The trading window, line by line
In the order you see it, top to bottom. What each line means, what to click, and what happens when you do. Keep this open beside the window.
Education, not advice. Every number on the window comes from the exchange or from your own account; this page explains the words.
The top line
XRP · $1.5494 · LIVE
The coin you are on, the live price, and a green LIVE pill when the order book is streaming. connecting… means it has not arrived yet; reconnecting… means the server is recycling or the exchange rate-limited one poll — it heals in seconds and nothing on the exchange is affected.
🪙 Spot · 📅 Futures · 📈 Derivatives
Which market this ticket trades. Spot: you buy the coins themselves. Futures: a dated contract that expires. Derivatives: the perpetual contract (never expires, pays funding). Clicking a tab in the main window switches this too. Full explanation: the “Spot vs futures vs perps, explained” link on the product line opens a page beside this one.
🪽 Ask Deb
The floating button bottom-right. Opens Deb, who can see this window and your open position and answer in plain words. Nothing you type there places an order.
The product line and its chart
real trade · XRP-USD (spot — coins you own)
Exactly which exchange product this ticket will send orders to, and what kind it is. If it says resolving… wait a second; if it shows ⚠ the exchange did not answer and you should not trade until it does.
the details line
For a contract: the contract size (1 XPP contract = 500 XRP), the expiry date for a dated future, the funding rate and next funding time for the perp, open interest. For spot: none of that applies — you own the coin outright, no expiry, no funding, no liquidation.
the chart
Candles for this product (not the spot chart when you are on a contract). Buttons 1m / 5m / 15m / 1h / 1d change the bar size. The dotted line is the last price. Green is an up bar, red a down bar; the strip along the bottom is volume. It draws, it never orders.
My call
A scorecard for your own read of the market. It has nothing to do with orders or positions and never trades.
▲ up · ▼ down
Click what you think price does next. That is all it does: it writes the call down with the price at that moment.
graded after 5m
How long until the call is scored against the exchange's own candle. It is not a hold time and it does not close anything.
your calls: 1 right · 2 wrong · 1 flat · 33% right · 1 open
right = price went your way by the deadline; wrong = the other way; flat = it moved under 0.05% either way (not counted in the %); open = still waiting to be graded. The chips underneath are the last few calls: green ✓ right, red ✗ wrong, grey – flat, amber … open, with the move it made.
Your money
USD cash total (Coinbase's number)
Your USD across the exchange: spot wallet + derivatives cash, including anything in flight between them. Coinbase's Portfolio headline is bigger because it also adds your crypto (for example spot XRP) and today's derivatives P&L. It is the exchange's own figure.
Spot USD wallet · of which in flight
Cash in the spot wallet. The indented line is money the exchange is moving between spot and derivatives automatically (it does this itself, no fee; it settles around 3:00 and 6:15 AM ET).
Futures (derivatives) cash
Cash sitting in the derivatives account as margin.
Today's realized
The exchange's own P&L figure for today's trading day (it closes at 5 PM ET). It is before fees (checked to the cent on 9/25, and again on the weekend of 9/26–27). On weekends Coinbase keeps one trading day running from Friday 5 PM ET, so Saturday's and Sunday's trades all land in the same figure and settle together.
Today's fees so far — not yet taken out
Every fill's commission since 5 PM ET, added up. The exchange does not subtract these from its headline number until the next morning; this line tells you now.
Total after tonight's settlement
What the total will be once the exchange settles today: Total + today's gross + funding − today's fees. This is the number to watch during the day.
Available
On spot: USD/USDC you can spend. On contracts: buying power, which the exchange calculates from all your cash because it moves cash to derivatives automatically.
Buys about
Roughly how many coins or contracts the available money buys at the current price. A guide, not a limit — the exchange decides at the moment you order.
Liquidation cushion
How far the exchange's own margin buffer is from a forced close. 1000% and green means nothing is open or you are nowhere near. On spot there is no liquidation.
Your auto-protect target · ON
The cushion level the always-on liquidation guardian defends; if the cushion falls toward it, Wingman's server reduces the position before the exchange would. ON/OFF is the guardian's switch.
All positions — protected or not
One block per open position. The first line tells you the state of every one of them: 🛡 n protected · ⚠ n unprotected · 🔒 n held.
LONG XPP-20DEC30-CDE × 100
The side, the product and the size. Then entry price, the exchange's mark price, and unrealized P&L.
