the Order Book

In the top-left menu panel, click the "+" icon. A context menu will appear. Select "Order Book" and the window will open in your workspace.

Right after opening, a coin search and filter window appears. Filter assets by exchange (Binance, Bybit, OKX, MEXC, WhiteBIT) and market type (spot or futures), then type the ticker into the search bar. Select the market you want and the coin loads in the order book.

The order book window consists of several blocks:

• Ticker info panel (market type, exchange, pair name, close button)
• Settings panel (instrument selection, access to detailed configuration)
• Ping indicator (connection latency to the exchange in ms)
• Control panel (mode switching, data clearing)
• Volume window (display settings in USD or in coins)

To anchor the order book in your workspace, snap it to another open order book or to the edge of the terminal. If you need two order books for one coin (spot and futures simultaneously), use the "Duplicate" button in the settings panel. The terminal creates an exact copy with all parameters intact.

Window Linking groups the order book, chart, and quotes into one unit. Once linked, clicking a coin in the quotes panel automatically switches both the order book and chart to it — no need to manually type the ticker in each window.

Core Settings: Price Grouping and Depth

Open settings by right-clicking in the order book area or clicking the gear icon in the panel. Three tabs appear: General, Clusters, and Color Themes.

Price Grouping (Compression)

Price compression (the price step in ticks for merging levels) is the key parameter. On BTC/USDT at 67,000, fine compression (0.1 USDT per level) produces too many empty rows and noise orders. A sensible step for BTC is 0.5 to 2 USDT. For altcoins priced between 0.1 and 0.5 USDT the logic is different — there you want minimal compression or none at all.

You can adjust compression on the fly with the hotkey H + mouse wheel. This is probably the most-used hotkey when switching between coins.

Order Book Depth

Depth determines how many price levels are visible above and below the spread. For 1-minute scalping, 20–50 levels is enough. More isn't useful: a level sitting 3% away from current price isn't something you trade in scalping. If the order book looks empty at the visible depth, that's a signal of low liquidity in the coin — not a reason to scroll further.

Adjust row height in General settings. Smaller rows = more levels on screen.

Volume Filter Parameters (Large Volume 1 and 2)

The General tab lets you set two highlight thresholds:

• Large Volume 1 highlights big orders in the first color (e.g., orange)
• Large Volume 2 highlights extremely large orders in the second color (e.g., red)
• Full-scale fill sets the volume at which the row bar fills 100% of its width. Small orders show as short bars; large density levels in the order book take up the full row width

I usually set Large Volume 1 around 1–2 BTC and Large Volume 2 at 5+ BTC. For alts like DOGE or PEPE the numbers are different — you need to think in dollar terms there.

If you want to understand how density levels form support and resistance, check out the free lesson from the "Trading from Scratch" course on the trading YouTube channel. It walks through live examples of how the order book reacts to clusters of limit orders.

Density Level Highlighting in the Order Book

A density level in the order book is a cluster of large limit orders at a single price level that acts as potential support or resistance. There are several tools for working with them.

Color Highlighting

Row color intensity correlates with order size. The larger the volume at a level, the brighter and wider the bar. One glance at the order book tells you where the real money is sitting — no need to read the numbers.

Colors are configured in the Color Themes tab. Pick a ready-made dark or light theme, copy it, and customize from there. The "Apply to All" button pushes the theme to every open order book in your workspace at once.

Density Lifetime Timer

The time an order has been sitting at its level is displayed right next to large orders in the order book. This is a critically important feature. If a density level has been holding for 5–10 minutes and price has tested it multiple times — that's a sign of genuine interest from a large participant. That level deserves a place in your scenario.

If a large order appeared and instantly vanished when price touched it — that's spoofing. An algorithm placed the order to create the illusion of support, then pulled it. The terminal surfaces this pattern through the timer.

Simple rule: density with a 3+ minute timer on a round number + several failed breakout attempts = a level worth trading. I've tested this on BTC/USDT hundreds of times — it works most consistently on round numbers like 67,000 or 70,000. A density that disappears on contact = noise. Don't trade off it.

Global Density Monitoring

The "Densities" module aggregates data across all supported exchanges. You see a list of all active large orders across different coins in one table, filter by size, and switch between instruments. Useful when scanning for coins to trade: you can immediately see where serious volume is sitting right now.

Tape (Time & Sales) Next to the Order Book

The tape is the stream of executed market orders. It displays directly inside the order book window — real-time market pulse.

What You Can Configure in the Tape

In the General tab (trade settings section), you set the minimum trade for display. Set a filter of, say, 50,000 USDT on BTC, and all the retail noise disappears from the tape — what's left are the prints that actually move price.

The hotkey O + mouse wheel adjusts the filter live while you're trading, without going into settings. Handy when switching coins: one threshold for BTC, another for alts.

The Spread Line

The spread line divides the order book into Ask and Bid zones. A wide gap between the best buy and sell prices signals low liquidity. A market order in that kind of coin will execute poorly. For scalping you need a tight spread — ideally 1–2 ticks.

Large Prints as a Signal

If you see a series of large prints absorbing an order at a density level — that's aggressive entry via market orders. The density is starting to break. If the prints are small and scattered, the level is holding passively.

The "density in the order book + tape" combination tells you whether a level is being actively defended. In my experience, this combo gives you 80% confidence when entering as price approaches a strong level. Without the tape, you're entering blind.

