Primary and aggregation
Cryexc has two levels of symbol selection, and almost every "how do I change the chart" question comes down to knowing which one you are looking at.
Both live on the same control in the status bar, at the bottom of the terminal: the venue icon and ticker on the left, and a Σ n aggregated chip immediately to its right.
The primary instrument
The primary is one concrete instrument: a venue and the symbol exactly as that venue names it. binancef:BTCUSDT. hyperliquid:BTC. coinbase:BTC-USD. There is no separate base and quote picker, and no rewriting of a symbol from one venue's convention into another's — what you pick is what gets subscribed and what gets persisted.
The primary drives:
- the Footprint Chart
- the DOM Ladder
- the identity of the Orderbook (the book is composite, but it is anchored on the primary's price and tick)
- the header price and everything derived from it
- history loading — which symbol gets backfilled behind the live bars
To change it, click the ticker in the status bar and use the Primary tab. Search, or pick from favourites and recents. The switch tears down the old legs and rebuilds them; on a non-time chart holding a meaningful number of bars you get a confirmation first, because those bars are rebuilt from the tape and cannot be refetched.
There is nothing to "remove" before switching. The primary is a single slot — picking a new instrument replaces it.
The aggregate set
The aggregate set is the list of instruments merged into the composite view. It is shown as Σ n aggregated next to the ticker; click it to open the Aggregate tab.
Two rules matter:
- The primary is always the first member. It cannot be removed from the set, only hidden from an individual panel.
- Every member opens a real connection. Adding
bybit:BTCUSDTalongsidebinancef:BTCUSDTopens a second websocket. Nothing is pre-checked and nothing connects until you click + Add.
The Aggregate tab suggests other listings of the same base asset, so building a cross-venue composite for BTC is a couple of clicks. You can also mix bases if you want an unusual comparison — the set is not validated against the primary.
Which panels aggregate
This is the part worth memorising.
| Panel | Reads |
|---|---|
| Trades | all visible members |
| CVD | all visible members |
| Open Interest | all visible members |
| Liquidations | all visible members |
| Spread Chart | all visible members |
| Orderbook | all visible members, one column each |
| Footprint Chart | primary only |
| DOM Ladder | primary only |
| Historical Chart | primary only |
If you add a second venue and the footprint chart does not change, that is correct behaviour, not a bug.
The footprint chart does have its own multi-venue blending, but it is a separate mechanism: a per-chart venue list inside that chart's settings popup. It is scoped to one chart instance rather than to the global aggregate set, so two footprint charts can blend different venues at the same time.
Hiding a member from one panel
Each aggregated panel carries its own Σ chip in its header. Clicking it opens a per-panel visibility mask: tick a member off and that panel stops drawing it.
Hiding is a display filter only. The connection stays open, the data keeps arriving, and every other panel still shows it. This is deliberate — you can watch the composite CVD while reading a single-venue tape, without paying the reconnect cost of dropping and re-adding a member.
The chip reads Σ n when every member is visible and Σ k/n when some are hidden, so a panel can never silently lie about what it is drawing.
Common patterns
One venue, clean read. Set the primary to the venue you actually trade, leave the aggregate set at one member. Everything on screen is that venue.
Cross-venue flow. Keep the primary on your execution venue, add the two or three other venues carrying real volume in that asset. Trades, CVD, Open Interest and Liquidations now describe the whole market while the footprint and ladder stay on the book you actually hit.
Spot versus perp. Add the spot listing alongside the perp. The CVD panel's Σ chip then lets you toggle between the composite and either leg to see which side is leading.