How to use Cryptowatch Desktop
Cryptowatch Desktop is a fully-customizable application for your desktop that lets you build your own, completely unique market views. A dashboard on Cryptowatch Desktop can feature multiple markets across any exchange listed on Cryptowatch — you can easily track your investments from a single window, without the need to navigate from page to page.
Cryptowatch Desktop is supported on the following operating systems:
Windows 10
MacOS
Linux (debian)
Linux (binary)
Some of the advantages of Cryptowatch Desktop include:
Watching a collection of markets with multi-chart layouts
Comparing markets across exchanges in a single window
Building multi-exchange, asset-specific views
Implementing tick charts into your analysis
Include only the information you need — every view is 100% customizable
The following actions can be done at any time using the top-bar of the application. Check out the Cryptowatch Desktop hotkeys Guide to see hotkeys for the following actions (and more):
Action | How-to |
Switch between dashboards | Click the drop-down menu in the top-bar. It is indicated by the name of the current dashboard and a downward-facing arrow. |
Create a new dashboard | Click the |
Rename a dashboard |
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Delete a dashboard |
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Modules are the building blocks of your personal crypto dashboards. When adding a new module, you will be asked to specify its exchange and market. Modules are resizable and can be set to any available market on Cryptowatch.
Cryptowatch Desktop is loaded with some basic default dashboards to get you started, including one derived from your Cryptowatch watchlist.
To add a module to an existing, populated dashboard:
Click an existing module that the new module will be adjacent to
Click either the vertical bar button or the horizontal bar button in the existing modules top bar to add a new module. The vertical bar splits the module’s space vertically, and the horizontal bar splits the space horizontally.
Click the
Configurebutton in the new, empty module space.
You can also use the hotkeys Ctrl + H (split horizontally) and Ctrl + J (split vertically) to split an existing module (Cmd + H and Cmd + J on a Mac).
To edit a module:
Click on the module you wish to change.
Click the gear icon or use the hotkeys
Ctrl+E(Cmd+Eon a Mac) to open the sidebar.Make any desired changes to the module using the sidebar settings.
To remove a module:
Click the module you wish to remove
Click the X in its top bar, or use the hotkeys
Ctrl+D(Cmd+Don a Mac)
To resize a module:
Click and drag the horizontal space between modules for up/down resizing
Click and drag the vertical space between modules for left/right resizing
Use the hotkeys
Ctrl+U(Cmd+Uon a Mac) to equalize all module size
In the sidebar you can edit the module type, market (exchange and market) and the instrument (market/currency pair). Some modules, like the Candle Chart, have further customization options available. Extra options are listed in detail in each of the module sections below.
Click any of the module names in the table below to jump to its full description.
Module | Description |
Candle Chart | Adds a candlestick chart to the dashboard |
Order Book | Adds an order book to the dashboard |
Summary | Adds a 24 hour summary to the dashboard. The summary includes a 24-hour sparkline of the market, 24-hour volume profile, 24-hour OHLC price range, and a liquidity profile. |
Tick Chart | Adds a tick chart to the dashboard |
Ticker | Adds a ticker to the dashboard. The ticker includes the last-traded price, 24-hour change percent, and the top of the order book for both bids and asks. |
Time & Sales | Adds Time & Sales to the dashboard. This is similar to the live trades feed on cryptowat.ch/charts |
Selecting the Candle Chart module creates an OHLC Candlestick Chart, like you would find on the Charts page on cryptowat.ch. The Candle Charts module features a price chart (above), a volume indicator (below), separated by a dividing line, and the price and volume axes of each to the right.
The last-traded price of the selected market is highlighted on the Candle Chart’s y-axis (the price scale on the right). The last-traded price is highlighted in green if the price moved up in the most recent trade, and red if the price moved down.
The volume bar below also highlights the most recent volume level in the y-axis (the volume scale on the right).
