Bridge Manager’s dashboard is its homepage which displays the most essential information. It also enables us to refresh the bridge’s status and to remove chosen bridge from the database.

The information included in the table helps to determine whether the bridge fulfills its functions. Indicators in the form of green and red dots show:

• ALIVE- if the bridge is launched
• LP – if there is a connection to the liquidity provider
• PRICES – if the prices are being streamed through the bridge (if the client has groups created on the Match-Trade MT4/MT5 server, the light should be black)
• TRADES – if trades are registered in the bridge

A green light indicates that the given feature is working properly.

The menu placed on the left side enables to switch between bridges and the dashboard.

When we enter the bridge, we’re provided with a panel that allows brokers to efficiently change key settings of the bridge manager. This section also contains information about the bridge itself, and the LP and Broker sessions. In Bridge Details next to ‘Name’ you’d normally see the broker’s name which for presentation purposes had been cut out. LP session connects the client with liquidity providers, whereas the broker session connects the bridge with the MetaTrader enabling for trades to be placed and quotes to be sent to the platform.

First tab in the Bridges section of Bridge Manager displays symbols as they are seen in the MetaTrader. There are several columns in this table and each of them plays a key role in the functioning of a bridge. At the top of the table, buttons are allow us:

• Refresh - to refresh the contents of the table
• Download - to export all symbols visible on Broker Symbols
• Upload - to import all symbols visible on Broker Symbols (this option is disabled by default, please contact Broker Support to enable it)
• Add Symbol - to add another a particular symbol
• Restart Session - to restart the session.

Settings listed below can be changed by simply clicking on a symbol. After doing so, a configuration tab should appear.

• Name – the name of the symbol which will be displayed in the MetaTrader platform
• Alias – it’s an alias for a symbol which allows association of the symbols in Broker session and LP session (please do not change this column)
• Enabled – this column shows which symbols are enabled to be traded and quoted in
• Bid Markup – enables us to add a markup for the bid price
• Ask Markup - enables us to add a markup for the ask price (please be informed that if you would like to add for example 1 pips of markup in BID side for EURUSD you should set 1. If you set 1, the price will increase from for example 1.13445 to 1.13446 – please take a look at the example below.)

Here’s an example of changing BID and ASK MARKUP.

After applying these changes:

It resembles in the price like this. (bid price on the left, ask price on the right)

Coverage – shows in percent how much of the position should be hedged

Opening a trade after setting COVERAGE to 50

50% of the position has been hedged

• Precision - number of decimal places in the symbol price. This field is uneditable beacuse bridge automatically reads the precision from MT4/MT5 system.

For example: on EURUSD at this moment the price amount to 0.99801 so the precision is equal to 5

• Price Bbook Multiplier – multiplies the BID and ASK price and SPREAD

Original price:

After changing PRICE BBOOK MULTIPLIER to 2

• Volume Bbook Multiplier - multiplies the volume of a placed order by the set value
• Min Spread – this option allows us to set a minimal spread for each symbol

Original spread while MIN SPREAD is set to 0

After setting MIN SPREAD to 20000

• Max1 Spread – sets a maximum spread for the designated instrument

Original spread while MAX1 SPREAD is set to 0

After setting MAX1 SPREAD to 1

• Max2 Spread – here added value means that if spread is higher than value added in this tab, then ticks will be removed from bridge. If the spread is lower than value, feed will be quoting normally
• Bbook Execution Delay [ms] – this option enables to set a delay on B-Book orders in milliseconds

LP symbols section allows to see all symbol names and their aliases which should be the same for Broker and LP symbols. It also shows us whether bid and ask are being received from the LP.

This part of bridge manager allows to refresh, add symbol, restart session and change the MULTIPLIER which results in the multiplication of volume of an order opened by a client. These settings are set up by default and it is recommended to leave them as they are. Multiplier level takes into account the difference between trades in mt4/mt5 and the hedge account.

To calculate multiplier you can use a Calculator. You should check the size on the MT4/MT5 side and the size on the LP side.

You can filter a specific symbol

Do not forget to click 'APPLY' button.

MULTIPLIER has been set to 2

Changing MULTIPLIER results in an opening of this order in the hedge account

This part of the Bridge Manager allows brokers to set A-Book rules, coverage rules, price improvement rules, SL/TP rules and delay execution.

ABOOK RULES In ABook rules, broker can specify which groups they'd like to hedge. Furthermore, rules can be set for a particular account or instrument. Once a rule is created, it has to be confirmed by clicking the 'Activate Changes" button.

COVERAGE RULES In coverage rules brokers can modify the scale on which they'd like to hedge a group, instrument, or account. They can cover trades 1:1 by inputting 100% or set it differently at their own discretion.

For example:

In this situation coverage percent has been set to 50%, which will result in the hedging of 50% of all orders opened by A-book clients. As an example we will use a 1 lot SELL order on AUDCAD opened by a client in the MetaTrader.

The set coverage rule means that of 1 lot opened by the client, 50% will be hedged. Therefore, on the hedge account we'll see a SELL trade for 0.5 lot.

