# Panel settings: Level 2, tape and chart

> Every option behind the Level 2 and chart cogs: rows, colouring, dollar values, the tape column, trade bubbles, gridlines and the warning switches.

Source: https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/panel-settings
Guide 2.3, Desks and layout. Intermediate, 8 min read.
Checked with Scalpel 1.12.8 on 2026-10-15. By Scalpel Team.

**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.

## Open a panel's settings

Click the cog at the right of a panel's title bar:

- **LEVEL 2**: the cog after the **-** **Tick** **+** grouping stepper. Opens **Level 2 settings**, which has two sections, **Level 2** and **Time and sales**, because the tape is a column of the Level 2 panel.
- **CHART**: the cog opens **Chart settings**.
- **ORDERS & POSITIONS** has no settings.

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).

## Level 2 settings

*Screenshot: The Level 2 cog at its defaults. The top section is the book, the bottom the tape column.*

### Level 2

| 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](#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](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/read-line-and-read-bar)). |
| **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](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/read-line-and-read-bar)). |
| **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](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/read-level-2#the-thin-bid-exit-warning)). |

### Time and sales

| 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](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/tape-sound). |
| **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](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/read-time-and-sales).

### The three colouring modes

*Screenshot: The same bid side three ways. By price tier: one colour band per price. By venue: one colour per exchange. Off: plain rows, a grey depth bar, the inside price in gold and the big 3,000 order in amber. Demo data.*

- **By price tier** (the default) paints every row at the same price in the same solid band, in this order from the inside out: green, salmon, yellow, cyan, orange, lavender, then round again. Both sides start with green at the inside. You can count how many venues sit at each price, and how many prices deep the book is, at a glance. It is the DAS-style scheme many momentum traders learned on.
- **By venue** gives each exchange (**NSDQ**, **ARCA**, **EDGX** and so on) its own fixed colour, so you can follow one venue as it moves through the book.
- **Off** draws plain dark rows with light text. This is the only mode where three extra highlights show: the faint grey **depth size bars**, the best bid and ask prices in **gold** (**Highlight the touch**), and **big orders** in amber: a row whose size is at least three times the average size shown, and at least 1,000 shares.

In every mode, a suspected iceberg gets the layers icon ([guide 3.2](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/iceberg-orders)).

### The grouping stepper

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.

## Chart settings

*Screenshot: The chart cog at its defaults.*

| 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](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/warrant-and-offering-lines)). |
| **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](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/order-bar)). Off hides it; your hotkeys still work. |
| **Verdict bar** | On | The read bar beside the timeframe buttons ([guide 3.6](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/read-line-and-read-bar)). |
| **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](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/chart-basics).

**Tip.**

On a small screen, turning off the **MACD sub-pane** and **Delta sub-pane** gives the candles most of the chart's height back. Turning off **Show tape column** gives the book its full width.

## Questions

**Where are the Level 2 settings in Scalpel?**

Behind the cog at the right of the LEVEL 2 panel's title bar, not in Settings. The same window holds the time and sales tape settings.

**Can each desk have different panel settings?**

No. The Level 2, tape and chart settings are shared by every desk, so all books and charts look the same. Each desk keeps its own symbol, colour, timeframe and panel layout.

**Why does Highlight the touch do nothing?**

It only shows with Coloring set to Off. In the coloured modes the inside price is already its own band of colour, so the touch, depth bars and big-order highlights are not drawn.

**How do I show dollar values instead of shares?**

Switch on Dollar value instead of size: once under Level 2 for the book and once under Time and sales for the tape. Values read in whole thousands, such as $7K.

**Is there an Apply button?**

No. Panel settings take effect and are saved as you click. Close the window with its X, Esc or a click outside.