Keyboard Shortcuts and Quick Search
Two kinds of shortcut run in CleaRank. A few keys work on every page: Cmd+K, Ctrl+K or / opens Search tools and tickers, and ? opens the list of shortcuts. The Trading Simulator adds single keys for the actions you repeat most: buy, sell, limit, reverse and flat all. This page lists both, explains when a key fires and when it stays quiet, and covers the DOM ladder preference.
Shortcuts that work anywhere
You do not have to memorize anything: press ? on any page and CleaRank lists every shortcut. These keys work everywhere in the app:
- Cmd+K on a Mac, or Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux, opens Search tools and tickers.
- / also opens search.
- ? shows the keyboard shortcut list.
- Esc closes a dialog, a menu or a panel.
To jump to a page, press G and then a letter within about a second and a half: P My Portfolio, A Analysis, D Dividends, R Returns, U Updates, N Notifications, S Trading Simulator, J Trade Journal, L Plan replay and O Tools.
On the simulator’s Trade tab, ? opens the simulator’s own list of trading keys instead, the ones described below. Esc closes either list.
Settings > Trading also prints a hotkey reference card so you can glance at the keys while you are setting up your defaults. If the two ever disagree, trust the on-screen overlay: it lists the keys that are live in the workspace you are looking at.
Every simulator shortcut
Each of these does one thing, immediately, with no menu in between.
- B switches the order ticket to the Buy side.
- S switches the order ticket to the Sell side.
- L sets the order type to Limit, pre-fills the limit price with the last traded price, opens the advanced section of the ticket and puts your cursor in the price field. From there you type the price you actually want and press Enter.
- R reverses your newest open position: it asks you to confirm, then closes that position and opens the same size in the opposite direction. Useful when a setup fails and the failure itself is the signal.
- F runs Flat All, which closes every open position on the active simulator account. This is the one shortcut worth respecting: it is a portfolio-wide action, not a single-position action.
- T opens and closes the Trade Tools drawer, where the mini calculators live.
- Enter places the order currently configured in the ticket. Cmd+Enter and Ctrl+Enter do the same thing.
- Esc closes whichever dialog, overlay or panel is open.
- ? opens this list of simulator keys. Cmd+K and Ctrl+K open Search tools and tickers here too, as they do on every page.
When shortcuts fire, and when they stay quiet
Trading hotkeys that fire at the wrong moment are worse than no hotkeys, so the simulator checks four things before a key does anything. A shortcut only acts when all four are true.
- You are on the Trade subtab. Keys do nothing on Positions, Challenge, Screener, News or Performance.
- Nothing text-like has focus. If your cursor is in a text box, a number box, a dropdown or any editable field, the keystroke goes to that field. Typing TSLA into the symbol box will never fire T, S, L or A.
- No dialog is open. While a confirmation dialog or overlay is on screen, hotkeys stay quiet so you cannot accidentally answer a dialog with a trading key.
- The key is unmodified. Holding Cmd, Ctrl or Alt passes the combination through to your browser, apart from Cmd+Enter or Ctrl+Enter, which places the order, and Cmd+K or Ctrl+K, which opens search.
If a shortcut appears to do nothing, one of those four is the reason. Click once on an empty part of the chart to drop focus out of any input, then try again.
Quick search: finding a symbol fast
From any page, Cmd+K, Ctrl+K or / opens Search tools and tickers. It matches tool and page names and a short list of related words, so typing backtest finds Plan replay, and it matches tickers and company names, so AAPL and Apple both find Apple. With nothing typed it lists the tools you used most recently. On a phone, the Search tab in the bottom bar opens the same box.
Inside the simulator, the workspace also has its own symbol search box at the top, labeled Search any stock, forex, crypto, or ETF. Type part of a ticker or a company name, pick a result, and the chart, the order ticket and the depth ladder all repoint to that instrument together. You do not need to change anything else.
Two more search boxes do narrower jobs. The watchlist has an Add symbol box for pinning an instrument you want to keep an eye on, and the News tab has its own ticker search so you can pull the story flow for one instrument instead of the whole market.
Show DOM ladder on order ticket
A DOM ladder, short for depth of market, is a vertical price scale with resting size shown at each level and a running cumulative total beside it. Traders read it for two things: where size is stacked above and below the current price, and how fast that size disappears when price approaches it.
In CleaRank the ladder’s price levels are anchored to the live bid and ask, and the resting sizes are modeled rather than streamed from an exchange order book. Read it as practice in the mechanics of a ladder, that is, clicking the right row, watching the cumulative column build, and getting used to the geometry of bid stack against ask stack. Do not read it as a forecast of where a real book will hold.
Settings > Trading has a Show DOM ladder on order ticket preference, described in the app as a cumulative depth column that you can hide on smaller screens for more chart space. Independently of that preference, the ladder is available as its own workspace panel: open Add Panel in the Trade tab and choose DOM Ladder, then size and position it like any other panel. See Charts, Indicators, and the Workspace for how panels are saved.
Putting it together
- Find the instrument. Click the symbol search, type the ticker, pick the result. Chart, ticket and ladder follow.
- Set the side. Click once on the chart to drop focus, then press B or S.
- Choose your order type. Press L if you want to work a limit at a price you pick rather than pay the spread.
- Size it. Press T to open the Trade Tools drawer and use the Position Size calculator, which reads the instrument and price you are already looking at.
- Send it. Press Enter, and confirm in the risk dialog unless 1-Click is on.
- Exit. Press R to reverse the newest position if the setup inverts, or F to flatten everything at once.
Frequently asked questions
Can I change which keys do what?
Not today. The bindings are fixed, which keeps the on-screen overlay accurate for every account and means help articles and support answers apply to everyone. Settings > Trading shows the current set.
Why did pressing S do nothing?
Almost always because focus was still inside an input field, or because you were not on the Trade subtab, or because a dialog was open. Click an empty area of the chart and try again.
Does Cmd+K search my tools or symbols?
Yes. Cmd+K, Ctrl+K or / opens Search tools and tickers from any page, including the simulator. It finds tools, pages, tickers and company names. Press ? to see every shortcut instead.
Is the depth ladder real market depth?
The price levels are anchored to the live bid and ask, and the sizes at each level are modeled. It is there to practice reading and clicking a ladder, not to predict where real resting orders sit.
Do the shortcuts work on mobile?
They are keyboard bindings, so they apply wherever you have a physical keyboard, including the installed desktop app. On a phone, use the on-screen Buy and Sell controls and the Flat All button in the workspace bar.
Try the shortcuts on a live chart
Open the simulator, press ? and keep the overlay open while you place your first few practice orders.
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CleaRank tools are for education and analysis. Nothing in this guide is financial advice.