Setting | Description |
Module | Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Candle Chart to another module type. |
Market | Selects the exchange and market |
Interval | Selects the interval period for each candle. Eg. 1-Day ( |
Draw style | Select from: Candlestick, Candle body (no wicks/shadows), OHLC (bar chart) and HLC (modified bar chart) |
Heikin-Ashi | Switches the chart type to Heikin-Ashi. The close price is the average of the current candlestick, and the open price is the midpoint of the previous candle. |
Scale type | Choose how the price axis of the Candle chart is scaled. Options are linear (price scales uniformly) or Logarithmic (price scales by % change) |
Color Mode | Select either 2 Color or 4 Color mode. |
Bar width | Use the slider to scale the bar (candle) width. You can also use the mouse wheel when hovering over the Candle Chart. |
Bar spacing | Use the slider to increase or decrease the space between each bar (candle). |
Reject Outliers | Eliminates wicks/shadows with a high or low price outside a factor of 10 from the high or low of the same candle. |
Candlestick color represents the observed candle's relationship to the previous candle's close. Green candles have a higher close price than the previous candle, which is a gain. Red candles are losses, with a lower close price than the close of the previous candle.
The fill of a candle indicates the relationship between the open and close prices of a single candle. Up candles have a higher close than open and are hollow. A down candle has a lower close than the open and is filled.
The Close to Close columns in the tables below refer to relationship between the close prices of the observed candle and its immediately previous candle. The Close vs Open columns refer to the close and open prices of the observed candle only.
Note that bullish candles may be red if the Close to Close relationship indicates a loss. Bearish candles may be green if the Close to Close relationship indicates a gain.
Close to Close | Close vs Open | Candle Color | Candle Fill |
Gain | Up | Green (up color) | Hollow |
Gain | Down | Green (up color) | Filled |
Loss | Up | Red (down color) | Hollow |
Loss | Down | Red (down color) | Filled |
In four-color mode, the fill rules are the same, but candle color is determined by the gain and direction of the candle. Up candles are hollow, and candles with the close lower than the open (down candles) are filled.
Close to Close | Close vs Open | Candle Color | Candle Fill |
Gain | Up | Green (up color) | Hollow |
Gain | Down | Yellow (alert color) | Filled |
Loss | Up | Blue (line color) | Hollow |
Loss | Down | Red (down color) | Filled |
The Order Book module displays the order book for any specific market on Cryptowatch. The order book shows pending bid (buy) and ask (sell) limit orders in a market. The prices closest to the center on both sides are the “top” of the order book — those are the best bid and ask prices available at the current moment.
In the image above:
Prices in green represent the bid-side of the order book, by descending price from the center.
Prices in red represent the ask side of the order book, by ascending price from the center.
Column | Description |
Left | Each unique price level of pending orders in the order book. Multiple orders at the same price level are combined into a single row. |
Center | The amount of that market’s traded asset waiting to be bought or sold at its corresponding price level. |
Right | The amount of that market’s traded asset waiting to be bought or sold, combined with the amounts at all prior price levels. |
Setting | Description |
Module | Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Order Book to another module type. |
Market | Selects the exchange and market (currency pair). Eg. Kraken:BTC/USD |
Grouping | Used to group prices into larger intervals. A grouping of 0.0 shows all unique price levels in the order book. A grouping of 1.0 in BTC/USD, for example, shows the volumes of orders only at 1-dollar increments. |
Bars | Select between |
For the Bars options, Cumulative is representative of a typical order book depth chart, where order volumes are combined as the price spans away from the top of the order book. Individual shows volumes at specific price levels in the order book without combining lower/higher volume levels in the order book. Combined overlays the Individual volume bars atop the Cumulative bars.
The summary module is similar to the Asset card view on Cryptowatch’s Assets page. It includes a 24-hour sparkline of the market, 24-hour volume profile, 24-hour OHLC price range, and a liquidity profile.
Top Bar
The top bar of the Summary module shows that it spans a 24 hour period, followed by the last-traded price and 24 hour change in price, as a percent.
Sparkline
Below the top bar are a sparkline and volume indicator for the selected market. The sparkline is colored green at points where the price is above the open price at the start of the 24 hour period. It is colored red at points where the price is below the open price at the start of the 24 period.
