Price screener scenarios: which threshold to set and how to read the alert
The price screener answers one question: where in the market has price moved a given percentage in a given time. You don't name a coin — every pair is swept once a minute, and the alert arrives in the minute the condition is met. Below: what a scenario is made of, which thresholds suit it, and where it breaks.
In short
- The screener answers one question: where has price moved N% in M minutes. You don't pick a coin — the sweep covers the whole market.
- A scenario is a combination of percentage, interval, and floors on turnover and open interest. One scenario — one set of settings.
- A threshold is a decision about frequency, not a “correct number”: the lower it is, the more alerts arrive and the more noise they carry.
- An alert reports the fact of a move, not a conclusion. What to do about it, and at what size, is your call.
What a scenario is made of
The form has six trigger conditions. They are independent and run at the same time: switch on as many as you like, and a coin still produces one alert — with every condition that fired listed inside it.
| Condition | What you set | When the alert arrives |
|---|---|---|
| Pump — early | percentage and interval | price rose by your percentage over your interval |
| Pump — peak | a second percentage and interval | the same rule on an independent pair of values: usually a longer window and a higher threshold |
| Dump | percentage and interval | price fell by your percentage over your interval (enter the percentage as a positive number) |
| Unusual move for this coin | how many times stronger than usual | a filter on top of “Pump — early”: the move has to pass both the percentage and the multiple |
| 24h high breakout | a switch only | price printed a fresh 24-hour high on the venue |
| 24h low breakout | a switch only | price printed a fresh 24-hour low on the venue |
The interval is picked from a list rather than typed: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180, and 240 minutes. The percentage you type yourself. There is no “level” field here: if you need a specific price on a specific coin, that is the target price screener, and for horizontal levels on the chart it is the price levels screener.
Scenario 1: don't miss a fast impulse
The goal is to hear about a sharp move in its first minutes, not after half of it is already gone.
What to set, and why
An illustrative example: 4% over a 5-minute interval. The short window is the point: on a one-hour interval the same kick is spread across sixty minutes and may not clear the threshold at all — and if it does, an hour after the move began.A turnover floor is mandatory
On a pair with a couple of hundred thousand dollars of daily turnover, 4% is one order. The filters section has a 24-hour turnover floor in millions of dollars — without it a short window turns the screener into a noise generator. Why a thin pair moves on any single order is covered in the article on liquidity.What the alert contains
For every venue where the condition was met: the funding rate if there is one, the price change over your window, and the open-interest change — in percent and in dollars. Below that, the 24-hour price range. The price-and-OI pair answers what is driving the move; how to read it is covered in the article on open interest.Where the scenario breaks
When the whole market moves one way, a single threshold produces dozens of alerts in the same minute — the cure is a per-coin cap and a pause between alerts, not a lower threshold. And the main point: the screener sees the move, not its cause — news, a stop hunt, and a liquidity sweep look identical in the alert.
Scenario 2: a breakout of the 24-hour range
This scenario has no percentage and no interval — just a switch. The level comes from the exchange itself: its 24-hour high and low for the pair. The alert goes out in the minute price first crosses the boundary while a minute earlier it was still inside the range.
- The turnover floor matters more here than elsewhere. On a thin pair, a step outside the daily range is often one order rather than the market.
- One episode will not repeat. After an alert the screener stays quiet on that coin and that side until price retreats about a percent from the level, or until half an hour passes with no new extreme. This is built in, not a setting.
- A low breakout is not “a crash”. It is exactly what it says: price printed a fresh 24-hour low. Whether that continues or snaps back is not visible in the alert.
The 24-hour boundary moves with price, so in a trend the scenario turns into continuation marks: every fresh high after a retreat from the previous one is a new alert.
How the screener helps
One person can keep five or ten charts in view, and the move starts on the pair you are not watching. The screener checks price on every pair across 10 spot and 9 futures venues every minute, and sends an alert when the change over your interval passes your threshold. The alert carries the venue, the percentage move, the open-interest change, and the 24-hour price range.
