Saturday, January 6, 2007

Trading How To

Subscribe to an instrument
To subscribe to updates for a chosen market instrument: click Subscriptionsbutton in a price window. Under Subscribe section, click the text field and type in the desired market instrument name. You can also specify a part of a name for example, typing A will display all market instruments that have letter A in their names. Click Searchbutton. Within the search results box, double-click the name of any market instrument you wish to subscribe to. The name of the market instrument will appear in the box with active subscriptions. Click OKto confirm your subscriptions.

Close open position(s)
To close an open position: within the [Positions] window, click on the row of the position you wish to close. Click on Close... button and the position will be set to status CLOSED. To close multiple positions: Click on Close Allbutton within the [Positions] window.

Edit target or stop-loss
To edit a position, it must have OPEN status: within the [Positions] window, click on the row of the position you wish to edit. Click on Change... button. You are then able to enter or change parameters: exit stop-loss, exit target and text written in the text column. Click OK.


Cancel active order
To cancel one order, it must have ACTIVE status: within the [Orders] window, click on the row of the order you wish to cancel. Click on Cancel... button and then confirm it. To cancel orders that have ACTIVE status, click on the Cancel allbutton in the [Orders] window. You will be asked to choose to cancel buy, sell or all orders. Make your choice and click OK. Orders you chose to cancel, if active, will receive CANCELLED status.

Edit active order
To edit an order, it must have the ACTIVE status: within the [Orders] window, click on the row of the order you wish to edit. Click on Change... button. You can then change order parameters shown in the [Change Order] dialog. Click OK.

Leverage we offer
We offer 1:100 leverage on margin trading desks. You can also think of that as 1% margin requirement.

Margin differences
Margin requirement for Forex instruments is calculated as percentage of your position quantity denominated in default desk currency, while margin requirement for Index and Commodity instruments is calculated as percentage of your position quantity multiplied with price of the instrument traded at the time of position opening.

Margin requirement
Our margin requirement on margin trading desks is 1%, which means that if you want to trade with quantity 300, you will need to have at least $3 on your Forex trading desk or at least 3 times current instrument price on your Index or Commodity trading desk. When you open a position, we will lock margin requirement amount until you close the position. We temporarily lock the margin as a security in case of large market movements.

Margin call work
If the equity balance on your margin trading desk falls below the margin requirement, a margin call will be generated. In the event a margin trading desk exceeds its maximum allowable leverage, some or all open positions will be liquidated immediately. For more details please check http://www.marketiva.com/index.ncre?page=re-margin-requirements page.

Overnight interest
Marketiva has introduced Zero-Interest policy on all open positions. No overnight interest is currently charged or paid on open positions. Most of other market makers charge Overnight Interest as a cost of carry associated with holding a position for more than one day.

Zero-interest
Marketiva has introduced Zero-Interest policy on all open positions. No overnight interest is currently charged or paid on open positions.

Stop-loss and target example
Here is an example that will help you with exit target and exit stop-loss levels
if you open a long position at 1.2000, your exit target should be at a higher level, for example 1.2020, and your exit stop-loss at a lower level, for example 1.1980. If you open a short position at 1.2000, your exit target should be at a lower level, for example 1.1980, and your exit stop-loss at a higher level 1.2020.

Limit & stop order example
A limit order is an order to buy below the current price, or sell above the current price. For example, if a market instrument is trading at 1.2952 / 55 and you believe that price is expensive, you could place a limit order to buy at 1.2945. If executed, this will give you a long position at 1.2945, which is 10 points better than if you had just bought the instrument with a market order. A stop order is an order where you buy above the current market price or sell below the current market price, and is used if you are away from your desk and want to catch a trend. If a market instrument is trading at 1.2952 / 55, you could place a stop buy order at 1.2970. In case the market moves up to that price, your order will execute and open a long position. If market continues in the same direction (trend), the position will bring you profit.

Position lifetime
When you want to open a position you need to place an "entry" order. If and when the entry order executes, the position becomes OPEN and starts its life on the market. For a previously opened position an instruction to close it may be entered at any moment.

Used margin and margin call example
Here is an example that will help you understand margin requirements
If you have $15 on a trading desk and you open EUR/USD position with quantity of 1000, used margin will be $10 (1% of $1 * 1000) and you will have $5 left as the available margin. If your loss on the position reaches $5, the position will be closed by a margin call. In case current price of Silver is $12 and you open a position with quantity of 100, used margin will be $12 (1% of $12 * 100) and you will have $3 left as the available margin.