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How to use Cryptowatch Desktop

Cryptowatch Desktop is our native desktop application for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It offers powerful charting and trading tools with incredible performance and a minimal CPU and memory footprint.
Cryptowatch Desktop is a fully-customizable application for your desktop that lets you build your own, completely unique market views. It allows you to watch and trade on thousands of markets simultaneously in real-time, supporting all major exchanges.
Cryptowatch Desktop allows you to build arbitrary layouts of price charts, order books, trading ladders, and more.

Install Cryptowatch Desktop

You can download Desktop on our website:
Cryptowatch Desktop
Cryptowatch
Click here to install Cryptowatch Desktop

System Requirements

Desktop will run on just about any modern computer.
Supported Operating Systems
OS
Architecture
Windows 10
Intel (x86_64)
MacOS
Intel (x86_64)
MacOS
M1 (aarch64)
Linux
Intel 64-bit (x86_64)
Linux
ARM 32-bit (armv7)
Linux
ARM 64-bit (aarch64)
Hardware Requirements
We don't publish strict hardware requirements; the application should generally use <1GB of memory and runs just fine on even low-end CPUs.
Linux ARM support means you can even run Desktop on a Raspberry Pi!

Key Capabilities

Cryptowatch Desktop offers a lot of powerful possibilities:
  • Watching a collection of markets with multi-chart layouts
  • Trading on ultra-fast trading ladders and order tickets
  • Comparing markets across exchanges in a single window
  • Building multi-exchange, asset-specific views
  • Implementing spread charts into your analysis
  • Include only the information you need — every view is 100% customizable

Board Management Menu

The following actions can be done at any time using the Board Management menu in 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 Board Management menu (or the current board's title) in the top-bar and click on a different dashboard to open it.
Create a new dashboard
  1. 1.
    Click the New Board... text box in the Board Management menu.
  2. 2.
    Give your new board a name and click Add.
Rename a dashboard
  1. 1.
    Open the Board Management menu.
  2. 2.
    Click the Edit button right next to the Select, Reorder, Create text.
  3. 3.
    Select a dashboard(s) to rename and type the new name.
  4. 4.
    Click Done next to the Select, Reorder, Create text.
Delete a dashboard
  1. 1.
    Open the Board Management menu.
  2. 2.
    Click the Edit button above the list of dashboard names.
  3. 3.
    Click the red X next to the board you want to delete.
  4. 4.
    Confirm by clicking Delete.
Clone a dashboard
  1. 1.
    Open the Board Management drop-down menu.
  2. 2.
    Click the Edit button right next to the Select, Reorder, Create text.
  3. 3.
    Click the green + button next to the board you want to clone. (The button color may vary depending on your theme).
  4. 4.
    The cloned board will appear in the list below the original.
Tip: Select all modules with Ctrl+A (Windows, Linux) or Cmd+A (Mac).

Theme Management menu

Custom themes in the Theme Management menu sync to your saved themes on the Cryptowatch Web. If you haven't made any custom themes just yet, no problem! Cryptowatch Desktop comes preloaded with the same base set of themes found on Cryptowatch web.
Open the Theme Management menu by clicking the six (6) colored squares in the top-bar:

Creating themes

Create new themes by clicking the + next to the Custom Themes text at the top of the Theme Management menu.

Editing themes

To edit a theme, open the Theme Management menu and click the pencil icon next to the current theme’s title (at the top of the pop-out). You can use the sliders to edit the hue, saturation and brightness of each element of your theme or enter hex codes. To save your edits, click the checkmark next to the Edit Theme text in the Theme Management menu.

Undoing an edit

To undo an edit, click the return arrow that appears after adjusting any of the sliders in the Theme Management menu. To completely revert your custom theme to its original state, click the return arrow at the top of the Theme Management pop-out.

Sharing your themes

Share your custom themes by clicking the “Copy to Clipboard” button (
) at the top of the Theme Management menu. The color information for your theme will be copied to your clipboard. Simply paste it and send to share the theme — Cryptowatch Chat could always use some cool themes.

