Trades tape

The trades tape is the live list of aggressive prints across every venue you have connected. Each row is one print: who hit the book, at what price, for how much. A print is usually a single fill — but when several same-venue, same-side fills land within the cluster window, they fold into one row marked ×N (see below), because they were almost certainly one decision.

It follows the same source mask as the other flow panels. The primary instrument sets the symbol; the aggregate set decides which venues appear. There is no tape on a MarketLens-only member — candles and the book can still be live while this panel waits for a native trade socket.

Reading a row

Age (default) is how long ago the print landed — <1s, 8s, 3m. Switch it back to clock time in the panel settings if you would rather read the wall clock.

Exchange is the venue icon. On a composite that is how you see which book ate the size.

Price is coloured by the aggressor: up-colour for a buy (lifted the offer), down-colour for a sell (hit the bid).

Value is notional in dollars. The bar behind the number is the size read — width against the other prints currently on the tape, both sides on one scale. A $241k print is supposed to look clearly longer than a $126k print. The number itself stays plain; the bar carries magnitude.

Quantity in coin is off by default. Turn it on if you actually think in contracts.

Cluster count (×12) means that row folded several same-venue, same-side ticks that landed inside the cluster window (default 80 ms). The price shown is the size-weighted average; the last tick is what walked. Footprint and CVD still see every raw tick.

Slippage after the price (+3bp) is how far this print moved from the previous last on that venue. A sweep that walks the book shows it. Sub-basis-point noise is hidden.

Filters

Min size hides retail. $100K+ is the default. The header line tells you the filter, how far back the visible rows go, and how many prints are showing. The count tints with the side that is winning on print count, not dollars — that is a different question from the stats bar.

Size scale multiplies the min-size floor and the sound/highlight threshold together. Drag it down on an alt so $20k prints still show; drag it up on a busy BTC tape to keep only the real ones. The dollar number on each row stays real — only the gate moves.

Cluster is the fold window. Off is the raw tape. 80 ms is the default.

Per-venue scale (only when more than one source is on) lets one book count heavier or lighter on the same tape, so a thin venue is not drowned by Binance.

Side restricts the list to buys or sells.

Max trades caps how many rows stay in the list (50–1000).

Stats bar

The split above the list is buy notional versus sell notional over the visible window, with the dollar totals underneath. Session-so-far, not a rolling 30-second counter.

Big prints

Two signals share one dollar threshold (default $250K):

Sound — off until you turn it on. A buy ticks in a higher register, a sell in a lower one. Size adds notes: a print at the threshold is a single tick, a few times the threshold is a two-note hit, a ten-times print is a short arpeggio. The browser will not play anything until you have clicked the page once.

Highlight — the whole row tints in the side colour, stronger as size grows. Independent of the sound toggle. Same threshold.

Use the test buttons in settings to hear a mid-size print and a huge one without waiting for the tape.

What it is good for

Where the size actually is. The bar is faster than the number. A cluster of long green bars at one price is someone lifting; a single long red bar is one print.

Which venue. The icon tells you whether Binance, Bybit or the perp you actually trade ate it. A $400k print on a book you do not have an order on is a different fact from the same print on your venue.

Absorption versus one-and-done. Repeated prints at a level that do not move price are someone defending. One large print that walks several ticks is someone taking.

Flow Pulse is the look-away pane: rolling 30s / 1m / 5m / 15m buy-vs-sell notional, plus last-minute volume and delta per venue. Same source mask as the tape.

The tape is the present tense. The footprint is the same flow after it has been bucketed into bars. Keep both open if you want the last ten seconds and the last ten minutes at once.

Layout gallery → Flow Desk is a starting screen: footprint, tape, Flow Pulse, CVD, liquidations.