Skip to content

How to Use This Book

Welcome to EduMatcher. This Quick Start Guide takes you from nothing to a running exchange, a trade you made yourself and a clear idea of where to go next. It is meant to be finished in a single sitting.
Who it is for Anyone new to EduMatcher: students, instructors trying the system, developers
What you need A computer with Podman or Docker (or Python 3.13 and pipx), and a terminal
What you do not need Any finance background, Python knowledge or a copy of the source code
Time About 15 minutes to a running exchange, about an hour to finish Part I

What you will be able to do

After this book you can:

  1. explain in a few sentences what EduMatcher is and how its parts fit together;
  2. install and start the whole exchange, including its browser applications;
  3. put an order into an order book, see it rest, match it, cancel and amend orders, and read your position and profit or loss;
  4. run the exchange through a trading day with an opening and a closing phase;
  5. write, check and deploy a configuration of your own;
  6. pick the book that matches what you want to do next.

How the book is organized

Part Chapters What you get
I. See it run What EduMatcher Is; Install and Start; Your First Trade; The Browser Applications A running exchange and your first trades
II. Next steps Run a Trading Session; Your Own Configuration; Choose Your Next Book A full session, your own venue, a route onward
Appendices When Something Does Not Work; FAQ; Quick Glossary Help when you are stuck, and the words you need

Each chapter starts with what it will teach you and ends with a checkpoint or a short list of where to read more. Nothing in a later chapter is needed to finish an earlier one.

New to exchanges altogether?

Read How an Exchange Works first, or alongside this book. It explains order books, bids and asks, auctions and market makers without assuming you know any of them, and makes everything here easier to follow.

The EduMatcher library

This guide is one of nine books. You do not have to read them all — most people read this one, then one or two others that match their role.

flowchart TD
    B0["How an Exchange Works\nthe concepts, no software"]
    QS["Quick Start Guide\ninstall, first trade, next steps"]
    TG["Training Guide\nhands-on exercises, 29 chapters"]
    PG["Participant Guide\ntrade, make markets, run bots"]
    OG["Operator's Guide\ninstall, configure, run, recover"]
    PC["Protocols and Clients\nwire protocols and client code"]
    AD["Architecture and Developer Guide\nhow it is built, how to change it"]
    RM["Reference Manual\nevery command, field and term"]
    AI["AI Traders and Market Simulation\nan exchange that trades itself"]

    B0 -.->|"new to markets?"| QS
    QS --> PG
    QS --> OG
    QS --> PC
    QS --> AD
    QS -->|"learn by doing"| TG
    QS -->|"a market that runs itself"| AI
    TG -.->|"explanations"| PG
    TG -.->|"explanations"| OG
    PG -.->|"look up"| RM
    OG -.->|"look up"| RM
    PC -.->|"look up"| RM
    AD -.->|"look up"| RM
Book Read it when you want to… Written for
How an Exchange Works understand exchanges in general, before touching any software anyone new to markets
Quick Start Guide (this book) get started everyone, first
Training Guide learn by doing, one exercise at a time students, self-learners, classes
Participant Guide trade, quote as a market maker, run trading bots, use the trading screens traders and students
Operator's Guide install, configure, run, supervise and recover an exchange instructors and operators
Protocols and Clients connect your own program to the exchange client and tool developers
Architecture and Developer Guide understand or change how EduMatcher is built contributors
Reference Manual look up one command, option, configuration field or term everyone, mid-task
AI Traders and Market Simulation run a simulated market — AI traders, hidden values, news — for a class, for days or weeks instructors, curious students

Choose Your Next Book at the end of this guide gives a reading path for each role.

Conventions

  • A line starting with $, or a bare command in a bash block, is typed in a normal terminal.
  • [TRADER01]> is the prompt of a trader console (pm-alf-console); type the text after it there.
  • [OPS01|ADMIN]> is the prompt of the operator console (pm-admin).
  • Output shown in a plain block is what you should see. Times, order IDs and some spacing will differ on your machine.
  • !!! tip, !!! note and !!! warning boxes hold advice you can skip on a first reading; Checkpoint paragraphs tell you how to know a step worked.