Spot market

A spot market is where an asset itself changes hands for immediate settlement, as opposed to a derivative that references it. On a centralised crypto exchange the spot pair has a complete venue record; in foreign exchange, spot trading is decentralised across many venues and has no single tape.

Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026

Spot versus derivatives

In a spot trade the buyer receives the asset and the seller receives the quote currency at once, or within the venue's settlement window. A future, a perpetual or an option references the asset's price without delivering it at the time of the trade. The distinction matters for order flow because the two markets can hold different participants and different aggression at the same instant, even when their prices track closely.

Where spot trades decides whether it has a tape. Crypto spot on Binance is matched on one central book, so the exchange's trade stream is a complete record for that pair on that venue. Spot foreign exchange trades over the counter across banks, ECNs and brokers, so no single record exists and a retail FX feed describes only its provider.

  • Crypto spot: centralised per exchange, public trades and depth, quantities in base asset.
  • Spot FX: decentralised, provider-specific fills and quotes, no consolidated volume.
  • Equities spot: exchange-listed, with regulated consolidated reporting in some jurisdictions.

The other meaning of spot in options work

  • In gamma exposure pages, spot means the underlying's current price used to place strikes, not a market type.
  • Levels are quoted as a distance from spot, and the snapshot records Spot at a given time.
  • When the underlying is an index, spot is a computed index level rather than a traded price.
  • Keep the two meanings apart when reading a crypto perp chart next to a GEX panel.

In Senzoukria

Binance Spot is a Chart data source described on its connection card as a public feed with no account, no credentials and no data subscription. The crypto page presents spot and perpetuals side by side, each with its own price step, and bid × ask cells are rebuilt from real trades on both. The Crypto history and profiles setting imports Binance Spot candles and real volume at price progressively, kept on disk, from one week to six months.

The software offers no spot FX source and does not build a market-wide currency record. On the GEX pages, Spot appears as the reference price in the regime panel, the strike table and the 3D surface, where a vertical plane marks spot at the time of the snapshot; that use is a price, not a market.

Common mistakes

  • Calling a retail forex feed a spot tape; it is one provider's view.
  • Averaging spot and perp delta into one number for the coin.
  • Reading the GEX spot label as a suggestion that spot BTC and BTC perps are the same instrument.
  • Assuming spot volume on one exchange represents the asset's global activity.

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Frequently asked questions

Is crypto spot order flow readable the same way as futures order flow?
On a single centralised exchange, yes in structure: executions carry price, size and an aggressor flag, so footprints and delta are measurements. The differences are units, continuous trading without a session close, and the fact that each exchange is its own market rather than one consolidated tape.
Why does the site say there is no forex order flow data?
Because spot FX has no consolidated record: each bank, ECN or broker keeps its own book and fills, and nothing aggregates them. A forex footprint therefore describes one venue. Exchange-listed currency futures do have a central book and published volume, and that is the side a futures feed reads.

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