How to edit, remove & resize modules

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 can support up to 48 individual modules in a single dashboard.
To add a module to an existing, populated dashboard:
  1. 1.
    Click an existing module that the new module will be adjacent to
  2. 2.
    Click the four (4) squares in the the existing module's header bar to add a new module. The vertical bar splits the module’s space vertically, and the horizontal bar splits the space horizontally.
  3. 3.
    Click the Configure button 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 split & clone a module at the same time, press Ctrl (Cmd) while clicking either split button on the module.
The buttons to the right of the header bar: Settings, Split Module, Hotkeys, Close.
Tip: How to arrange modules evenly across your board
Try using the Command Bar to arrange your modules evenly across your board. Typing ”Module”, “Split”, or “Clone” into the Command Bar will display the all available ways to automatically size and distribute modules across your board.
Choose a “Split” option to arrange empty modules across the board. Choose a “Split + Clone” option to arrange clones of an existing module across the board.

To edit a module

  1. 1.
    Click on the module you wish to change.
  2. 2.
    Click the gear icon or use the hotkeys Ctrl + E (Cmd + E on a Mac) to open the sidebar.
  3. 3.
    Make any desired changes to the module using the sidebar settings.

To remove a module

  1. 1.
    Click the module you wish to remove
  2. 2.
    Click the X in its header bar, or use the hotkeys Ctrl + D (Cmd + D on a Mac)

To resize a module

  1. 1.
    Click and drag the horizontal space between modules for up/down resizing
  2. 2.
    Click and drag the vertical space between modules for left/right resizing
  3. 3.
    Use the hotkeys Ctrl + U (Cmd + U on 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 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.

How to save module presets

You can save your module configurations as a preset by selecting the module, then clicking the gear icon in its header bar. In the module options panel, click the <save as a new preset> text box at the bottom and enter a name for your preset. Click the checkmark to save.

Modules on Cryptowatch Desktop

Balances
Adds balances by asset or exchange to the dashboard.
Chart
Adds a candlestick chart to the dashboard.
Clock
Adds a clock with time and date. Can configure to other time zones (including UTC).
Depth Chart
Adds a market depth chart to the dashboard.
Ladder
Adds Ladder to the dashboard.
Order Book
Adds an order book to the dashboard.
Order Ticket
Adds a standard or an active-type order ticket to the dashboard.
Spread Chart
Adds a spread chart 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.
Text
Adds an editable text window — label things or leave yourself an encouraging message.
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.
Trade Activity
Adds a multi-exchange trade activity to the dashboard.
Watchlist
Adds a multi-market watchlist displaying venue, market, price, 24h % change, and volume.

Chart

Mountain view charts are new in Cryptowatch Desktop 0.6.4
Selecting the Chart module creates an OHLC Candlestick Chart, like you would find on the Charts page on Cryptowatch. The 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 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).
The highlighted price and volume in this Kraken: BTC/USD chart indicate both have increased

Chart Options

Setting
Description
Module Type
Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Chart to another module type.
Market
Selects the exchange and market
Interval
Selects the interval period for each candle. Eg. 1-Day (1D), 3-minute (3m) 12-hour (12h), etc.
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 Chart is scaled. Options are linear (price scales uniformly) or Logarithmic (price scales by % change)
Color Mode
Select from: 2 Color, 2 Color (No Lookback) or 4 Color mode.
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.
Show Price Extremes
Indicates visible High and Low price extremes on the chart when selected.

Changing the market & interval

Click the venue/market name in the header bar to change the market of your Chart. To change the chart interval, click the current interval in the header bar to reveal the Time Interval menu.
You can also change the exchange, market and interval via the Chart Options menu, using the Market and Interval options.

2 Color & 4 Color Modes

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.

2 Color Mode

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.
The Candle Color columns in the tables below reference the default Cryptowatch theme palette. For example, the default "up" and "down" colors are green and red, respectively.
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

4 Color Mode

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

Order Book

Kraken BTC/USD market Order Book in horizontal orientation (left), Same market's Order Book in vertical orientation (right)
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.

Order Book Options

Setting
Description
Module Type
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 Individual, Cumulative, and Combined.
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.

Summary module

Multiple Summary modules can give you an at-a-glance view of all your watched markets
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.
A single Summary module for Kraken: APE/USD
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 basis points (100bp) from the top of the order book on either side.

Summary Options

Setting
Description
Module Type
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

Depth Chart

A depth chart with amount axis direction to the left side (left), A depth chart with amount axis direction to the right side (right)
Market depth charts visualize pending orders in the order book. Traders may favor the depth chart over the order book when looking for the bid-ask spread or support and resistance levels.
In the image above:
The green area represents pending bid (buy) orders at their corresponding price levels in the chosen market.
The red area represents pending ask (sell) orders at their corresponding price levels in the chosen market.
In the open space:
  • The top of the order book for both the bid and ask side are displayed in green and red text respectively.
  • The white text below shows the difference in price (the bid-ask spread).
  • The figure in brackets displays the base points size (bps) of the spread.