Range
The range bar shows the high and low prices at the extreme ends of the bar. The 24 hour high price is to the right, and the 24 hour low price is to the left. The vertical line represents the start price of the 24 hour period, and the dot represents the current price.
Vol (Volume)
Displays the 24 hour volume in both the base and quote currencies of the selected market. The volume measured in base currency is on the left of the /, and the volume measured in quote currency is on the right.
Liq (Liquidity)
The Liquidity bar visualizes both the bid and ask liquidity (green and red, respectively) as horizontal bars. Order book liquidity is measured to a range of 100 base points (100bp) from the top of the order book on either side.
Setting | Description |
Module | Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Summary to another module type. |
Market | Selects the exchange and market (currency pair). Eg. Kraken:BTC/USD |
Tick charts only advance forward after a certain number of trades have occurred, making them useful for visualizing the true trading action in a market.
The green line represents the top of the bid side of the order book. As it moves, you can see how the best bid changes over time. The color of this line will correspond to the “up” color of your chosen theme.
The red line represents the top of the ask side of the order book. As it moves, you can see how the best ask changes over time. The color of this line will correspond to the “down” color of your chosen theme.
The dots represent trade markers — these mark the points where trades have taken place.
Setting | Description |
Module | Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Tick Chart to another module type. |
Market | Selects the exchange and market (currency pair). Eg. Kraken:BTC/USD |
Show trades | Enables trade markers (dots) when selected. Disabled when deselected. |
Spacing | Slider bar that increases (right) or decreases (left) the space between data points |
The ticker is a simple but handy module that displays:
The last-traded price of the chosen market (10567.6 in the image above)
The 24 hour price change, as a percent (-1.60% in the image above
The best ask and bid prices in the order book (10567.5 and 10567.6, respectively)
The ticker module complements a full dashboard by summarizing the market succinctly.
Setting | Description |
Module | Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Ticker to another module type. |
Market | Selects the exchange and market (currency pair). Eg. Kraken:BTC/USD |
Scale | Increases or decreases the size of the information in the Ticker module. |
Spread | Shows the best ask/bid prices when enabled. Hides those prices when disabled. |
Similar to the Live Trades Feed on Cryptowatch’s Charts page, the Time & Sales module lists trades as they occur in the selected market.
Column | Description |
Left | The timestamp, in your machine’s local time, in which the trade occurred. Format: hour : minute : second : millisecond |
Center | The price that the trade filled at. |
Right | The amount of the asset traded. Can be measured in the base or quote currency of the pair via the options menu. |
Setting | Description |
Module | Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Time & Sales to another module type. |
Market | Selects the exchange and market |
Minimum amount filter | Filters trades by a minimum amount/volume. Eg, selecting 1 in a BTC/USD market shows only trades that have executed for 1 or more bitcoins. |
Enable Highlight | Turns on row highlighting. This can be used to indicate orders surpassing a threshold amount, determined in the Highlight Threshold field. |
Highlight Threshold | Changes the minimum trade volume for highlighted rows. |
Accumulate at price | When selected, this groups adjacent trades occurring at the same price into a single row. When deselected, all unique trades are displayed. |
Show amount in quote units | Measures the amount traded (in the right column) in the quote currency of the pair when selected. When deselected, the amount traded is measured in the base currency of the pair (default). |
Color Mode | Selects either 2 or 4 color mode. |
Green (or “up” color) indicates a trade at a higher price than the previous trade
Red (or “down” color) indicates a trade at a lower price than the previous trade
Dimmed rows indicate trades at the same price as the trade before them
Green (or “up” color) indicates a bid that traded at a higher price
Red (or “down” color) indicates an ask that traded at a lower price
Blue is a bid (buy order) that traded at a lower price
Yellow is an ask (sell order) that traded at a higher price
Dimmed rows indicate trades at the same price as the trade before them
If Cryptowatch Desktop is running slowly or you encounter an issue, click the Options button (large gear icon in the top-bar). The options sidebar will open, where you can:
Check the connection status between Cryptowatch Desktop and our servers
Adjust the “Update rate” — adjusting it to fewer updates per second may increase the overall performance. The default update rate is 5 updates per second.
If your problem persists, please contact support.