This page explains where each number on TraderMap comes from and how it is calculated, so you can judge how far to trust it. Last updated: 1 November 2026.
Data sources
- Live trades and liquidations: public WebSocket feeds of Binance Futures, Bybit, OKX, Hyperliquid and Lighter, received directly by your browser.
- Candles, funding, open interest, long/short ratio: public REST endpoints of Binance Futures (Bybit is used as a fallback for candles).
- Fear & Greed Index: published daily by alternative.me. TraderMap does not calculate it.
- TradingView chart mode: an embedded TradingView widget, subject to TradingView's own data.
Whale trades and tiers
A "whale trade" is a single market order whose notional value is above a threshold you choose (10K, 50K, 100K, 500K or 1M USD). Orders are grouped into three tiers: small whale ($50K-$500K), standard whale ($500K-$1M) and mega whale ($1M and above). Prices are aggregated across venues per coin; buy or sell is the side of the aggressor.
Aggregated candles, VWAP and CVD
Candles of 1 to 30 seconds are built in your browser from the trade stream. VWAP is the cumulative volume-weighted average of the typical price (high + low + close) / 3. CVD is the running sum of buy volume minus sell volume since the first candle shown. Nothing is stored on a TraderMap server.
Liquidation heatmap model
Exchanges do not publish individual positions, so levels are estimates. For every candle, a fixed share of traded volume is assumed to open new leveraged positions at the candle's typical price, split across 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x and 100x tiers. A long's liquidation price is placed below that price and a short's above it, using the formula entry x (1 - 1/leverage + maintenance margin) for longs and entry x (1 + 1/leverage - maintenance margin) for shorts, with a 0.5% maintenance margin. A level stays on the map until a later candle trades through it. Brightness shows relative size, not exact dollars. The live liquidations list, in contrast, shows real forced orders reported by Binance.
Other calculations
- RSI: Wilder's 14-period RSI on Binance futures closes for 15m, 1h, 4h and 1d.
- Funding APR: funding rate x payments per day x 365, using each contract's own interval.
- Open interest change: compares the latest hourly value with 1, 4 and 24 hours earlier.
- Liquidation calculator: isolated and cross formulas with an approximate tiered maintenance rate. Exchanges add maintenance amounts, funding and fees, so confirm on your exchange.
Limitations
- Long/short, open interest and funding reflect Binance only, not the whole market.
- Data depends on third-party feeds and can be delayed, interrupted or revised.
- If your network blocks an exchange, the related tool shows an error and retries.
- Past behaviour of any indicator does not predict future results.
Corrections
If you find an error, write to contact@tradermap.io with the page and the figure. Verified mistakes are corrected and, where it matters, noted here.