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Training Guide

Welcome to the EduMatcher self-study training programme. This hands-on guide takes you from a cold start to confidently operating every major feature of the exchange.

If you are new to finance we strongly recommend you start by reading the How an Exchange Works which is a non-technical introduction to the core components and data flows in an exchange. It will make the training exercises more intuitive and meaningful.

How to Use This Guide

Each chapter is a self-contained exercise session. Work through them in order — later chapters build on configuration and positions established in earlier ones.

Prerequisites:

  • EduMatcher installed (pipx install edumatcher or Poetry dev environment).
  • A terminal (or several) available.
  • Basic familiarity with YAML and the command line.

Bonus: - If you are familiar with a terminal multiplexer like tmux or screen, it can be helpful to run multiple processes in one window with panes. Otherwise, just open several terminal windows. All commands are designed to be run from the command line. Processes that are started often prints status information to the terminal (in addition to data log files) so you can see activity in real time.

Conventions:

  • pm-engine> — text you type in the engine terminal.
  • GW01> — text you type in a gateway terminal.
  • [output] — expected output from the system (may vary slightly).
  • — exercise checkpoint; verify before continuing.

Training Plan

# Chapter Topics
00 Installation & Setup PyPI install, pm-setup, environment variables, data directory
01 Configuring & Starting Up engine_config.yaml, symbols, gateways, starting pm-engine & pm-scheduler
02 Setting Up Market-Maker Liquidity Market-maker role, manual quotes, QLEGS, and pm-mm-bot workflow
03 The First Trade BUY/SELL limit orders, fills, order book basics
04 Amending Orders AMEND command, price/qty changes, priority rules
05 Order Types Deep Dive MARKET, STOP, FOK, IOC, ICEBERG, TRAILING_STOP
06 Time-in-Force & Sessions DAY, GTC, ATO, ATC; session phases; scheduled transitions
07 Auctions Opening/closing auctions, equilibrium price, ATO/ATC orders
08 Cancelling & Managing Orders CANCEL, STATUS, ORDERS; managing resting order book
09 Market Making QUOTE command, inactivation policies, obligations, QLEGS
10 Combo Orders Multi-leg atomic fills, OCO, leg risk
11 Risk Controls pm-admin, pm-admin-cli, price collars, circuit breakers, HALT/RESUME, kill switch
12 P&L & Clearing Positions, VWAP, realized/unrealized P&L
13 Market Data & Drop Copy CALF feed, drop-copy, subscribing to book/trade events
14 AI Traders & Swarm pm-ai-trader, pm-ai-swarm, personality profiles, classroom demos
15 Statistics & Reporting pm-stats, pm-stats-cli, OHLCV, VWAP queries
16 Persistence & Recovery data directory, GTC persistence, stats.db, audit logs
17 Capstone Scenario full exchange session combining all major features
18 Exchange Observer Processes pm-viewer, pm-board, pm-ticker, pm-orders, pm-audit, pm-stats, pm-clearing
19 Advanced Admin Operations kick, qcancel, cancel-sym, session overrides, verification patterns
20 Drop-Copy Replay & Recovery Patterns sequence-gap detection, replay limits, operational recovery workflow
21 Automation with CommandClient & MM Bot Tuning Python automation flows, admin orchestration, advanced pm-mm-bot runtime tuning
22 RALF Post-Trade Gateway Protocol pm-ralf-gwy, RALF handshake/subscriptions, role-based consumers, replay and recovery
23 CALF Market-Data Gateway Protocol pm-md-gwy, CALF handshake/subscriptions, snapshots, replay and recovery
24 API Gateway REST/WebSocket pm-api-gwy, bearer tokens, REST endpoints, WebSocket streams, multi-instance split
25 Market Index (pm-index) Index config, cap-weighted formula, divisor, corporate actions, INDEX command, pm-index-cli
26 ALF TCP Gateway Protocol pm-alf-gwy, port verification with CLI tools, nc/telnet handshake, Python and C example clients, order lifecycle over raw TCP
27 BALF TCP Gateway Protocol pm-balf-gwy, binary LOGON/LOGON_ACK session flow, raw frame order lifecycle, heartbeat handling, parser validation

User Guide Cross-Reference by Chapter

Use these links when you want the authoritative user-guide section behind each training chapter.

Training Chapter Relevant User Guide Sections
00 Installation, Environment variables
01 Configuring the Exchange, Generate Configs with pm-config-gen
02 The QUOTE command, Quick start (pm-mm-bot)
03 Command Format, Gateway Responses
04 Order Amendment (AMEND), Command Format
05 STOP (Stop-Market), TRAILING_STOP
06 Session phases, The session scheduler (pm-scheduler)
07 Equilibrium price, What are auctions?
08 Command Format, Gateway Responses
09 Quote lifecycle, MM quote identification and quote-leg mapping
10 What Are Combo Orders?, OCO (One-Cancels-Other)
11 Price collars, Circuit breakers
12 Position Tracking, Quick-reference: P&L formulas
13 Message format, Sequence and recovery semantics
14 Personality profiles, Launching a swarm
15 Querying with pm-stats-cli, Common Analyst Workflows
16 How It Works, Summary of All Data Files
17 Verifying the system is running correctly, Process Overview
18 Process Overview, pm-clearing — Clearing & P&L
19 ADMIN console (pm-admin), CLI tool (pm-admin-cli)
20 Replay, Sequence and recovery semantics
21 ExchangeCommandClient, CLI reference (pm-mm-bot)
22 Post-Trade Dissemination (RALF), Appendix: RALF Protocol Reference
23 Market Data Feed (CALF), Appendix: CALF Protocol Reference
24 pm-api-gwy processes, API Gateway Config
25 Market Index (pm-index), pm-index-cli reference, pm-index process
26 ALF TCP Gateway, ALF Protocol Reference, Gateway Commands
27 BALF TCP Gateway, BALF Protocol Reference, Configuration

Quick Reference

After completing the training, use the User Guide and Glossary for day-to-day reference.