3. Symbols & Ticker Formats

A symbol identifies the instrument a chart shows. This page explains how to type symbols, how they resolve to a provider, and how the URL is normalized.

Typing a symbol

Symbols are case-insensitive and are normalized to uppercase. You can enter them in the toolbar's symbol input, in the URL (/chart/<symbol>), or pick them from a watchlist.

AAPL            # a US equity (resolves to Massive, then Alpaca)
BTCUSDT         # a Binance crypto spot pair
BTC-USDT        # an OKX crypto spot pair (dash-separated instId)
BTC-USDT-SWAP   # an OKX perpetual swap

OKX vs Binance symbol format: OKX uses dash-separated instrument IDs (BTC-USDT, BTC-USDT-SWAP), while Binance concatenates them (BTCUSDT). The symbol search dialog normalizes both: typing either BTCUSDT or BTC-USDT will surface results from both providers so you can choose which one to chart.

How resolution works

When you type a bare symbol, the app asks each provider whether it covers that symbol and picks the first match in priority order:

1. Binance — crypto spot pairs and USDⓈ-M perpetual futures.
2. OKX — crypto spot pairs and linear perpetual swaps.
3. Massive — US equities (preferred equity provider).
4. Alpaca — US equities (used when Massive isn't configured or doesn't cover the symbol).

So a crypto pair goes to Binance first (then OKX), and an equity goes to Massive first, then Alpaca. If nothing matches, the symbol falls back to your Default provider.

Pinning a provider

Two ways force a specific provider when you don't want auto-resolution:

• A query parameter: ?provider=massive, ?provider=alpaca, ?provider=binance, or ?provider=okx.

  /chart/AAPL?provider=alpaca
  /chart/BTCUSDT?provider=binance
  /chart/BTC-USDT?provider=okx
  /chart/BTC-USDT-SWAP?provider=okx

• A prefix on the symbol using the two-letter provider code, separated by a colon:

  Prefix	Provider	Example
  MA:	Massive	MA:AAPL
  AL:	Alpaca	AL:AAPL
  BI:	Binance	BI:BTCUSDT
  OK:	OKX	OK:BTC-USDT

  For OKX perpetual swaps, add the asset-class token FU between the prefix and the ticker:

  OK:FU:BTC-USDT-SWAP   # OKX perpetual swap, forced to futures asset class
  BI:FU:BTCUSDT         # Binance USDⓈ-M perpetual futures

Use AL:AAPL to force Alpaca even when Massive is also configured, or OK:BTC-USDT to open an OKX spot pair when the auto-resolved result would be Binance.

URL normalization

After a symbol resolves, the workspace rewrites the URL to a canonical form: the ticker is uppercased, and the provider parameter is added only when it is needed (an explicit or non-default provider). A panel parameter is preserved so you can deep-link straight into the Indicators, Backtesting, or AI panels. If a lookup fails upstream, the workspace still loads the chart from your input and surfaces a load error rather than failing the page.

Next steps

See how live data flows in.

Next: Realtime vs Delayed Data