The Shrimpy trading terminal comes with a complete set of features that allow both advanced and novice traders to begin executing orders through the Shrimpy application. To garner a deep understanding of each of the features that are present on this trading terminal, we have put together this complete guide of content that can walk you through each feature.

How to change trading pairs

One of the first things you might want to know when visiting the trading tab is how to change the trading pair you are evaluating.

In Shrimpy, there is a simple drop-down that allows you to select the trading pair which you are viewing. This drop-down selector is in the top left corner of the trading tab. An example of this drop-down is found below:

Selecting a trading pair is as easy as navigating to the quote currency of interest and then selecting the base symbol from the list of assets that are presented.

Once an asset has been selected, the entire page will instantly start collecting data for that asset and display the selected trading pair on the trading tab.

How to change selected portfolio

The selected portfolio in the top left corner determines what funding portfolio will be used to execute the trades. When executing trades, ensure you have selected the correct portfolio that you want to use to execute trades. In the image below, we demonstrate how you can select the drop-down to view the different portfolios.

When trading, only the funds in the selected portfolio will be available for trading. This makes the trading tab ideal for a wide range of traders. For example, if you wanted to implement different trading strategies for each portfolio, you would be able to track your performance, execute your trades, and manage your portfolio in one spot.

How to view portfolio balances

One important aspect of trading is knowing how much funds you have available to make a trade. In the Shrimpy trading tab, all of your asset balances are available for viewing at the bottom of the trading tab. These balances are displayed for each asset in your portfolio.

In the image below, you can see the assets that I currently have available for trading in my portfolio.

Not only is it possible to see the asset balances of the portfolio you are currently trading on, but it is also possible to see the balances across all of your portfolios. This is possible by unchecking the box titled "This portfolio only". Unchecking this box will remove the filter for only this portfolio and provide a detailed list of all of your funds.

Similarly, if you only want to see the balances for the assets in the trading pair you are currently viewing, you can check the box for "BTC/USDT Only". In the image above, it says "BTC/USDT", but if you were to select a different trading pair (for example, BAT/BTC) it would then say "BAT/BTC Only".

How to view portfolio open orders

In the tab next to "Balances" at the bottom of the trading tab, you will find "Open Orders". In this tab, Shrimpy will display the current open orders you have left on the exchange. At any time, you will be able to cancel an order that is not yet filled, so you can either place a new order or change your strategy.

Please note: if you place an open order directly on the exchange (outside of Shrimpy), the order will not show up here. Only orders places through Shrimpy will show up.

How to view portfolio order history

Similar to the other order tabs, the order history is located next to "Open Orders" at the bottom of the trading tab. This tab will outline all of the orders you have placed on the exchange through Shrimpy.

You can find an example image for the data displayed in the Order History tab here.

Shrimpy provides an abundance of information about the order including the Order ID, Quantity, the amount Filled, whether it was a buy or sell order, the price, status, errors, and timestamps.

The Order ID is a unique identifier that is generated by Shrimpy for this order. Each order will have exactly one Order ID.

The status provides more information about how the order was either completed, canceled, or otherwise.

If there were any errors while placing the order, that information will be provided in the "Error" column.

Please note: Orders that were not placed through Shrimpy do not show up in this tab.

How to view portfolio trade history

The last tab in the order table is for "Trade History". This tab will provide a detailed break down of every trade that was executed for your Shrimpy portfolio.

You can see an example image for how this looks below.

In this tab, we find the trading pair, Order ID, Quantity, Type, Price, and Date of the trade.

Notice that the Order ID that you find in this "Trade History" tab maps to the Order ID that can be found in the "Order History" table. Multiple individual trades can map to a single Order ID. The reason multiple trades can be mapped to a single Order ID is because sometimes multiple trades are made for a single order. For example, if you try to trade 100 BTC at one time, the order will be broken up into numerous smaller trades on the exchange. Each of these individual trades would show up on this tab, while only a single entry will be placed in the "Order History" table.

Once again, only the trades that were executed by Shrimpy will show up in this table.

How to place a limit order

Buying

In this example, we will buy Bitcoin from USDT. Since USDT is the quote currency in this case, we will want to input the price of Bitcoin in terms of USDT and input the amount in terms of BTC. As a result, buying Bitcoin from USDT would look something like the following.

Notice how the "Total" is automatically calculated based on the price and the amount we will trade. This is the amount of USDT that you will trade for the Bitcoin. In this case, you will be trading 292.9335 USDT for 0.03 Bitcoin. The price of the Bitcoin is exactly 9764.45 USDT for 1 full Bitcoin.

