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 How an Exchange Works, 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¶

The 29 chapters (00–28) are one continuous sequence, not independent modules. Every chapter's own "Prerequisites" section names the chapters it needs, and in every case but two that is simply "everything before it." There is no reordering the sequence — if you only need part of what the exchange does, the right move is to work through it from chapter 00 and stop when you've covered what you need, not to skip ahead. Choose Your Path below tells you where a given goal lets you stop.

Every chapter states its prerequisites and links the user-guide sections that back it. Read those first if the topic is new to you; use them afterwards as the reference.

What you need¶

EduMatcher installed. Any of the routes in Installation works. Chapter 00 walks through them and helps you pick.
Several terminals. The exchange is a set of processes, and this guide asks you to watch them side by side. A multiplexer (tmux, screen) or split panes helps, but separate windows are fine.
Basic YAML and command line. No finance background is assumed.

The two consoles¶

This is the one thing worth knowing before Chapter 00, because mixing them up is the most common early mistake:

	`pm-alf-console`	`pm-admin`
You are	a trader	the exchange operator
Prompt shown in this guide	`[TRADER01]>`	`[GW_ADMIN\\|ADMIN]>`
Typical commands	`NEW`, `AMEND`, `CANCEL`, `STATUS`, `ORDERS`, `POS`, `QUOTE`, `QLEGS`	`BOOK`, `HALT_SYM`, `CANCEL_SYM`, `KILL\\|GW=`, `SESSION\\|STATE=`, `GATEWAYS`
Can see the whole order book	No	Yes

A prompt containing |ADMIN]> always means the pm-admin terminal. Anything else is a trader console. Commands are not interchangeable between them — a BOOK typed into a trader console just answers Unknown command.

Conventions¶

[TRADER01]> — type this at that trader console's prompt.
[GW_ADMIN|ADMIN]> — type this at the operator console's prompt.
A plain $ or a bare command — type this in a normal shell.
[output] — expected output; exact wording may vary between versions.
— a checkpoint. Verify it before moving on; if it fails, the next exercise will not behave as described.

Choose Your Path¶

You do not have to complete all 29 chapters in one sitting. Because each chapter only assumes the ones before it, picking a goal below just means working through the sequence from chapter 00 and stopping where shown — everything up to that point is genuine prerequisite for what follows, so skipping ahead is not a shortcut, it just means an exercise stops working.

flowchart LR
    Start(["Why are you\nhere?"]) --> Trader["Learn to trade"]
    Start --> Operator["Run or operate a\nclassroom exchange"]
    Start --> Everything["Cover it all,\nincluding external\nprotocols"]

    Trader --> T1["Chapters 00 → 08"]
    T1 --> TDone(["Placing, amending,\ncancelling orders;\nauctions and TIFs"])

    Operator --> O1["Chapters 00 → 19"]
    O1 --> ODone(["Liquidity, risk\ncontrols, P&L, a full\nsession, admin tools"])

    Everything --> E1["Chapters 00 → 28\nin order"]
    E1 --> EDone(["Everything above, plus\nALF, BALF, CALF, RALF,\nREST/WebSocket, and\nthe market index"])

    style Start fill:#4a5568,stroke:#2d3748,color:#fff
    style TDone fill:#2f855a,stroke:#276749,color:#fff
    style ODone fill:#2f855a,stroke:#276749,color:#fff
    style EDone fill:#2f855a,stroke:#276749,color:#fff

Your goal	Work through chapters	What you'll have
Learn to trade — place, amend, and cancel orders; understand fills, TIFs, order types, and auctions	00–08	Everything a working trader needs day to day
Run or operate a classroom exchange — liquidity, risk controls, P&L, a full session, admin tools	00–19	Everything above, plus the operator's toolkit
Cover everything, including external protocols — bots and systems that talk to the exchange over ALF, BALF, CALF, RALF, REST, or WebSocket	00–28	The full training programme

There are two shortcuts worth knowing about: chapter 25 (the market index) only needs chapters 00–03, so if all you want is pm-index, you can jump to it early instead of working through the whole sequence — see the note at the end of Part 5. And chapter 28 (IPO valuation) needs only chapter 00 for its first six exercises; the last one also needs 00–03 and 07.

Training Plan¶

The chapter numbers below are the order to work through them in — they are grouped into five parts purely so you can find a topic quickly by browsing, but a part is not a self-contained unit: some parts' chapters are spread across the real sequence, interleaved with other parts.

flowchart LR
    subgraph seq["The real order (chapter numbers)"]
        direction LR
        g1["00–03\nFoundations"] --> g2["04–08\nTrading mechanics"]
        g2 --> g3["09–10\nLiquidity"]
        g3 --> g4a["11–13\nOperating"]
        g4a --> g4b["14\nLiquidity"]
        g4b --> g4c["15–19\nOperating"]
        g4c --> g5a["20\nExternal"]
        g5a --> g3b["21\nLiquidity"]
        g3b --> g5b["22–27\nExternal"]
        g5b --> g4d["28\nOperating"]
    end

Each row links to the lesson. The last column is the user-guide reading that backs it — skim it before the chapter, or use it afterwards as the reference.

