Notes from a Novice Trader: What The 3 HIVE DEXs Have in Common

The 3 major DEXs for Hive Layer 2 tokens are Hive Engine, LeoDex, and TribalDex. Each has something the others don't. Each is also missing something the others have. Keeping track of these discrepancies can be bweildering for someone new to trading, especially if certain features have to be used but they're scattered across the 3 HIVE DEXs. Before comparing the 3 HIVE DEXs to see which is missing which feature, it's good to get out of the way what they have in common.

^{Cover Image made using HTML and CSS except for DEX graphics. DEX graphics are from their respective DEXs. Light edits made using MS Paint.

Graphic table made using Excel 2003 and lightly edited with MS Paint.}

The DEX Commonalities Cheat Sheet

Above is a graphic table showing what the 3 HIVE DEXs (Hive Engine, LeoDex, and Tribaldex) all have in common. Below is text version of the same table:

Category	Hive Engine	LeoDex	Tribaldex
Bid/Ask	**YES!	YES!	YES!
Last Price	YES!	YES!	YES!
(24-Hour) Volume	YES!	YES!	YES!
Market via Wallet	YES!	YES!	YES!
Wallet via Market	YES!	YES!	YES!
Candlestick Chart	YES!	YES!	YES!
Depth Chart	YES!	YES!	YES!
Price in HIVE	YES!	YES!	YES!
Limit Orders	YES!	YES!	YES!
Market Orders	YES!	YES!	YES!
Recent Buy Orders	YES!	YES!	YES!
Recent Sell Orders	YES!	YES!	YES!
(My) Open Orders	YES!	YES!	YES!
Trade History	YES!	YES!	YES!
Tokens Page	YES!	YES!	YES!**

Common Features of the 3 HIVE DEXs

Market Data

Bid/Ask quotes are given on each Layer 2 token page near the top. In the same area are also Last Price and either Volume or 24-Hour Volume.

Charts

All 3 HIVE DEXs show Candlestick charts and Depth charts. By default each DEX will show Candlestick charts, but controls are present to switch to Depth charts.

Placing Orders

After viewing the Market Data, the most common operations are the buying or selling of Layer 2 tokens. I call these Market Orders, to differentiate these from Limit Orders.

When it comes to Limit Orders, I don't know how these work or why I should make them. Even if I wanted to make Limit Orders, I don't have the assets to justify making them. All I know is that Hive Engine, LeoDex, and Tribaldex let people make them.

Recent Orders

Besides letting you make your own buy or sell orders, the 3 HIVE DEXs show the recent buy or sell orders made for the token shown on screen. LeoDex and Tribaldex call this section "Open Orders," and Hive Engine calls it "My Open Orders."

This section can provide useful information for buying or selling tokens, although I don't know how to interpret this information. No matter; Recent Buy Orders and Recent Sell Orders are present for anyone who knows how to use this information.

The 3 HIVE DEXs let you view the orders you have open. Given what I said earlier for my own situation, my Open Orders page would be empty.

Trade History

Trade History appears on all 3 HIVE DEXs for the most recent BUY and SELL trades which took place. The are 4 items shown in the Trade History section. Using LEO as an example, these are the items:

Price -- the HIVE price of LEO;
LEO (Qty) -- The quantity of LEO bought or sold;
HIVE -- If I read the trade history correctly, this is simply Price X LEO (Qty); and
Total HIVE -- It looks as if this is HIVE adjusted for fees, slippage, or other factors; that, or it's a figure whose calculation I don't know (I'm not sure).

Price in HIVE

The Bid/Ask Prices are listed in both HIVE and either USD or other local currency.

The BID price is the price in HIVE of the Layer 2 token being sold.

The ASK price is the price in HIVE of the Layer 2 token being bought.

The BID price is always less than the ASK price, although the spread (in percentage terms) between BID and ASK prices will vary. How the spread is calculated is a mystery too me.

