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.
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.
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+.
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.
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.