For more on reading the tape alongside cluster analysis, check out the free lesson from the "Trading from Scratch" course on the YouTube channel.

Hotkeys for Working with the Order Book

Hotkeys aren't just about comfort — they're about speed. The difference between a trader who does everything with the mouse and one who uses hotkeys is real and measurable at execution.

Hotkey Reference Table

You can remap hotkeys under Settings → Hotkeys. Bindings are fully customizable.

Trading with the Mouse

Place a limit order by left-clicking in the order book at your target price level. Buy at market: click above the spread. Sell at market: click below the spread. Drag-and-drop an active order to move a stop or take-profit to a new level without canceling and re-placing.

Recommended Presets for Scalping

There's no single universal setup for all coins. But there are solid starting points.

Auto-Preset with the C Key

The fastest way to start. Press "C" and the terminal analyzes the coin's volatility, then sets the optimal compression step, large-volume highlight thresholds, tape filter, and cluster settings. That's enough to get trading quickly. Then fine-tune with hotkeys P, O, and H based on what you're seeing.

Preset for BTC/ETH (Large Pairs)

Preset for Altcoins (DOGE, PEPE, Small Pairs)

On alts the order book is thin by default, so you need lower volume thresholds — otherwise nothing gets highlighted. That said, spoofing is also more common there: small fake orders get placed more aggressively.

When the Settings Don't Work

Sometimes even a properly configured order book won't give you a readable picture. Main cases:

• Coin with daily volume below $50M USDT. The order book is nearly always empty. You can't work with it: any large print moves price 0.5–1%.
• Around macro news releases. When the Fed decision or inflation data drops, orders on both sides get pulled in seconds. The order book loses all informational value.
• Early UTC morning hours (00:00–06:00). Liquidity drops, spreads widen. Density levels that work during the day might not hold price at night.
• Volume-driven pump. When algorithms are driving a coin, the order book reshuffles faster than you can react. Entering off density levels in that phase is risky.

Multi-Coin Workspace

If you're tracking three coins at once, the standard setup is six order books (two per coin — futures and spot) plus three charts linked to the futures order books via linking. Second workspace: quotes panel + two order books for scanning new instruments.

All order books are snapped to each other, not to the terminal edge. Windows are arranged symmetrically and sized consistently. Cluster settings and display parameters can be pushed to all order books at once via "Apply to All."

Common Mistakes When Setting Up the Order Book

• Too fine compression on BTC. Setting a 0.1 USDT step gives you an order book full of hundreds of empty rows. It becomes unreadable. You miss density levels and end up entering into noise.
• Same volume thresholds for all coins. What counts as a "large order" on BTC is a rounding error on PEPE. Thresholds need to be configured separately per coin — or at minimum per category (top-10 vs. alts).
• Ignoring the density lifetime timer. Traders see a large order in the order book and enter immediately without checking how long it's been there. You buy off a spoofed level and get stopped out.
• Leaving the tape filter on default. The default minimum trade is usually 0, meaning the tape shows everything. Signals get buried in the noise. On BTC, set at least 20,000–50,000 USDT.
• Not using linking. Switch the coin in the order book, but the chart and quotes stay on the old one. You're trading the BTC order book while looking at the ETH chart. It happens more often than you'd think.
• Not checking ping before trading. The latency indicator in the order book shows your real ping to the exchange. If it's 500+ ms, your data is stale and execution will suffer. Restart or switch servers.
• Order books not snapped. When you resize a window, the whole workspace falls apart. Working in a chaotic layout is slow and messy.

FAQ

• What is an order book in trading?

  An order book is a table of active limit orders to buy (Bid) and sell (Ask), showing price and volume. The order book displays real supply and demand before a trade happens and helps identify levels where liquidity is concentrated. In professional terminals, order books are enhanced with density level highlighting and order lifetime timers.

• How do I quickly configure the order book for a new coin?

  Press "C." The terminal automatically sets compression, volume thresholds, and the tape filter based on the instrument's current volatility. Takes less than a second. Adjust from there with P and O + mouse wheel as needed.

• What is "full-scale fill" in the settings?

  It's the volume at which the horizontal bar in an order book row fills 100% of its width. Orders below that volume show as shorter bars; orders above it take up the full width. The visual scale lets you size up density levels without reading numbers.

• Why duplicate the order book?

  Duplicating creates an exact copy of the current window with all settings preserved. Useful for monitoring both futures and spot markets for the same coin simultaneously, or for watching two different instruments at once.

• Why does the order book look empty on some coins?

  The order book is thin on low-liquidity coins: fewer participants, fewer limit orders. This is a direct warning — a market order in that pair will give you significant slippage. For scalping, stick to coins with a dense order book and at least 100–150M USDT in 24-hour volume.

• How do I tell the difference between a real density level and spoofing?

  Look at the order lifetime timer. If a large order has been sitting for 3–5 minutes and doesn't disappear when price approaches — it's a real density level. If the order appeared and vanished the moment price touched it — that's spoofing. The timer is displayed directly in the order book field next to the large order.

• Can I transfer order book settings to another device?

  Theme settings can be exported via the Import/Export button in the Color Themes section. The terminal also supports settings sync between devices when that option is enabled. API keys and trading data are not transmitted through the servers in this process.

If you want to understand how the order book works at a conceptual level — why price reacts to density levels and how to read large player behavior through limit orders — see the article "Order Book: How to Read and Use It in Trading".