Another option available in the Coverage Rules section is COVERAGE WEIGHT. This function enables us to set a kind of hierarchy at which the rules are applied. The higher the weight the higher the hierarchy. For example, configuration shown on the below screenshot means that the rule with a coverage weight of 1 will be read before the one with a coverage weight of 0, meaning that trading account 7418631 will be covered in 150% and the rest of the A-Book accounts will be covered in 100%.

An additional tool that helps in managing coverage rules is the drag&drop feature. It allows you to arrange the rules however you like. Remember that the rules are activated sequentially from the top!

After changes, just click ACTIVE CHANGES button.

Reverse Hedging

There is also a possibility to do reverse hedging on the bridge. This means that you can hedge in the opposite direction at any percentage. For example, in the example below, Rule -100 means that all positions for the account will be opened in the opposite direction on the hedge account: MT4 account opens 1 lot BUY EURUSD -> 1 lot SELL EURUSD will be opened on the hedge account.

PRICE IMPROVEMENT RULES This option allows a broker to set a rule stating that when price changes in favor of the broker, he'll get a better price on the hedge account than the client on the platform.

SL/TP RULES This option allows us to set a rule that guarantees clients the Stop-Loss or Take-Profit that they had set (without any slippage). It's important to bear in mind that this rule can be only applied to the B-Book clients.

DELAY EXECUTION RULES This option allows brokers to set a delay for a particular instrument, group or account. Values of the set delay are in milliseconds (0.001 sec).

EXPOSURE RULES This option allows setting an email notification for Broker based on volume, profit, or exposure.

The exposure for each symbol is calculated in quote currency, so that means combining symbols that are quoted in other currencies is mistaken and not recommended.

There are 3 types of available rules type:

·         Exposure – the email will be sent if the exposure of the specific group or client is :

-Above, Above and Equals, Below and Below and Equals specified Value

·         Profit – the email will be sent if the profit of the specific group or client is :

-Above, Above and Equals, Below and Below and Equals specified Value

·         Volume in lots – the email will be sent if the positions volume of the specific group or client is :

-Above, Above and Equals, Below and Below and Equals specified Value

Mail notification is sent once an hour if the rule is fulfilled.

RULE SCHEDULER

It allows Broker to set rules that will apply to specific instruments during a specific time. Rules automatically activate in the specified time range. 

Rules can not conflict with each other, there is no possibility to set a few rules that will contain the same symbols with different settings at the same time.

Values set in the Rules Scheduler do not change values in Broker Symbols.

Time settings are in UTC Time Zone

There is a possibility to set Markup, B-book Execution Delay and also Minimum and Maximum Spread.

This part of the Bridge Manager allows brokers to look into the logs of a bridge.

Changing between log levels changes the criteria of the messages displayed in the current logs section. There is a possibility of showing Full FIX Trade, Trade, Debug, Info and Warning/Errors depending on clients’ needs.

This part of the Bridge Manager allows us to search for log messages whenever there’s a need to investigate something.

Logs can also be searched for any text message we’d like to find.

This part of the Bridge Manager let us search for log messages. Here you can find information for example about hedged orders that are sent to hedge account and logs containing information about the client’s transfer between A-Book and B-Book groups.

In this part of the logs, you can find information related to the hedge monitor.

You can search for information about:

·         Turning on/off the Auto Hedge option

·         Discrepancies between A-book clients and hedge account

·         Adjustment of the discrepancies

In ‘Reports’ tab you will find the hedging reports tool. You will find there the detailed information about transactions and profitability. After entering the ‘Reports’ the three different tabs will be available:

• Detailed Hedging It is the tab where you will find all aggregated information from the reports including details about price, symbols, commission, markups, etc.

  Column explanation

  • Execution time- the column contains about specific time of the transaction
  • Execution ID- ID of the transaction
  • B-book- this column define, if the client was in B-book or A-book
  • LP Name- name of the liquidity provider
  • LP Symbol- name of the symbol that have been traded.
  • LP Side- side of the transaction (BUY/SELL)
  • LP REQ. PRICE- price level in the moment of sending request
  • LP Price- price level in the moment of submitting the request
  • LP Slippage- the difference between the price in the moment of sending request and the execution
  • Execution Volume- the volume of the position
  • Native Exec. Volume- volume of the position in lots
  • Coverage %- coverage of the positio in percents. 0-100% of the position
  • Total Markup- the profit on markup. Markup on price
  • Markup USD- the profit on markup in USD
  • LP Commission USD- value of the commission on behalf of LP
  • Executed in Client System- tells if the position was opened through the client’s trading system
  • LP Order- id of the LP’s order
  • LP Req. Time- date and time when LP request have been sent
  • Exec. duration- latency in regard of Execution time in ms.
  • Broker Name- name of the broker
  • Order ID- ID of the order in trading client’s system
  • Symbol- name of traded symbol in the client’s trading system
  • Client Qty- volume of the position in the client’s trading system
  • Client Order Side- side of the position (BUY/SELL)
  • Final LP Price- final market price + markup
  • Client Execution Price- final price of the order in client’s trading system
  • Pr. Imp. Markup- price improvement rules- if the price on LP side is better than the price in MT4/MT5, it will be opened with the MT4/MT5 price anyway
  • Pr. Imp. Markup Profit USD- the favour of the price inmprovement rule in USD
  • Client Commission USD- commission set in the client’s trading system. If this field is empty, position could be still open
  • Broker Profit- difference between the LP open price and open price in broker’s system
  • Client Login- client’s login from broker’s trading system
  • Client Group- group of the client from the broker’s trading system
  • Client Order Date- date of the client’s order
  • Client Comment- tells about type of the position
  • Client Error Message- in case of some issue, the error will be visible here

