Steep Book Slope — Signal Playbook

What it detects

Resting depth decays steeply across the book: the first three levels hold several times the per-level size of the deepest levels sampled. Liquidity exists at the touch, but there is no cushion behind it — cumulative depth flattens out fast.

How Steep Book Slope paints across a heatmap row — the colour language it speaks on the live map.

How VYX surfaces it

VYX evaluates Steep Book Slope live on every candle across 300+ Hyperliquid markets and paints it onto the heatmap, so an unusual impact reading stands out at a glance instead of hiding in a watchlist. That is the job it does in the workflow: it is a scan filter and a piece of context, not an automatic entry. Scan the map for where Steep Book Slope is firing, focus that market to read the signal against price and the confirmation cues below, and let the next candle or two resolve before acting on it.

How to play it

Use it as scanner context, not an automatic entry:

• Read it as fragility beyond the touch: fine for small size, hostile to large size.
• An order that eats through the front levels finds almost nothing to slow it — moves overshoot.
• Prefer pairs with flatter decay when execution size matters.
• Combine with impact reads (lambda, Amihud) — a steep slope is the structural side of the same fact.

Confirmation

What strengthens the read:

• Marketable flow beyond level one moves price disproportionately.
• The slope persists across candles.
• Volatility expands when the front levels trade out.

Invalidation

What kills it:

• Deeper levels fill in and the decay flattens.
• Large prints clear without outsized movement — hidden depth is absorbing.

Risk & honest evidence

Respect the limits:

• Only displayed depth is visible — icebergs and quote refreshes can cushion in practice.
• Steepness is structural for some small caps; compare a pair against itself over time.
• Evidence: grounded in market-microstructure research. VYX's own live backtest is still accruing — treat this as scanner context, not a proven edge.