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.
Cryptowatch Desktop
Cryptowatch
Click here to install Cryptowatch Desktop
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!
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
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 |
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Rename a dashboard |
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Delete a dashboard |
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Clone a dashboard |
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Tip: Select all modules with Ctrl+A (Windows, Linux) or Cmd+A (Mac).
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:
Create new themes by clicking the + next to the Custom Themes text at the top of the Theme Management menu.
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.
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.
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.
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.
To add a module to an existing, populated dashboard:
- 1.Click an existing module that the new module will be adjacent to
- 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.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 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.- 1.Click on the module you wish to change.
- 2.Click the gear icon or use the hotkeys
Ctrl+E(Cmd+Eon a Mac) to open the sidebar. - 3.Make any desired changes to the module using the sidebar settings.
- 1.Click the module you wish to remove
- 2.Click the X in its header bar, or use the hotkeys
Ctrl+D(Cmd+Don a Mac)
- 1.Click and drag the horizontal space between modules for up/down resizing
- 2.Click and drag the vertical space between modules for left/right resizing
- 3.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 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.
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.Balances | |
Chart | |
Clock | Adds a clock with time and date. Can configure to other time zones (including UTC). |
Depth Chart | |
Ladder | |
Order Book | |
Order Ticket | Adds a standard or an active-type order ticket to the dashboard. |
Spread Chart | |
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 | |
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 | |
Trade Activity | |
Watchlist |
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
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. |
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.
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.
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 |
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 |
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. |
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.
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.
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 |
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 figure in brackets displays the base points size (bps) of the spread.
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 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.
Setting | Description |
Module Type | |
Group | |
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 | |
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. |
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.
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 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. |
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. |
- 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
Time and sales set to 4 color mode
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 | |
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. |
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. |
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.
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. |
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.
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. |
Clicking the gear icon in the top-right of the window opens the master options sidebar.
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.
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.
