The ladder

One row per price: traded volume, both sides of the book, your own resting stakes, and what closing there would lock in.

Every outcome is its own ladder and every row is one price.

One row per price, with both sides of the book on the same rungs.

Reading left to right:

Column	What it holds
Spark	a mark per trade, so recent activity has a shape
Traded	how much volume has gone through at each odd
LAY	resting asks. Click to lay this outcome
Odds	the price. Your own resting stakes appear here in amber
BACK	resting bids. Click to back this outcome
P&L	what closing at that odd would lock in, after fees

Placing

Click a BACK or LAY cell to place at that price. Click into the current market price for a taker order that fills now. Click away from it for a maker order that rests until the market reaches your price.

Click the same cell again to stack more at that price. The amber total in the odds column grows with it.

A resting order never jumps the spread. It sits at the price you chose and fills only when the market gets there.

Working orders and fills

An order can be filled all at once or in smaller parts. Unmatched shows the amount still waiting. Matched shows the amount already traded. P&L and the position update as fills arrive.

Your working stake appears in amber on the price row. With a mouse, drag that amber stake to another row to cancel it at the old price and place the same remaining amount at the new price.

Cancelling

Four ways, and they differ in reach.

Gesture	Cancels
Click the amber stake in the odds column	everything at that rung, both sides
Right click a BACK or LAY cell	that side of that rung
✕ in the Unmatched panel	that one order
X	every order on the ladder under the cursor
Shift X	every unmatched order in every market

Shift X also cancels orders in markets that are not open on screen.

Closing out

Two ways out, and they are the same trade at different sizes.

⇄ hedge flattens the whole position through the book in one click. It takes whatever the market is offering right now.

Click a P&L cell to close at one particular price instead. The column already shows what closing at each rung would lock in, after fees, so you are picking a number you can read rather than doing the arithmetic first. The cells only respond while you hold a position the book can actually close.

The P&L remains visible after trading activity, including while fills, positions and working orders are being reconciled. Tickside keeps the last validated value rather than briefly showing zero or hiding the column.

Closing a ladder window does not close a position or cancel an order. If the ladder has a position or working order, Tickside asks for confirmation before closing the window.

What your stake means

The S / L / E button (or M) decides what your preset stands for. This is the control most worth understanding, because the same number can mean three very different amounts of risk.

If you are new, start with S for Stake in paper mode.

S for Stake

The figure is the stake. A back risks it. A lay risks it × (odds − 1).

So $100 at 1.10 risks $10, and the same $100 at 10.0 risks $900.

L for Liability

The figure stays fixed whatever the odd, and both sides size as stake ÷ (odds − 1).

A lay risks exactly it: $100 at 10.0 risks $100 to win $11. A back turns it into the profit you are playing for: $100 at 5.0 stakes $25 to win $100.

This is Bet Angel’s grammar, for anyone arriving from there.

E for Exposure

The figure is the cash that leaves your wallet, the same on either side at any odd.

A lay sizes as it does under L, so $100 at 10.0 puts $100 up. A back simply spends it: $100 at 5.0 stakes the whole $100, to win $400.

That back is the only thing separating E from L.

Below the ladder

Matched / Unmatched lists your fills and your working orders. The header carries exposure and live P&L.

A taker order that never actually entered shows as VOID. It never counts toward P&L. The desk shows it so a bet you thought you had does not simply vanish.

The header chips

Three panes open from the chips beside the market name. Markets shows every market in the event. Line opens the price chart over 15M, 45M, 90M or all available history. Flow shows trades as they happen.