Wallet Access

All 3 HIVE DEXs have access to the wallet; the DEXs would be virtually useless if they didn't.

There is also 2-way access to both the exchange and the wallet. From the Wallet page, it's possible to go to the Market (the DEX). From the Market page, it's possible to go to the Wallet.

From the Wallet page, the navigation area has links to both Wallet and Market. Additionally, each Layer 2 token listed has its own icon/button/widget which takes you directly to the Market for that Layer 2 token.

From the Market page, the navigation area is the only place to access the wallet.

Whichever HIVE DEX is being used, all offer a checkbox labeled "Hide zero balance" (or words to that effect). If you have several pages of token listings in the wallet but only what amounts to one page has actual earnings, checking this checkbox clears the clutter from the wallet presentation.

Although this is a discrepancy, I'll note it here anyway:

Instead of the word "Wallet" appearing on screen, Tribaldex shows an icon representing the wallet.

Being used to using the Hive Engine wallet and then the LeoDex wallet, it took me a while to locate the wallet functionality at Tribaldex. At Tribaldex, I used dumb luck to locate the thing.

Tokens Page

All 3 HIVE DEXs let you view all the Layer 2 tokens listed at any given moment. Some get added, but more likely is some get de-listed or removed. How often this happens is a mystery to me, but I know enough to say that it happens more often than we realize.

Both LeoDex and Tribaldex show some number of tokens at any time, and they break up long listings of tokens (or even token search results) into multiple pages. Searching for tokens at LeoDex and Tribaldex is a quick experience with minimal lag.

However, at Hive Engine, all the tokens listed are displayed on one page. With roughly 450 Layer 2 tokens listed, it can take a while for the page to load. Search results also appear on one page.

NOTE:
If searching for more than one Layer 2 token at Hive Engine, don't delete the previous symbol completely, but instead type the new symbol at the end of the old symbol before deleting the old symbol. If the old symbol is deleted before the new symbol is entered, Hive Engine will revert to showing the roughly 450 token listings and once again take a while to load the page for a new search. If time isn't a concern (and sometimes it's not), search for tokens using Hive Engine. If there are many searches to make and time is at a premium, search for tokens using LeoDex or Tribaldex instead.

NOTE:

If searching for more than one Layer 2 token at Hive Engine, don't delete the previous symbol completely, but instead type the new symbol at the end of the old symbol before deleting the old symbol. If the old symbol is deleted before the new symbol is entered, Hive Engine will revert to showing the roughly 450 token listings and once again take a while to load the page for a new search. If time isn't a concern (and sometimes it's not), search for tokens using Hive Engine. If there are many searches to make and time is at a premium, search for tokens using LeoDex or Tribaldex instead.

Just My Two Sats

Hive Engine, LeoDex, and Tribaldex have some features unique to each or which one is lacking. For new traders (or even infrequent traders), this can get confusing.

As a novice trader, I'm test driving the 3 HIVE DEXs to see how they handle things I care about at the moment and well as to consider other activities I may do in the future.

While noting the differences in the 3 HIVE DEXs is important, I wanted to review what all had in common. Even for what they all have in common, there are differences in presentation and (in the case of the Tokens page) performance.

Just preparing this post for publication helped me learn more about using the DEXs. The post prep also helped me realize a few mistakes I made in recent weeks for which either time is needed to remedy them or a send to "@"null is needed to burn some tokens. These pitfalls I made need to be posted so that others avoid them, but there are some skills or techniques I need to learn first before I publish that post.

● If you liked this post, please give it an upvote.

● Please reblog or re-Hive this post if you found it useful.

● If there are corrections or clarifications I need to make concerning post content, let me know in a comment so I can update the post and give you credit for the correction.

● As I am neither a cetrified professional accountant nor a licensed broker, posts concerning cryptocurrency, commodities, securities, and money are presented for informational purposes only; DYOR.

 
 
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