Selling

Similar to buying Bitcoin, we can sell Bitcoin for USDT. Since USDT is still the quote currency in this case, we will be inputting the sale price of BTC in terms of USDT. However, the amount we want to sell will still be in terms of Bitcoin. This would look something like the following.

Notice that the "Total" amount is still calculated automatically. In this case, we will be selling 0.03 BTC for 292.9638 USDT. The sale price for our trade would be exactly 9765.46 USDT for a full BTC.

Learn more about placing limit orders in Shrimpy.

How to place a market order

Placing market orders in the Shrimpy Trading Terminal is simple. Rather than configuring a list of settings, all you need to enter is the amount you would like to trade. You can see an example in the below image.

Once you have entered the amount of the asset you want to buy or sell, select the option for either "SEND BUY ORDER" or "SEND SELL ORDER". In this example, the buy option will purchase BTC from USDT while the sell option will sell BTC to purchase USDT.

After the order is placed, Shrimpy will systematically execute limit orders on the exchange to buy or sell the asset of choice. Using the above example, Shrimpy would stop trading as soon as it has traded exactly 0.03 BTC.
Learn more about market orders in Shrimpy.

How to use the order book

Before we place our trade to buy or sell an asset, we must first understand how the order book works. This is important when picking the price that you want to set for your trade.

The BTC / USDT order book is shown in the image to the right.

When we place a limit order on the exchange, we have two options. Either we can place an open order on the exchange for someone else to take or we can take someone else’s open order that is already available on the exchange.

The order book here shows the available open orders for the BTC/USDT trading pair. If we wanted to buy Bitcoin, we could use this order book to trade USDT for Bitcoin.

In this order book, we can see the current lowest price that someone is willing to sell Bitcoin is 9831.19 USDT. At the same time, the highest price someone is willing to buy Bitcoin is 9831.05 USDT. That amounts to a difference of 14 cents.

The small gap between the lowest selling price and the highest buying price is called the spread. This spread is labeled in between the two order books.

When we decide to buy Bitcoin, we can either place an open order on the buy side (green text) or take the best offer on the sell side (red text). Since the best offer on the sell side is 9831.19 USDT, we can instantly take that available offer to get Bitcoin.

Otherwise, we would need to place an open order for less than or equal to 9831.05 USDT on the buy side. These open orders would need to wait until someone else agrees to sell at the open order price. There is no guarantee someone else will ever agree to sell at the open order price, so we don’t know how long it will be until we get our Bitcoin.

Typically, exchanges charge higher fees for traders who take orders (acting as a taker) rather than place open orders for others to take (acting as a maker). The reason for exchanges charging higher fees for being a taker is because it removes liquidity from the trading pair, where acting as a maker increases the liquidity of a trading pair.

A patient trader may be more interested in reducing fees by placing open orders, while an opportunistic trader may want to take advantage of market opportunities by executing trades quickly, even if the fees are higher.

Learn more about using exchange order books for trading.

How to read candlestick charts

The Shrimpy trading terminal uses TradingView. That means our traders have access to the abundant TradingView features for charting, drawing, and capturing data.

In the following list, we will highlight some of the features of TradingView.

Switch between different candlestick sizes using the drop-down in the top-left. In this screenshot, it currently says "D".
Add indicators to the graph using the "Indicators" button.
Use the Escape key to close popups that open over the graph.
Use the "5y 1y 6m 3m 1m 5d 1d" buttons at the bottom to change the timeline of the graph.
Click and drag to move left or right on the graph.

Learn more about reading candlestick charts in Shrimpy.

How to evaluate an exchange's trade history

The final component on the trading tab that we will discuss is the "Trade History" section. This section is a live feed of all the trades that have taken place recently on the exchange.

You can see an example of this feed to the right.

In this example, we see each of the buys and sells that took place on the exchange for the trading pair we are viewing.

Every time another trade is executed on the exchange for this trading pair, the new trade will be added to this live feed.

Each trade that is labeled as red is the sale of the base currency. In the image to the right, the base currency is Bitcoin and the quote currency is USD. In other words, a sell trade represents someone selling Bitcoin for USD.

A trade that is labeled as green represents the purchase of the base currency. In the above example, that would mean Bitcoin is bought from USD.

Besides the text listed in the table, we have also provided an overlay that represents the size of the trades. You can see the overlays as faint bars that cover the table row. The larger the overlay, the bigger the trade that was executed. A large red bar represents a large sale of the base asset. A large green bar represents a large purchase of the base asset.

We want your feedback!

Our team is waiting to hear your feedback. Please reach out to us in Telegram or through email at support@shrimpy.io to share your thoughts.

Shrimpy Trading Terminal [Feature Release]