Size on the book vs size that traded
Binance futures · BTCUSDT · FlowMap Chart
Two numbers get mixed up. Size on the book is still waiting. Size that traded already printed. Candles only keep the second one as volume.
This note is that split on Binance futures BTCUSDT. Limits vs market orders are in market orders vs limit orders.
Size on the book
Limits waiting at a price. Bid size below. Ask size above. You can see it on COB now, and as color on the heatmap across time.
That size has not traded yet. It can get hit. It can get pulled. Until one of those happens, it is only resting interest.
What bid and ask size means is the row-level version of this.
Size that traded
Market orders that took resting size. A market buy lifts the ask. A market sell hits the bid. After the fill, that size is a print — gone from the book unless a new limit replaces it.
On FlowMap those prints are the bubbles. Green lifted the ask. Red hit the bid. Bigger circle, bigger print. Volume bars under the chart add those prints up in time. CVD adds buys and subtracts sells across the window — what CVD adds up.
Why the candle mixes them up
A candle’s volume is size that traded inside the bar. It does not show how much was sitting at the high or the low. Two green candles can print the same volume: one into a thick ask that held, one through a thin book after size pulled.
That gap is what BTCUSDT candles don’t show. A bright heat band that leaves before the hit is a bright heatmap band can still vanish.
What this picture is not
Not a setup. Not “more volume means more buyers.” Volume is traded size; side lives in the tape and in CVD. Not every venue — Binance futures BTCUSDT here.
For learning only — not financial advice.
Compare heat and bubbles live on FlowMap Chart · BTCUSDT · course: limit vs market.