Guide 2.3
Intermediate, 8 min read. Checked with Scalpel 1.12.8 on .
In short
The Level 2, tape and chart options are not in Settings: they are behind the cog in each panel's title bar. The LEVEL 2 cog holds the book's options and the Time and sales tape options, including tape sound; the CHART cog holds the timeframe and every chart layer. Changes apply the moment you click and are saved at once, and they apply to every desk alike.
Settings (Ctrl+,) is for the account, orders, risk and keys. How the panels look is set on the panels themselves, so you can see the effect as you click. This page lists every option, its default, and when you might change it.
Click the cog at the right of a panel's title bar:
There is no Apply button. Each change takes effect and is saved as you make it, on every desk at once: the panel settings are shared, so all your books look the same. Close the window with its X, by clicking outside it, or with Esc (with a settings window open, Esc only closes it; it does not flatten).
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Rows per side | 14 | How many rows of the book each side shows, from 5 to 20. The imbalance gauge weighs the same rows. Fewer rows suit a short panel or a laptop. |
| Coloring | By price tier | How rows are coloured: see the three colouring modes below. |
| Depth size bars | On | With Coloring on Off, each row gets a faint grey bar as long as its size against the biggest row shown, growing from the outer edge. Switch off for a plain faint row. No effect in the coloured modes. |
| Dollar value instead of size | Off | Shows each row's dollar value (price x size, in whole thousands: $7K) instead of shares. The column header reads VALUE and the summary bar shows BID VALUE and ASK VALUE. Useful when you flip between a $2 stock and a $20 one. |
| Highlight the touch | On | With Coloring on Off, the best bid and best ask prices are drawn in gold. In the coloured modes the inside is already its own band. |
| Flash size changes | On | A row flashes green when size is added at a price and red when it shrinks, fading in under half a second. Switch off if the flicker distracts you. |
| Summary bar | On | The bar above the book: BID VOL, BEST BID, SPREAD, BEST ASK, ASK VOL. |
| Header quote | On | The quote above the summary: last price, change, open, high, low, VWAP and volume. Off leaves only the symbol badge and the company name. |
| Inferred read | On | The strip with the IMBALANCE gauge, DELTA over 10s, 1m and 5m, and the read line (guide 3.6). |
| Show tape column | On | The time and sales column on the right of the book. Off gives the book the full width; tape sound still plays. |
| Exit alert (long weakening) | On | When you hold a long and the 1-minute chart prints a bull trap, a toast and a voice warn you (guide 3.6). |
| Thin bid exit warning | On | When selling your whole long into the bids shown would cost 0.6% or more below the best bid, a red strip, a toast and a voice warn you (guide 3.1). |
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Display min size | 0 | Hides prints smaller than this many shares. 0 shows every print. Try 100 to drop odd lots on a busy stock. |
| Color by aggressor | On | Buys (at the ask) green, sells (at the bid) red. Off shows every print in grey. |
| Size bars | On | Each coloured print is a bar as long as its size against the biggest print around it. Off paints the whole row in its colour. |
| Dollar value instead of size | Off | Shows each print's dollar value instead of shares, with the header reading VALUE. |
| Tape sound | Off | Plays the focused desk's prints as sound. The four rows under it set it up: see guide 3.4. |
| Sound volume | 60 | Tape sound's own volume, 0 to 100. |
| Sound min value ($) | 1000 | Prints worth less than this many dollars are silent. |
| Big print value ($) | 20000 | From this dollar value a print plays a figure instead of a blip. |
| Stereo: sells left, buys right | On | Pans sells to the left ear and buys to the right. Off centres both. |
The tape and its settings are covered in guide 3.3.
In every mode, a suspected iceberg gets the layers icon (guide 3.2).
The - Tick + control in the LEVEL 2 title bar merges price levels into wider steps. At Tick there is one row per price. Click + to step through x0.02, x0.05, x0.1, x0.25, x0.5, x1 and up; the sizes in each step are added together, bids rounded down and asks rounded up. On a $2 stock you will rarely need it. On a higher-priced stock with a thin, spread-out book, x0.05 or x0.1 shows where the real size sits. The stepper is per desk and resets when you restart Scalpel; the summary bar always uses the real book.
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Default timeframe | 1m | The timeframe a desk's chart opens on. Changing it here also switches the focused desk's chart. Each desk's timeframe buttons still change that desk on its own. |
| EMA overlays (9 / 20) | On | The 9 and 20 period exponential moving averages, blue and orange. |
| MACD sub-pane | On | MACD 12, 26, 9 under the price. |
| Delta sub-pane (10s, 1m, 5m) | On | The buy-minus-sell volume lines from the tape, under the MACD. |
| VWAP line | On | The session VWAP, thick yellow, from 04:00 ET. |
| Volume histogram | On | Volume bars along the bottom of the price pane. |
| Round-dollar levels | On | Faint lines at whole and half dollars: half dollars while the visible range is under $25, whole dollars up to $200. |
| Warrant and offering lines | On | Orange dashed lines at warrant, offering and conversion prices from the stock's filings (guide 9.6). |
| Price gridlines | On | Horizontal gridlines. |
| Last-price tag | On | The last price highlighted on the price axis. |
| Crosshair | On | The crosshair that follows the mouse, with its price and time. |
| Quick-order buttons | On | The order bar under the chart (guide 4.6). Off hides it; your hotkeys still work. |
| Verdict bar | On | The read bar beside the timeframe buttons (guide 3.6). |
| Trade bubbles | On | Circles on the chart for the biggest buys (green) and sells (red) since the stock loaded. |
| Bubbles top % | 20 | Which prints get a bubble: the top 20% by size of those on screen. Lower shows only the biggest; the range is 1 to 50. |
The EMA lengths (9 and 20) are not in the cog; they can only be changed in Scalpel's settings file. Everything on the chart is explained in guide 3.5.