There are 5 main parts of the above screen and we would be breaking down what happens on each part, sometimes or all the time and also try to answer why it happens.

• Markets panel (top left): This shows the markets we have available for you and the prices for each market pair (BTC/NGN). The prices that show up is the last traded price in the market. It also shows the change in the market in the last 24 hours. Why? So you can see what’s up at a glance.
  
  
• Charts panel (centre): This is the part that still feels intimidating even to us. The default view is a candlestick chart that represents the trades that have happened, the price they happened at and their volumes. Sometimes we have ridiculous prices (compared to current prices)  represented by long lines on the chart. That line is caused by a bug which holds back a very little volume of an order think 0.00000001 BTC from completing at the time the order was placed. What is left to complete is of no importance but the bug is stopping us from being great and the order from completing to zero. It is a precision problem and has something to do with decimals, we know of it and we are working on fixing the bug. The chart also has a depth chart which shows the total amount you can buy and sell at any time and the volume and price. Think of a graph that shows you the depth of an ocean.
  
  
• Order book panel (top right): This panel shows the orders placed by customers on the exchange using the limit order feature. This feature allows you to view buy and sell orders as well as your own.

Sometimes there are orders that appear and disappear on the order book quickly, some of those orders are usually large too. These orders are as a result of a partnership with some other exchanges. The partnership allows us to create a shared order book system so that our orders appear on their exchange and their orders also appear on our exchange. The partnership enables you to buy/sell larger quantities at any time, thereby increasing liquidity.

The reason it moves fast is that activity is happening on the others exchanges at a fast rate, people are buying, selling and also cancelling orders but be rest assured that you can buy and sell with any order you see on Quidax order book. It is currently turned off as we are ensuring it works better, but very soon it would be up, running and stable. More liquidity soon.

• Trades panel (bottom left): This panel shows the trades that customers have completed on Quidax, the volume and also the timestamp for the trade. When you complete a trade, it shows up on the trades panel with a star (because you are a star duh). Some questions we have gotten is around trades that show up in the trade panel but don’t appear on the order book. There are orders that come from the instant buy and sell feature, those orders don’t appear on the order book but show up on the trade history.
  
  
• Place order panel (bottom middle): This panel allows you to place a buy or sell order using either limit order or market order. For clarity, a limit order is an order at the buy or sell price you set and you might wait in line for it to be completed. While a market order is; I want to buy or sell this quantity at the current market price, that is usually completed instantly.