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Guides and reference · How to read the whale radar

Guide 01 of 092 min read

How to read the whale radar

The centre is today’s price, distance from it is distance to liquidation, colour is the side, size is the money.

The radar shows every large open position in one market at once. It answers two questions: which way are the big players positioned, and how far would price have to move to force them out?

The centre is the current price

The small circle in the middle is the market price right now. Each ring marks a distance to liquidation: ±2%, ±5%, ±10% and ±20%. A whale drawn close to the centre would be liquidated by a small move. One near the edge has plenty of room.

price±2%±5%±10%±20%no liquidation within 20%
Eight positions on one radar. The nearer a dot sits to the centre, the smaller the move that would liquidate it. Dots in the shaded edge have no liquidation price within 20%.

Colour is the side, size is the money

Green dots are long positions, red dots are short positions. The bigger the dot, the larger the position in US dollars. Dots in stronger colour belong to wallets with a better track record, faint ones to a weaker or shorter one. Dashed outlines mark wallets whose positions look like bets but probably are not, such as market makers, arbitrage desks and hedges.

longshortsmall, largeweak recordnot a bet
Green is long, red is short. The area is the money. A faint dot belongs to a wallet with a weak or short record. A dashed outline marks a market maker, an arbitrage desk or a hedge.

Three ways to arrange the dots

  • Split, the default and the view of every tile on the overview, puts longs on the right and shorts on the left. Time runs down both halves: new at the top, the start of the period at the bottom.
  • Time runs clockwise from 12 o’clock: the newest positions first, older ones further around.
  • Size groups whales into three sectors: $1–10M, $10–50M and $50M+.
shortslongsnew7 days ago
Split
new7 days ago42 hours ago
Time
$1–10M$10–50M$50M+
Size
The same eight positions three ways. Split keeps the sides apart, Time runs clockwise from the newest, Size groups by money.

The period decides how far back the radar looks: positions opened within 24 hours, 3 days or 7 days, the default. The period always fills the dial, so a short one spreads the newest positions out. Positions opened before tracking began show from 7 days up. 30 days comes with Pro. On Watch, the All 8 layout draws all eight markets in the view and filters you choose.

Where whales gather: walls

When many whales would be liquidated around the same price, their dots gather and the radar draws them as one soft shape along that ring, with the level labelled. It is thick where the most money sits and fades where fewer positions are. These liquidation walls matter because forced selling or buying can speed up a move once price gets there. More about liquidation walls.

price nowlongs forced to sellshorts forced to buythe wall, 5% above
Whale money by liquidation price, 20% either side of the price. The hump is a wall: many shorts would be bought back around the same level.

The outer band

Positions without a liquidation price within ±20% sit in the shaded outer band. Many of them use cross margin with plenty of collateral.

the outer bandprice
Two of these three positions could fall 20% and more before liquidation. They sit in the band.