🛡 PROTECTED
Wingman's server is watching this position: the take-profit, stop-loss and trail you set are below it, editable in place. The moment one trips, the server closes it for real, whether or not this window is open.
⚠ UNPROTECTED — click to protect
Nothing is watching this position. One click arms the guard with your saved defaults (or fill the take-profit / stop-loss boxes first and then click). You can also arm by hand in the guard form below the row.
🔒 HELD — no algo
A legacy hold: you have told Wingman never to let any guard, floor or liquidation sale touch this product. You can still trade it by hand. Click 🔒 Held to release it.
Placing an order
size
Spot: coins. Contracts: number of contracts (the $ equivalent is shown under it). On the web version with no key connected you set an Allot $ cap instead.
price
Blank = fill at MARKET now, at the best price available (taker fee). Type a price to place a limit order that waits at that price. Follow the live price puts the current price back in the box.
best available
Ignore the price box and fill now at the best price on the book.
maker
Only for a limit price: rest the order so it earns the maker fee instead of paying taker. It fills when the market comes to it, which may be never.
if not filled in … s
For a resting maker order: after this many seconds, cancel it and go to market for whatever is left. never / keep resting leaves it there.
▲ BUY · ▼ SELL
This does not place the order. It asks the exchange to review it and shows you what would happen: product, size, price, fee, whether it rests or fills now.
Confirm BUY 100 @ MARKET · 12s
This places it. The countdown is how long the review stays valid; if it runs out, click BUY or SELL again and re-read. When it goes through, the position appears above with its badge, and if auto-arm is on the guard arms itself.
Protection: the guard (per position)
take profit (above / below)
The price at which the guard takes the win. Long: above entry. Short: below.
stop loss (below / above)
The price at which the guard cuts the loss. Long: below. Short: above.
no trail / trail % / trail $ / trail algo
no trail: only the two prices above fire. trail %: the exit follows price by that percent as it moves your way, so a win cannot turn into a loss. trail $: the same, a fixed dollar gap. trail algo: Wingman's own momentum exit, tuned by the sensitivity below.
sensitivity −5 … +5
Only for trail algo. −5 hair-trigger (out in about 2 minutes, most protective, most whipsaw) → 0 balanced (about 5) → +5 loosest (rides longest, gives back the most). The minutes are typical hold times at that setting.
Arm · Save · Disarm
Arm turns the guard on for that position. Save writes a changed level onto an armed guard without dropping it. Disarm turns it off; the position stays open and becomes ⚠ UNPROTECTED.
Algo-guard history
Every time a guard acted on your account: what, when, at what price, with the exchange's order id, so anything can be checked against the exchange's own records.
Default protection (auto-arm)
Auto-arm the Algo on every new position I open
A default, not a switch for what is already open. With it on, every position you open from then on gets its own guard the moment it opens, at the sensitivity and stop/target distances below. Positions already open are not changed by this box — use their rows.
sensitivity · Stop ¢ · Target ¢
The setting each new guard starts with: the algo sensitivity, and how many cents from entry the stop and target are seeded (0 = don't set one). You can edit any of them on the position afterwards.
Save / Saved
Save writes the defaults to your account. Saved means nothing changed since.
🛡️ Profit Protector — the automatic backup
A trailing stop that sets itself. You don't arm it and there are no prices to choose. It watches every open position, and once a trade has made it past breakeven, it won't let that trade turn back into a loss. It's the backup for any position the Algo isn't guarding. If the Algo is armed on a position, the Protector steps aside for it.
1 · Breakeven
Your entry price moved by the fee you paid to get in plus the fee you'll pay to get out. Both are measured from your own recent fills on that product, not guessed. Short: breakeven is below your entry. Long: above it.
2 · Arms
When price crosses breakeven in your favour, the Protector turns on at breakeven.
3 · Follows
From then on it trails behind the best price seen since it armed, by the distance you pick in the Follow the best price by box (0.3% to 1.5%; 0.6% if you never change it). It only moves in your favour and never goes back past breakeven.
4 · Fires
When price touches the Protector, Wingman closes the whole position: first as a limit sweep, then at market if that doesn't fill. It checks every 15 seconds (it used to be once a minute, which is why, in the example below, the check saw 1.5345 and the fill came at 1.5340). On a fast move the close can still fill a little past the line. It is a price line, not a pattern reader: it does not look at momentum or order flow yet.
5 · Resets
A new trade (new entry or new side) starts fresh. It's per trade, not a standing order on the exchange.
