Building a wave

A wave is a set of Uniswap positions, called bins, spread across a price range. Each bin is a real position. Wave mints them all at once and keeps them together.

Each step in the builder, and what it does:

#Strategy

Which direction you want to be filled in.

• Bid wave — deposit USDC only. Buys the token as its price falls through your range.
• Ask wave — deposit the token only. Sells the token as its price rises through your range.
• Two-sided — deposit both. Earns fees while the price moves inside your range.

Notes:

• One-sided waves sit one step away from the current price, so they never straddle it. That's what keeps the deposit to a single token.
• Two-sided waves are centred on the price. Type into either box and Wave works out the other.

#Range

• Presets: 5%, 10%, 25% or 50% from the current price, on the side that fits your strategy.
• Custom: enter a min and max price in USDC. Wave snaps them to the pool's tick spacing and shows the exact ticks.
• You never need to think in ticks.
• If a pool's price is at the very edge of Uniswap's range there's no room for a one-sided wave. The button says so.

#Bins

• From 1 to 32.
• More bins = a finer ladder.
• Each bin must be at least one tick spacing wide, so a narrow range caps the count. The builder shows the effective number.
• One bin is fine. It's a single ordinary position, so the shape cards disappear.

#Shape

How liquidity is spread across the bins.

• Spot — the same in every bin. A good default with no view on where price settles.
• Curve — heaviest in the middle, tapering to the edges. Earns more while price stays near the centre.
• Bid-Ask — heaviest at both edges, light in the middle. Leans into dips and rips.

These are liquidity weights, not token amounts. Wave finds the largest total that fits what you offered and trims a hair for rounding.

#Amount

• Type how much you're putting in. The dollar value shows under the box.
• The summary on the right is exactly what the build will pull from your wallet.
• Amount too small for this range — not enough to give every bin liquidity. Add more, use fewer bins, or narrow the range.
• Insufficient balance — the swap card can help.

#Slippage

One setting in Advanced, default 1%. It does two things:

• Sets a minimum on how much of each token the build must deposit.
• Sets a price band around the price you saw. If the market leaves the band before your transaction lands, the build is rejected instead of minting at a price you didn't agree to.

Widen it on very volatile tokens.

#Approve, then build

• First use of a token: approve it for the exact amount, not unlimited.
• Then sign the build.
• Wave adds a gas buffer, since Arc's estimates run tight for this.
• On confirmation you get the wave's ID and its positions. It appears under Positions.

#The swap card

• Trades through the same pool you're about to build in, so the builder's price is the price you get.
• Quotes live. Slippage adjustable.
• Opens by itself if the amount step sees you can't afford the build.
• Works on v3 and v4 pools. On v4 the first swap of a token needs two approvals, since payment goes through Permit2.