How to read the FlowMap Chart on BTCUSDT
Binance futures · BTCUSDT · FlowMap Chart
This is how to read the live FlowMap Chart on BTCUSDT. The picture below is that page. Time runs left to right. Last price sits in the middle. The labels match the chart: heatmap, bubbles, VOL, CVD, COB, CVP, SVP, plus the cards under the CVD line.
FlowMap Chart is the product. The heatmap is one layer on it. Keep the chart open while you read.
How the chart is laid out
Price goes up. Newer time is on the right, next to the PRICE column.
Under the heat, a short VOL strip uses the same clock. Under that, a wider CVD line. On the right you can read four labels off the screenshot: PRICE, COB, CVP, SVP.
Heatmap
The color behind the chart is the liquidity heatmap. It is a movie of limit size sitting on this Binance book, by price and by time.
Brighter means more size was showing at that price in that column. Dark or empty means a thin book.
Heat is not size that traded. It is size that was waiting on the bid or the ask. Those limits can stay, get smaller, or vanish when price walks into them.
A bright band means size was sitting there. It does not mean that size will fill.
Bubbles
Circles on the heat are bubbles. They are market orders that already traded.
Green is a market buy (someone lifted the ask). Red is a market sell (someone hit the bid). Bigger circle, bigger size.
They sit at the price and time of the print. That is the side that hit the book, not the size still waiting.
Prefs can draw them as 3D balls. Min qty can hide small prints. Neither changes the heat.
Watch where they land. Bubbles into a band that stays bright is not the same as bubbles into a band that goes dark.
BBO (and last)
The lines through the heat are BBO — best bid and best ask over time. Green is the bid. Red is the ask. Turn them on in Prefs → BBO.
Last price is the number next to the symbol. Bubbles cluster around that path.
Without last and BBO you cannot tell bid-side heat from ask-side heat.
Volume bars (VOL)
The thin bars under the heat are VOL. They show how much traded in each slice of time, on the same clock as the heat.
Default is volume delta: market-buy minus market-sell in that bar. You can switch to total volume. Bar width is time (Auto, or 1–15 seconds).
VOL is “how much traded in this slice?” CVP and SVP are “at which prices?” Heat is “what was sitting on the book while it traded?”
CVD strip
The line under VOL is CVD — cumulative volume delta. It adds market-buy size and subtracts market-sell size across the window you see.
Line up means more lifting the ask. Line down means more hitting the bid.
Price and CVD can disagree. That is a clue, not a button to click.
CVD min qty in Prefs can skip small prints in this sum. It is separate from bubble Min qty.
COB
COB is the current order book: live bids (green) and asks (red) at the same prices as the heat.
Bar length is size right now, next to the other levels. The numbers are BTC, not dollars.
COB is now. The heatmap is what the book looked like earlier.
If a wall was bright and then it is gone on COB, that size already pulled. If COB is thick where the heat was dark, size just showed up.
CVP
CVP is the chart volume profile: size that traded, stacked by price, for the window you are looking at. Not by the clock.
Green and red are market-buy vs market-sell at that price. The orange line is this window’s POC — the price where the most size traded in view.
CVP moves when you scroll, or when the live window slides. It is not the whole day’s profile.
SVP
SVP is the session volume profile. Same idea as CVP (size by price, plus a POC), but over the longer session the chart is holding, not only the zoomed window.
CVP is what you are looking at. SVP is the wider session on this feed.
Both are size that traded by price. They are not the sitting heat.
The four cards
- LARGE — last print at or above the Large size for this symbol. On BTCUSDT that floor is often 10 BTC.
- ABS — absorption: the last time market hits did not push through a level. Empty means none in view. It does not mean the book is empty.
- CVD — the same running buy-minus-sell as the line, shown as a number.
- OBI — order book imbalance: bid size vs ask size waiting on the live book. That is the book leaning, not the tape.
Prefs can also show VWAP (average price weighted by volume), the POC line, ABS marks, rays, and trails. Those sit on top. They do not replace heat, bubbles, or COB / CVP / SVP.
One pass on this screenshot
- Find last and the BBO lines. Which heat is the bid, which is the ask?
- Which bright bands stay across time, and which flash for one column?
- Where do bubbles hit those bands — through, stall, or the band pulls?
- Check COB. Is that size still there now?
- CVP and SVP: where did size actually trade by price?
- VOL and CVD: was that burst net buying or net selling?
What this picture is not
Not candles. Not a footprint. Not hidden icebergs. Not every Bitcoin exchange at once.
It is Binance futures BTCUSDT. ETH and BNB use the same layout with a different price step. For learning only — not financial advice.
Stay on FlowMap Chart · BTCUSDT. More on Learn: heatmap, CVD, volume profile.