Reading the market with the terminal 1 / 12
Reading the market with the terminal · With the terminalLesson 1 of 12

The level labels on the terminal's chart, and what they mean

The Levels layer puts six small labels in the chart's right margin. Each one packs four facts into a few characters. Read them right and they tell you where a trade would be wrong and how far it could run.

You will learn
  • What the code, the "+n" and the dots of a level label mean
  • The difference between a swept and a broken level
  • How the levels set the stop and the targets in the Analysis panel

Before you start: The lesson on support and resistance helps.

Six labels, four facts each

The terminal collects every reference price it knows — yesterday's and last week's highs and lows, the day and week opens, liquidity pools, order blocks, gaps, the value area, the anchored VWAP — and joins the ones that sit close together into one level. It then labels the three nearest levels above the price and the three nearest below. A label like PDL +3 ●●● says: the strongest reference here is the previous day's low, three other kinds meet at the same price, and together they weigh enough for three dots.

The level labels — a modelled week on the terminal's chart, Tuesday 10:00, read step by step: the six labels and their colours; one label made of four reference points (the "+3"); the dots as a sum of weights; a swept level and a broken one, both drawn grey; the same levels in the Analysis panel's Key levels block; and the stop and first target the panel builds from them — a target closer than the stop.

What the labels are for

A level is a price where many traders have a reason to act: to take profit, to place a stop, to enter. That makes it a place where price often reacts — and a place where orders rest that a large trader can fill against. The dots measure how many reasons meet; they do not measure whether the level will hold. The terminal mutes a level once price has traded through it: swept if price came back, broken (with a dashed line) if price is still beyond it.

The most practical use is the one in the last step. A stop belongs beyond a level, where being wrong is clear; a target is the next level in the trade's direction. If the next level is nearer than the stop, the trade does not pay for its risk, whatever the chart looks like.

Takeaways
  1. The code names the strongest reference; "+n" counts the other kinds at the same price.
  2. The dots add up weights: 5 or more is ●●●, 3 or more ●●○.
  3. Red is above the price, green below; grey means swept (back inside) or broken (dashed, still beyond).
  4. Stops go beyond levels and targets are the next levels: the labels decide whether a trade pays for its risk.

Open BTC in the terminal with the Levels layer on and read the six labels

Further reading

Education only, not financial advice · Updated 28 Oct 2026 · Data: Binance · Report a mistake