Scenario 3: the drop, and the unusual move
The drop is its own row with its own threshold
The dump is not derived from the growth settings: it has its own percentage and interval, entered as a positive number — the screener handles the direction. An illustrative example: 7% over 30 minutes. Symmetry is not required: drops tend to be shorter and sharper, so this threshold is often set higher than the growth one on the same window.“Unusual move for this coin”
For a large coin 3% in an hour is an event; for a thin altcoin it is an ordinary day, and no single correct percentage exists. This switch changes the question: not “it moved N%” but “it moved N times more than this coin usually does”. The norm is measured on that coin and venue over the same interval.Two limits worth knowing
The multiple works together with the percentage threshold, not instead of it: a move has to pass both. Otherwise a coin in a dead range would fire on hundredths of a percent — “five times more than usual” is almost always true there. And while observations on the pair are few, the mode filters nothing.How to pick a threshold you can actually keep up with
The threshold is set by you, not by the market: it is a decision about how many alerts a day you are willing to work through. Illustrative anchors for three jobs:
| Job | Threshold | Interval | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| A fast kick | 4% | 5 min | the sharpest moves; a long window averages the kick away |
| A strong hour | 10% | 60 min | rare even on alts: few alerts, each worth opening |
| A sharp drop | 7% | 30 min | drops are shorter than rallies, so a higher threshold keeps ordinary pullbacks out |
Start high and come down
Moving from “almost no alerts” toward “about right” is easier than the reverse: a stream you cannot keep up with soon goes unread. If you would rather not tune by hand, there is the “Adjust to the market” switch: the screener moves the value inside the range you set, recomputed once a day. Your own numbers stay as you typed them.One move, one alert
The condition is checked on the transition: it has to hold now and not have held a minute ago. That is why a one-hour window does not produce sixty messages in a row. Two more settings sit on top: a cap on alerts per coin per period, and a pause between alerts on the same coin. The cap limits the total, the pause the rate.
decision, not the market's
One scenario, one set of settings: folding a breakout, an impulse, and a sharp drop into one form yields a middle ground that suits nothing. Ready-made sets for each job live in the cabinet and are broken down field by field in the price screener settings, where you can also see the values each one carries. Starting from a ready set and changing one number is easier than assembling the form from scratch.
Price screener FAQ
What threshold should I set in the price screener?
There is no universal one: the threshold is a decision about alert frequency. Start higher than feels right (say 4-5% on a short window) and come down if almost nothing arrives. The same move is rarer on large coins than on thin altcoins, so either set a turnover floor or switch on the unusual-move mode.
Why do I get alerts on a coin I never picked?
The price screener sweeps the whole market; naming a coin is not part of it, and that is the point. You can narrow the set with the favourites-only filter and the blocked-coins list. For a specific price on a specific coin, use the target price screener.
Will one move produce several alerts?
Not while the move is continuous: the condition has to hold now and not have held a minute ago. If a move breaks off and resumes, the flow is limited by the per-coin cap and the pause between alerts.
What does a 24h high breakout mean?
Price printed a fresh 24-hour high on that venue, and the level comes from the exchange. After an alert the screener stays quiet on that coin and side until price retreats about a percent, or until half an hour passes with no new high — otherwise every minute of a new high would be a separate alert.
How is “pump — early” different from “pump — peak”?
They are two independent scenarios with their own percentage and interval. The first is usually a short window with a moderate threshold, so the start of a move is not missed; the second a long window with a high threshold, for a strong extension.
Does the price screener work on spot?
Yes. The filters include a market choice: the whole market, spot only, or futures only. Both count by default, so an alert can carry venues of either kind. The open-interest line appears only for futures venues — on spot there is none.
How the screener computes the change and what goes into an alert is covered in “Price screener”. Every form field is explained in the price screener settings, and price as a market metric in “What crypto price is”. Turnover scenarios are in the 24h turnover screener use cases. What to check before deciding is in the article on false hits, and position size and stops in risk management.
Other Knowledge Base Articles
Basic theory
About Our Screeners
Screener's settings