Depth Chart Options

Setting
Description
Module Type
Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Depth Chart to another module type.
Market
Selects the exchange and market (currency pair). Eg. Kraken:BTC/USD.
Span -/+
Changes the amount of the order book visualized by the Depth Chart.
Show amount in quote units
Selecting changes the pending order volume to quote units (eg, USD when BTC/USD is the selected market).
Grid
Changes the grid display. Options are: Hidden, Solid, Solid + Minor, Crosses, Crosses + Dots.

Spread Chart

Spread Chart for Kraken: BTC/USD
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.
Prior to version 0.6.0, this module was called Tick Chart.

Spread Chart Options

Setting
Description
Module Type
Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Spread Chart to another module type.
Group
Selects a grouping to quickly adjust exchange or market in the module
Market
Selects the exchange and market (currency pair). Eg. Kraken:BTC/USD
Spread Plot
Enables the spread plot chart when plot data type is selected. Disabled when Hidden is selected.
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
Sound Events
Select a sound effect for a 'Buy', 'Sell', 'Spread Narrowed' or 'Spread Widened' event.
Module Preset
Selects a preset to quickly apply a state of module settings to the module. A preset can be apply to the same type of module only.

Ticker

The ticker is a simple but handy module that displays:
  • The last-traded price of the chosen market (16,996.6 in the image above)
  • The 24 hour price change, as a percent (-1.02% in the image above
  • The best ask and bid prices in the order book (16,996.5 and 16,996.6, respectively)
The ticker module complements a full dashboard by summarizing the market succinctly.

Ticker Options

Setting
Description
Module Type
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.

Time & Sales

Time and Sales module set to 2 color mode
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.

Time & Sales Options

Setting
Description
Module Type
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.

2 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

4 color mode:

  • 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
Time and sales set to 4 color mode

Watchlist

Add multiple markets/exchanges in the watchlist. This image includes one for simplicity.
The watchlist module adds a list-view summary of multiple markets, even across exchanges. You can customize which information columns appear in the watchlist:
Column
Description
Venue
Adds the exchange.
Market
Adds the market pair (currency pair).
Price
Adds the current price of the chosen market.
High
Adds the 24 hour high price of the market.
Low
Adds the 24 hour low price of the market.
24h %
Adds the 24 hour percent-change of the market.
24h Chg
Adds the 24 hour price-change of the market, in the quote currency of the pair.
Vol (Base)
Adds the 24 hour trading volume of the market in the base currency.
Vol (Quote)
Adds the 24 hour trading volume of the market in the quote currency.

Watchlist module options

Setting
Description
Module Type
Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Watchlist to another module type.
Markets List
Click the red X next to a market to remove it from the Watchlist.
Add Market
Add new markets to the Watchlist.
Name
Change the label of the Watchlist module.
Venue Display
Choose how to display exchanges in the watchlist: by Name, Icon, or both.

Text

The text module is great for labels, mantras, reminders, etc.
The text module lets you add text notes to your dashboards. You can organize your dashboards or flex your imagination here.

Text module options

Setting
Description
Module Type
Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Text to another module type.
Content
Type your Text content here.
Scale
Increase/decrease the size of the text.
Hide Background
Removes the background color behind the text.

Clock

Waiting for market opens around the world? Add a clock.
The Clock module adds a 24-hour clock to your dashboard, configurable by time zones around the world.

Clock module settings

Setting
Description
Module Type
Selects the type of module. Use this to change the Clock to another module type.
Time Zone
Selects the time zone for the clock — major market centers around the world are available as time zone options.
Scale
Increase/decrease the size of the clock within the module's space.

Troubleshooting

Clicking the gear icon in the top-right of the window opens the master options sidebar.

Troubleshooting with the Configuration menu

If Cryptowatch Desktop is running slowly or you encounter an issue, click the Account icon in the top-right of the screen, then select Configuration. The Configuration options will open in the sidebar, 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.

Stale data indicators

A small indicator will appear on Modules that are refreshing, indicating that their data is not yet up-to-date. You may see this indicator appear when switching boards, for example.