Part 1 — Foundations¶

#	Chapter	You will be able to	Pre-reading
00	Installation & Setup	Install EduMatcher and know where its files live	Installation, A Path Through the Guide
01	Configuring & Starting Up	Author, verify, deploy a configuration; start the engine, scheduler and both consoles	Configuration, Config Verifier, Running the Exchange
02	Setting Up Market-Maker Liquidity	Seed a two-sided book so there is something to trade against	Market Making, Market-Maker Bot
03	The First Trade	Submit orders, read fills, follow an order's lifecycle	ALF Console, Order Types

Part 2 — Trading mechanics¶

#	Chapter	You will be able to	Pre-reading
04	Amending Orders	Change price and quantity, and predict the effect on queue priority	Order Amendment
05	Order Types Deep Dive	Use MARKET, STOP, STOP_LIMIT, FOK, IOC, ICEBERG and TRAILING_STOP	Order Types
06	Time-in-Force & Sessions	Choose a TIF and predict how each session phase treats it	Auctions & Scheduling
07	Auctions	Run an auction and compute the equilibrium price by hand	Auctions & Scheduling — Equilibrium price
08	Cancelling & Managing Orders	Inspect and cancel resting orders; use the operator's bulk-cancel tools	ALF Console, Exchange Commands

Part 3 — Liquidity and automation¶

#	Chapter	You will be able to	Pre-reading
09	Market Making	Run a two-sided quote by hand and inspect its legs	Market Making
10	Combo Orders	Submit multi-leg and OCO orders, and reason about leg risk	Combo Orders
14	AI Traders & Swarm	Generate realistic order flow for a demo or class	AI Traders
21	Automation & MM Bot Tuning	Script operator workflows and tune `pm-mm-bot`	Exchange Commands, Market-Maker Bot

Part 4 — Operating the exchange¶

#	Chapter	You will be able to	Pre-reading
11	Risk Controls	Configure and trigger collars, circuit breakers, halts and the kill switch	Risk Controls
12	P&L & Clearing	Read positions, VWAP cost and realized/unrealized P&L	P&L & Clearing
15	Statistics & Reporting	Query OHLCV, trades and snapshots for analysis	Statistics and Reporting
16	Persistence & Recovery	Say what survives a restart, and verify it	Persistence, Audit Trail
17	Capstone Scenario	Run a full session end to end, combining everything above	Running the Exchange
18	Exchange Observer Processes	Compare the book, tape, order monitor, audit trail, stats and clearing views side by side	Processes
19	Advanced Admin Operations	Use `KICK`, `QCANCEL`, `CANCEL_SYM` and manual session overrides	Exchange Commands
28	IPO Valuation	Price an IPO, then list it and let the opening auction judge the price	IPO Valuation, Listing a New Symbol

Part 5 — External connectivity (integration track)¶

These chapters are about connecting other software to the exchange over its wire protocols and APIs.

#	Chapter	You will be able to	Pre-reading
13	Market Data & Drop Copy	Explain the market-data and drop-copy feeds and watch them	Drop Copy, DC Gateway
20	Drop-Copy Replay & Recovery	Detect sequence gaps and recover a consumer	Drop Copy — Replay
22	RALF Post-Trade Protocol	Write a clearing, drop-copy or audit consumer	RALF Gateway, RALF Protocol
23	CALF Market-Data Protocol	Write a market-data consumer with snapshots and replay	CALF Gateway, CALF Protocol
24	API Gateway REST/WebSocket	Trade and query over REST, and stream over WebSocket	API Gateway, REST API Reference
25	Market Index (`pm-index`)	Run an index and apply corporate actions without disturbing its level	Market Index, Index Admin CLI
26	ALF TCP Gateway	Speak ALF over a raw socket	ALF Gateway, ALF Protocol
27	BALF TCP Gateway	Speak the binary order-entry protocol	BALF Gateway, BALF Protocol

Chapter 25 can be taken out of order

Every chapter above requires all chapters before it — except chapter 25 (Market Index), which only needs chapters 00–03. Its natural reading partner is Statistics & Reporting (chapter 15) — pm-index history is queried the same way. It is numbered 25 because that is where it was written, between the API Gateway and ALF Gateway chapters; treat the number as an ordering convenience, not a dependency on chapters 04–24. Chapter 28 (IPO Valuation) is the other exception: see its Prerequisites.

Quick Reference¶

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