Notional value
Notional value is the full market value that a position controls: for a futures contract it is the price multiplied by the contract multiplier, and for a crypto trade it is the base quantity multiplied by the price, expressed in the quote currency. It is the figure that makes volumes comparable across instruments whose units differ.
Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026
Computing it
A futures contract represents a fixed multiple of its index or commodity. Its notional value is that multiplier times the current price; the exact multiplier is published in the contract specification, and it is the reason one E-mini and one Micro of the same index are not interchangeable even though their prices move together.
On a crypto exchange the base asset is traded against a quote currency, so a single trade's notional is its quantity in the base asset times the fill price. Perpetual contracts complicate this: some venues quote contracts as a fixed amount of quote currency, others as a fixed amount of base asset, and the two are not the same quantity.
- Futures: notional = price × contract multiplier.
- Crypto spot: notional = base quantity × price, in the quote currency.
- Crypto perpetuals: depends on whether the contract is linear or inverse; read the venue's definition.
Why the unit matters for order flow
- A footprint cell that shows contracts on ES and contracts on MNQ is showing two very different amounts of money at the same count.
- Crypto volume quoted in coins is dominated by price level: the same coin count is a different notional at a different price.
- Comparing a Bitcoin spot footprint with a perpetual footprint requires converting both to the same unit first.
- Big-trade filters expressed in notional are stable across price changes; filters in contracts or coins drift as price moves.
In Senzoukria
The symbol picker in the desktop application distinguishes the two families: futures use the front contract, crypto uses a pair such as BTCUSDT, where the quote currency is part of the symbol. Binance Spot and Binance Perp are listed as separate sources in the connection manager, because their trades, books and contract definitions differ, and crypto stays a reading source with trading switched off.
For research, the backtest panel takes a 'Point value ($)' per instrument so that results in points can be turned into money. The crypto order flow guide on this site spells out the rule the application follows: base-asset quantity, quote-currency notional and contract counts are not interchangeable, and a merged chart must explain how it converts them.
Common mistakes
- Adding volumes from two exchanges quoted in different units.
- Reading a coin-denominated volume series across a large price move as if it measured money.
- Confusing notional with margin: margin is the collateral posted, notional is the exposure carried.
- Assuming a perpetual contract equals one coin on every venue.
Related
- Crypto order flow and footprint charts
- Forex order flow data
- Contract specifications
- Margin (day and overnight)
- Crypto order flow in Senzoukria
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Frequently asked questions
- What is the notional value of one micro contract compared with one E-mini?
- The ratio is fixed by the two contracts' multipliers, which are published in each product's specification on the exchange site. The micro carries a fraction of the E-mini's multiplier, so at the same price its notional is that same fraction. Read the current specification rather than relying on a remembered figure, since products can be redefined.
- Why do crypto volume numbers differ so much between sites?
- Usually because they are in different units: base coins on one site, quote currency on another, and contracts on a third, sometimes summed across venues with different definitions. Converting all of them to quote-currency notional at the trade price makes them comparable, and even then the venue set must match.