🛡️ Profit Protector ON / OFF
At the top of the protection panel: the ON/OFF button, the Follow the best price by box, and How it works ▼, which opens these steps right under the switch and remembers if you close it. OFF is the default: it never touches a position unless you switch it ON. OFF means the Protector does nothing, and you handle the exit. The kill switch overrides it: with trading OFF, nothing can be sent, including this.
A real example. Short 50 contracts at 1.5350. With fees in, breakeven was 1.53368. Price fell to 1.5314, so the trade was in profit and the Protector armed at 1.53368. 0.6% behind 1.5314 would be 1.5406, which is on the wrong side of breakeven, so the Protector stayed at breakeven. Price turned and came back up through 1.53368. The Protector closed at market, filled at 1.5340. Result: +$25.00 on price, −$33.10 in fees, about −$8 net. The market then kept climbing, and the position was already out.
Every protection, side by side
The Algo (per-position guard)
You arm it on a position, or turn on auto-arm for new ones. It has your take-profit, your stop-loss and a trail: %, $, or algo. The algo trail exits when price has given back more than ~0.12% from its best (scaled by sensitivity) and is still speeding up against you over the last 6 seconds. That way noise doesn't shake you out, but a real turn does. Wingman's server checks every 3 seconds. It fires once, then turns itself off.
🛡️ Profit Protector
No arming and no settings. It only acts after a trade has been past breakeven, and its job is to keep it from becoming a loss. It trails by your chosen % (default 0.6%). While the Algo is armed on a position, the Protector steps aside and only keeps count, so the backup never cuts in front of the plan you set. It takes over again the moment the Algo is disarmed or has fired. Has its own ON/OFF.
Stop-loss on the exchange
The stop you place from a position row is a stop-limit order resting on Coinbase's own books. It still works if Wingman is offline, but it only knows one price and doesn't trail.
Liquidation guard
Checks your margin buffer every minute. If the account is in the danger zone, it closes just enough contracts to get out of it. It stops itself after 6 actions in a day so a person looks at the account.
Kill switch
OFF = nothing is sent to the exchange: no orders, no closes, no edits, not from you and not from any guard. Cancelling a resting order is still allowed. Everything above only works while it is ON.
All of these react to the last price Wingman read. A sudden gap between reads, or an exchange outage, can move past any stop, here or anywhere. Protection reduces some risks and removes none.
Hold, Close, Reverse
🔒 Hold / Held
Marks the product a legacy hold: no guard, floor or liquidation sale will ever touch it. For coins you keep on purpose. Click again to release.
Close
Closes that position at market now. It reviews first, then asks you to confirm.
⇄ Reverse
Closes the position and opens the opposite side at the same size. Same review-then-confirm.
stop @ · Review stop
A plain exchange stop order for this position (the exchange holds it, not Wingman). Type the price, review, confirm.
Open orders and history
📋 Open orders
Orders resting on the exchange right now, with a Cancel on each. copy all copies them as text.
🕐 Order history
What filled, when, at what price and fee, from the exchange's own records.
🛡️ Protection
Jumps to the guard for the position you are looking at.
the message line
Under the ticket, every action reports back in a sentence: what was placed or refused and why. Read it before clicking again.
Walk-throughs
Buy 100 contracts of the perp, protected
1
Pick 📈 Derivatives. Check the product line says XPP and the details line shows 500 XRP per contract.
2
Turn on Auto-arm in Default protection (once), choose a sensitivity, click Save.
3
size: 100. Leave price blank for market, or type a price and tick maker to rest it.
4
Click ▲ BUY. Read the review: product, size, price, fee.
5
Click Confirm before the countdown ends. The position appears with 🛡 PROTECTED; its take-profit, stop and trail are on the row.
Protect a position that shows ⚠ UNPROTECTED
1
Either click the red ⚠ UNPROTECTED — click to protect badge (uses your defaults),
2
or fill take profit and stop loss on the row, pick a trail, click Arm.
3
The badge turns green. Change a level later with Save; it never disarms while you edit.
Buy coins to keep (spot, no algo)
1
Pick 🪙 Spot. size is in coins. Price blank = market.
2
▲ BUY, read, Confirm. The coins land in your spot wallet; there is no liquidation and no funding.
3
If you never want the algo near them, click 🔒 Hold on the row.
Get out now
1
On the position row click Close, read the review, Confirm. Or ⇄ Reverse to flip sides at the same size.
2
Check the message line and 🕐 Order history for the fill.