Liquidation screener settings

The screener looks for the state before a cascade rather than the cascade itself: a pair where the crowd has piled onto one side, is paying funding for it, and price is stalling. The alert says exactly that — “long-squeeze risk” or “short-squeeze risk”.

In short

The screener looks for the state before a squeeze, not the cascade itself: the crowd has piled onto one side, is paying funding for it, and price is stalling.
There are two thresholds: side skew (how many times one side outweighs the other) and setup score (how many of the four signs line up).
Where to start: skew 2×, score from 65, filters at $5m open interest and $10m turnover.
There is no alert limit in the form: one pair sends at most one alert every 4 hours.

Three things need setting: how one-sided the skew must be (side skew), how many signs have to line up (setup score), and which coins count at all (liquidity filters). Direction is a fourth decision, but it is a choice between three options rather than a threshold.

A single liquidation means nothing — they happen constantly. What matters is how one-sided the positioning is and what the crowded side pays to hold that position: without that cost the crowd has no reason to close.

When to send an alert

How many of the signs have to line up

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Liquidation screener

Finds coins where the crowd has piled onto one side and is paying funding for it while price stalls. The alert carries the side, a setup score and the nearest stop cluster.

What to watch

The side whose squeeze you care about.

Filters

Narrow what counts as a hit

Liquidation screener thresholds: side skew and setup score

The two thresholds answer different questions. Side skew answers “how one-sided is the positioning”: it is the ratio of accounts holding longs to accounts holding shorts — a head count, not a money count. The setup score answers “how many signs line up”.

One detail matters: the direction comes from the funding sign, not from the skew alone. A long squeeze fires only when longs exceed your threshold and the rate is positive (longs paying shorts). A skew with no cost of holding the position does not count as a setup.

Squeeze direction: longs, shorts or both sides

Direction is a choice between three mutually exclusive options, which is why the form gives it its own block. A long squeeze means long positions closing — selling, and price moving down; a short squeeze is the opposite. Both sides are selected by default.

Picking one side does not make the alerts stricter — it drops half the market. Strictness comes from the two thresholds above. Keep one side only when you trade only that way.

Filters: which coins to look for a cascade on

A squeeze by definition needs something to close. On a contract with a couple of hundred thousand dollars of open interest even a ten-fold skew means a handful of positions — formally a setup, in substance nothing. Both fields are in millions of dollars: 5 means $5m.

The open interest threshold breaks nothing here: the screener already looks only at the futures venues in your list, and spot has no open interest at all. The numbers are taken from the venue that holds the most open interest on the pair — and the alert names it.

What the numbers in the two thresholds mean

Side skew is a split of participants

A 2× skew reads as “twice as many longs as shorts”. As a split of participants it looks like this:

Skew	Crowd	Other side
1.5×	60%	40%
2×	67%	33%
3×	75%	25%
5×	83%	17%

Below 1.5× the sides are roughly even and there is nobody to squeeze: 1.2× is 55% against 45%, an ordinary state of the market. The slider starts at 1.1×, but the working range starts at 2×.

The setup score is a sum of four signs

Each sign has its own cap in points, and together they add up to 100:

Sign	Cap	Full points when
Side skew	40	the skew is twice your own threshold
Funding rate	25	0.05% per 8 hours or higher
Hourly open-interest build	20	+3% or higher
Price stalling	15	the move is near 0% over that hour; at 1% or more it is 0 points

That table shows what each threshold actually cuts. A score of 60 is reachable with any three of the four signs. A score of 75 is unreachable without side skew at all: the other three signs add up to 60 points at most, so the skew has to clear your own bar with room to spare. A score of 90 needs all four at once — alerts like that arrive a few times a week, not a few times a day.

An illustrative example. Longs to shorts is 4.2 against your 3× threshold — the bar is cleared by 1.4×, which is 16 points out of 40. The funding rate is 0.06% per 8 hours — 25 out of 25. Open interest is up 1.5% over the hour — 10 out of 20. Price moved 0.4% over that same hour — 9 out of 15. Total 60: a threshold of 60 lets that alert through, a threshold of 75 does not.

Ready-made setups

These are the same sets applied with one click in the screener settings. The values below are exactly what gets filled in.

Skew to longs

Skew 2× · score from 65

Minimum side skew: 2 ×
Minimum setup score: 65 %
What to watch: Longs squeezed — price goes down
Min. Open Interest Value: 5 M $
Min. Exchange 24h Turnover: 10 M $

Logic: only pairs where longs outnumber shorts by at least 2× — roughly 67% of participants against 33%. A score from 65 means about three of the four signs line up. Liquidity floors cut the thin pairs: $5M open interest, $10M turnover. One side only — a skew towards longs; forced closing of longs means selling.

