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Every price on the ladder can be traded from either side. The two words for that come from betting exchanges, and they are worth ten minutes because the whole desk is built on them.

BACK

A bet that it will happen.On a prediction market this is buying the outcome. On a stock market it is going long.

LAY

A bet that it will not happen.On a prediction market this is selling the outcome, or buying the other side of it. On a stock market it is going short.
On a two outcome market they are the same trade seen from opposite ends. Laying “Yes” and backing “No” put you in the same position. That is why one ladder covers both sides and never asks which one you meant.

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Which way the numbers run

The ladder shows decimal odds. They are a price, upside down. So long odds sit at the top of the ladder and short odds at the bottom. As something becomes more likely its odds shorten and the number falls.
Prefer cents or percentages? Settings, Display switches the whole desk to either. Nothing else changes.

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Where you put an order, and which way you then want it to go

Say the market is at 1.50.
A ladder column at 1.50. A resting back sits above at 1.62 and profits as the odds shorten. A resting lay sits below at 1.42 and profits as the odds drift out.

A resting back waits above the market. A resting lay waits below it.

The part that catches people out is that you place on one side and profit on the other. A resting back waits above the market, then wants the price to come down to it and keep going. That is not a contradiction. It is exactly what a limit buy order does on any exchange.

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Waiting or taking

Resting is how you get a better price than the market is offering. Taking is how you get filled right now. Most of the desk exists to make the first one easy.