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The order book and recent trades help you understand what is happening in the market right now, not just where price was a few candles ago. The chart shows the broader move. The order book and recent trades show the live battle between buyers and sellers.

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What the order book is

The order book is a live list of buy and sell orders waiting in the market. It is often called the book or DOM.
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In Entry Finance, the order book is shown as two sides:
  • the upper red side shows sell orders waiting above the market
  • the lower green side shows buy orders waiting below the market
These are not completed trades yet. They are orders that are available to be matched.

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Where to find the order book in Entry Finance

In Entry Finance, the order book can be shown as a widget in the terminal layout.
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If it is not visible, open Widgets & Charts and enable Orderbook. This lets you keep the trade panel, chart, and order book visible in one workspace.

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How to read the order book in Entry Finance

In the current Entry Finance interface, the order book shows:
  • Price is the level where orders are waiting. On the red side, these are prices where sellers are willing to sell. On the green side, these are prices where buyers are willing to buy. The closer the row is to the middle of the order book, the closer it is to the current market price.
  • Size (USD)shows how much liquidity is sitting at that specific price level. If the size is large, it means there is more volume waiting there. If the size is small, price can move through that level more easily.
  • Total (USD)shows the cumulative amount of liquidity on that side of the book up to that level. This helps you see not just one row, but how much stacked liquidity is sitting behind it. That is useful when you want to judge whether price is approaching a thin area or a heavier block of orders.
  • Spreadis the gap between the best bid and the best ask. In simple terms:
    • the best bid is the highest active buy order
    • the best ask is the lowest active sell order The smaller the spread, the tighter the market usually is. The larger the spread, the more room there is between buyers and sellers, which can make entries and exits less efficient.

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What the red and green sides mean

  • The red side is the ask side of the book. It shows sellers waiting to sell into buyers.
  • The green side is the bid side of the book. It shows buyers waiting to buy from sellers.
If you send a market buy order, it will match against liquidity on the red side. If you send a market sell order, it will match against liquidity on the green side. That is why the order book matters for execution. It shows where your order is likely to interact with the market.

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What the order book can help you with

In Entry Finance, the order book is especially useful for:
  • judging whether the market is liquid or thin
  • estimating how easily an order may fill
  • spotting nearby liquidity clusters
  • deciding whether to use a market order or wait with a limit order
  • understanding where price may hesitate in the short term
It is most useful for execution and short-term decision-making, not for predicting the market on its own. If you want to connect what you see in the book to real fill behavior such as slippage, partial fills, and queue position, continue to Execution quality and slippage.

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What recent trades are

Recent Trades shows trades that have already happened.
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This is different from the order book:
  • the order book shows orders waiting in the market
  • recent trades show orders that have already been matched and executed
If the order book is the list of intentions, recent trades are the tape of what actually got done.

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What recent trades can help you with

Recent trades are useful for:
  • seeing whether the market is active right now
  • spotting bursts of aggressive buying or selling
  • checking whether a move is actually trading through the book
  • confirming whether momentum is real or fading
If the chart shows a breakout and recent trades are active at the same time, that move is usually more meaningful than a breakout with little actual trade flow.

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How order book and recent trades are connected

They describe the same market, but from two different angles. The order book shows resting liquidity. Recent trades show what happens when active buyers or sellers hit that liquidity. For example:
  • if large sell liquidity is visible in the order book and recent trades keep hitting that side, you can see whether buyers are actually strong enough to absorb it
  • if the order book looks thin and recent trades are aggressive, price may move quickly through nearby levels
The order book is most useful when you combine it with recent trades instead of reading either one in isolation. In Entry Finance, the order book is especially useful for:
  • judging whether the market is liquid or thin
  • estimating how easily an order may fill
  • spotting nearby liquidity clusters
  • deciding whether to use a market order or wait with a limit order
  • understanding where price may hesitate in the short term
It is most useful for execution and short-term decision-making, not for predicting the market on its own. Recent trades are useful for:
  • seeing whether the market is active right now
  • spotting bursts of aggressive buying or selling
  • checking whether a move is actually trading through the book
  • confirming whether momentum is real or fading
If the chart shows a breakout and recent trades are active at the same time, that move is usually more meaningful than a breakout with little actual trade flow.