Skew to shorts

Skew 1.5× · score from 55

Minimum side skew: 1.5 ×
Minimum setup score: 55 %
What to watch: Shorts squeezed — price goes up
Min. Open Interest Value: 5 M $
Min. Exchange 24h Turnover: 10 M $

Logic: the mirror of the preset above, with a softer floor. Shorts outnumber longs by at least 1.5× — roughly 60% against 40% — with a score from 55. $5M open interest, $10M turnover. One side only — a skew towards shorts; forced closing of shorts means buying.

High score only

Skew 2× · score from 80

Minimum side skew: 2 ×
Minimum setup score: 80 %
What to watch: Both sides
Min. Open Interest Value: 10 M $
Min. Exchange 24h Turnover: 20 M $

Logic: a 2× skew is roughly 67% of participants against 33%, and a score from 80 needs effectively all four signs at once. The floors are raised too: $10M open interest, $20M turnover. Both sides, but expect a handful of hits a week rather than a day — each one a reason to look at the coin.

Softer skew threshold

Skew 1.8× · score from 60

Minimum side skew: 1.8 ×
Minimum setup score: 60 %
What to watch: Both sides
Min. Open Interest Value: 3 M $
Min. Exchange 24h Turnover: 5 M $

Logic: a skew from 1.8× — roughly 64% against 36% — with a score from 60, where two or three signs are enough. Marks the skew while it is still building. Softer floors: $3M open interest, $5M turnover. Noticeably more hits, and some of these skews unwind with no move at all.

Any set is a starting point, not a recommendation. Once applied the thresholds are yours: move them and the screener starts counting the new way immediately.

Common mistakes when setting up the liquidation screener

Skew left at the bottom of the slider. At 1.1× the sides are nearly even — 52% against 48%, the ordinary state of almost any pair. Start at 2×.
Minimum score with no liquidity filters. The combination that produces a stream of alerts from thin contracts, where a skew builds on a dozen positions.
Narrowing the direction instead of raising the thresholds. One side drops half the market without making the remaining setups any better.
Expecting a reversal from every alert. The alert says one side is crowded and paying for it, not that price is about to turn — a skew can unwind with no move at all.

What the screener computes and what it shows is covered in “Liquidation screener”. Why the funding sign matters so much here is explained in “What a funding rate is”, and the mechanics of forced closing in “What leverage is”.

Liquidation screener setup FAQ

Which thresholds should I start the liquidation screener with?

Skew 2× and a score from 65 — that is the ready-made “longs crowded” set. A 2× skew means roughly 67% of participants on one side against 33% on the other, and a score of 65 means about three of the four signs line up. The filters in that set are $5m open interest and $10m turnover.

Why is the liquidation screener silent for days?

There are four reasons. First, there is no fresh positioning data for the pair — it is collected for the most liquid futures pairs every 5 minutes, and a value older than 15 minutes is not used. Second, the funding sign does not match the skew: a long squeeze only fires on a positive rate, a short squeeze only on a negative one. Third, the setup score is below your threshold. Fourth, the pair did not pass the open interest and turnover filters.

I get too many alerts — what should I raise?

Raise the setup score: 75 instead of 60 cuts everything where three of the four signs do not line up with room to spare. The second lever is the liquidity filters: $10m open interest and $20m turnover remove thin contracts. Narrowing the direction is not the way — it drops half the market, not the weak setups.

What happens if I leave the liquidity filters empty?

Contracts with almost no open interest enter the set. There even a ten-fold skew is a handful of positions: the setup is formally there, but nothing can move the price. The fields are in millions of dollars: 5 means $5m.

Can I cap the number of alerts per coin?

There is no such field, and that is deliberate: frequency is held by a fixed pause — one pair sends at most one alert every 4 hours. That is the window given to a skew to either unwind or play out.

Is the setup score a probability of a squeeze?

No. It is a weighted sum of four observable signs: side skew, funding cost for the crowded side, hourly open-interest build, and whether price is stalling. There is no backtest and no calibration behind the number, which is why the alert calls it a setup score rather than a probability.

Does the liquidation screener work on the spot market?

No, futures only: spot has neither open interest nor a funding rate, and without them there is nothing to compute. Spot venues are skipped even when they are enabled in your exchange list.

Everything described above is set up in the screener: pick a ready-made setup or your own thresholds, and alerts arrive by push or Telegram.

Open the liquidation screener