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Liquidation Heatmap#

Colored horizontal bands showing where leveraged positions would be force-closed, brightest where the most notional would liquidate if price reached that level.

TODO: screenshot of the Liquidation Heatmap on a chart, brightest where the most notional would liquidate.

What it shows#

The heatmap paints thin liquidation bands across the chart on a viridis color scale, from cool blue for thin levels to bright yellow for the heaviest walls, so a few dominant levels stand out. It is a modeled estimate, not a feed of exchange liquidation events. Tracer reconstructs it from the change in aggregate open interest bar by bar, spreads each new position across a mix of leverage tiers (from 5x up to 100x, or 200x on very low timeframes), and works out the liquidation price for each. A band's intensity is the total notional whose liquidation price lands there, and the standing book is capped at real open interest.

How to read it#

Bright bands act like magnets. They mark prices where a cluster of leveraged positions would be liquidated, and price often gravitates toward large clusters because a cascade there adds fuel. Bands above the current price are mostly short liquidations (a squeeze higher), and bands below are mostly long liquidations (a flush lower). Hover a band for the price, the distance from spot, and the long, short, and total notional. Treat the levels as probable fuel, not guaranteed reversals. A swept cluster is spent, and price often keeps going after clearing a big wall.

Settings#

  • Leverage profile. Auto derives the tier mix from your timeframe, or switch to Custom to set the 5x to 100x weights yourself.
  • Stagger levels over time. Fan each open-interest surge forward over a window so it ramps up instead of popping to one vertical wall. Off by default, for the precise Coinglass look.
  • Side profile. A liquidation-map panel on the right that ranks levels by size.
  • Display toggles. Control how the bands sit under the candles, the color scale, the strongest-level marks, and optional edge labels.

This is a modeled heatmap, not an exchange liquidation feed, and the long/short split is an estimate. Dark areas usually mean missing open-interest coverage rather than no liquidity. Coverage is shallow per venue and can be limited by region, so deep zoom-outs may run past the available data.

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