i’m a full stack engineer from portugal. i joined OpenBB four years ago as the first engineer, back when it was still a small open source project. most of that time went into what eventually became OpenBB Workspace, an ai-powered financial analytics platform now used by hedge funds, asset managers and banks. it’s been a journey, the kind where you get to push ideas, shape decisions, and watch something grow into a real product used by serious people.
OpenBB is my full time focus and has been for four years. cryexc is what i build on weekends and free time, and it started for a simple reason: i wanted to start trading, and i didn’t want to start without understanding what’s actually happening under the surface. how price moves, why it moves, who’s moving it. the end goal is systematic strategies (i’m not there yet), but i wanted to understand the mechanics first. manual trading, reading the tape, orderflow. you can’t automate what you don’t understand. or at least i don’t think you should.
how it started
about six months ago i started getting into crypto markets in my free time. not just charts and candles, but the microstructure side, comparing order books across exchanges and looking at price differences between venues. i open sourced several of the early tools along the way:
part of what pulled me in was that most of the data is free, compared to tradfi where everything is expensive and gatekept.
the more i looked at the data, the more i wanted to see, and the tools i was using kept getting in the way. i learn best by building, so i decided to own the stack.
december 3, 2025
early december i tweeted: “yesterday night i learned about egui. first time playing with immediate UIs. let’s see where this takes me.”
a rust gui library, a simple table with binance 24hr tickers. nothing special.
then someone challenged me to try dear imgui with c++ and emscripten instead. shoutout to @vehcktor for that push. the ecosystem was bigger and it just clicked. dear imgui is now one of my favorite pieces of tech, shoutout to @ocornut and all the maintainers.
two days later i had footprint charts, a heatmap, a profile view, and a DOM rendering in the browser. that post got a lot of attention, which i wasn’t expecting. it was still incredibly raw compared to what cryexc is now. i think people just responded to the idea that you could see native-quality orderflow running inside a browser tab.
building in public
i’ve been sharing everything i do coding-wise on X since i started this account. OpenBB content, things i’m learning, small experiments. every few days a new view, a live market observation, whatever i had just figured out. building in public kept me shipping, and it connected me with people who know far more about markets than i do.
going public
until january 2026 cryexc was just something i used myself, but the decision to make it free for everyone eventually came naturally. cryexc runs entirely on the user’s device, talking directly to exchange websockets, so there’s no significant per-user backend cost to worry about. no signup, no account, nothing for me to maintain on a per-user basis. if people find it useful, great. the feedback coming from real users ends up teaching me more about markets than i’d learn on my own.
the tech
cryexc is a c++ application built with dear imgui, compiled to webassembly with emscripten. it connects directly to the exchange websockets from your browser. all processing happens client-side, no accounts, no backend.
the landing page is sveltekit + tailwind. the app itself is imgui embedded into sveltekit via wasm.
it has the views you’d expect on a typical orderflow terminal (footprint charts with level highlighting, orderbook heatmaps, liquidation heatmaps, live heatmaps, DOM/ladder, tape feed, market profile/TPO, volume profile, CVD across exchanges, historical charts with ratio plotting, cohort analysis, screener, drawing tools) plus some more exotic stuff like polymarket data, an economic calendar, news feed, and market correlation views. cryexc is now the only tool i use for crypto trading, on both mobile and desktop.
exchanges: binance (spot + futures), bybit (spot + futures), hyperliquid, kraken, coinbase, lighter and a scalable system to integrate any other exchanges. aggregation across venues for footprints, DOM, and orderbook if you want it.
most recently i’ve been working on a public telegram alerts channel (t.me/cryexc_alerts). large trades, liquidations, volume spikes, delta spikes pushed in real time. i can’t always be staring at charts, so the alerts make sure i don’t miss anything interesting. a private bot for customizable alerts is next.
what i actually learned
building the tools taught me more about markets than any course or book could have, both directly from implementing them and indirectly from the people — those who send feedback on what to improve or what they’d like to see next. i thought TPO didn’t make much sense. then i implemented it, looked at it for weeks, and it completely changed how i see markets. footprints show aggression, the orderbook shows intent, market profile gives you context. i had to build all three to understand why they matter together.
watching high volatility moves live on cryexc, seeing absorption happen in real time, is one of the most enjoyable parts. the tool handles that kind of volatility without breaking, and that’s when i actually feel like i’m reading the market instead of fighting my tools.
the people
the best part of this whole journey has been the people. a few i want to thank specifically:
- @Trader_XO for countless pieces of advice across so many topics, from market structure to how to think about this space, and for the chats about tech
- @didier_lopes for constantly pushing me to keep exploring and learning more
- @marketlens_app for always being ready to answer whenever i have a question about exchanges or market data
- @traderview2 for the market insights and advice
- @pedma7 for the quant advice and for helping demystify a space i want to spend more time in
there are many more. people reaching out with feedback, with ideas, with opportunities i never expected. i truly value everyone.
what’s next
my focus is simple. keep learning from traders who’ve been doing this longer. trade more, even if just small size, because there’s no substitute for having skin in the game. longer term, systematic trading is where i want to go.
cryexc is my playground and the only tool i use for crypto trading. seeing people actually use it on a weekly basis is awesome.
if you want to try it: cryexc.josedonato.com/app
no signup. no account. just open it.
and seriously, if you have feedback, questions, or just want to talk markets or tech, my DMs are open. i read everything and i reply. some of the best conversations i’ve had this year started with a random dm, so don’t hesitate.
if you’ve been following since the start of this journey, stay close. i’ll keep sharing progress, the wins and the things that break, and hopefully we learn more together along the way.