• Single Trades Profitability Second one is “Single Trades Profitability”, which calculates profits from trade open and close separately. It may be confusing as some of the trades have been opened, but haven’t been closed yet, so it is better to stick with “Closed Trades Profitability” as it is more transparent. The explanation of the columns you will find below.

• Closed Trades Profitability The last column “Closed Trades Profitability” is crucial for Broker because it is showing what is the total profitability of trade which is hedged. If value is in minus, it means that Broker is paying more fees than he is receiving profits per trade from his clients. To change this value he should increase markups in his clients group or add commission. To better calculate the exact value which should be added in markups/commission “Markup Calculator” can be helpful for managing values. Support is adding such a calculator in “Starting Pack” but if something is missed please contact them via Skype or Mail.

Column explanation

·         Client Login – Login number of a trading account in MT4/MT5

·         Order ID – Number of the trade order

·         Client Group Name – Group where the trading account is located

·         Execution Time – Time at which the trade was executed

·         Symbol – Symbol traded

·         Client Order Side – Type of an order, sell or buy

·         LP Price – Price at which trade was executed

·         Native Exec Vol. – Volume of a trade that was executed

·         Total Markup – Markup given in points

·         Markup USD – Markup given in USD

·         Client Commission USD – Commission that was paid by the client in the MT4/MT5

·         LP Commission USD – Commission that was paid by the Broker to the liquidity provider

·         Broker Profit – Summarized profit of the Broker of a single trade

Using and analyzing Reports tab is the best and easiest way to monitor and calculate profit from Broker. If Broker will move clients between his b-book and a-book groups, calculations can be incomplete if Broker would want to compare total value from hedge account with his a-book clients.

This part of Bridge Manager allows us to check order books for particular instrument. Furthermore brokers can check whether the bridge receives quotes from the Liquidity Provider’s side (LP) and whether they’re being send to the platform (BROKER).

To set which order books we’d like to see, we need to click the ‘Selected Symbols’ button and specify which instruments from which side we’d like to monitor.

This part of Bridge Manager gives us an option to monitor the received quotes.

Just like with the Market Depth, brokers can set the view at their own discretion.

In ‘Edit Instruments’ section, brokers can set an interval for every instrument. If price doesn’t update after that time, instrument will be lit up in red in ‘Last Update’ column.

This part of the Bridge Manager allows us to check broker’s statistics.

Brokers have an insight into the:                                   

• Number of clients, comparison A-Book vs B-Book
• Volume of trades, comparison A-Book vs B-Book
• Number of trades, comparison A-Book vs B-Book
• Number of trades on A-Book
• Number of trades on B-Book
• Revenue A-Book Summary (Profit from A-book clients including commissions paid to LP)
• Client Allocation Trends, comparison A-book vs B-Book
• Volume Trends, comparison A-Book vs B-Book
• Trade Trends, comparison A-Book vs B-Book
• Open Positions in Lots (it shows only 6 symbols with the biggest value, the rest are “others”)
• Turnover
• A-Book Revenue per million -Profit from A-book clients (Markups + Commission – LP Commission divided per million turnover)

Volume and Turnover statistics are calculated separataly per order side (for Buy and Sell)

In this tab you will find infomation about your exposure. Such like:

• Buy volumes by symbol
• Profit by symbol
• Sell volumes by symbol
• Loss by symbol

Below, you can find an detailed information about current exposure on A-book and B-book.

Hedge Monitor allows us to check information about the volume of transactions on A-Book and the Hedge account. You can display the informaton in Lots or Units (lot x contract size). This is a very important section as for 100% efficiency, volume on A-Book and Hedge should be exactly the same. If the volumes are different, it is probably due to the trades that were opened manually in the hedge account, moving accounts between A-Book and B-Book groups, or because of improper instrument’s parameters. In case such discrepancies take place, our Support team is there to help.

A-Book table is a summary of volume and Profit/Loos on A-book.

B-Book table is a summary of volume and Profit/Loss on B-Book.

· Auto Hedge Option – if there is a discrepancy between A-Book Clients and Hedge account, it will automatically adjust the discrepancy. The same discrepancy must occur 5 times and then it is adjusted, by default it’s one check every 5 minutes.

· Manual Adjust– if there is a discrepancy between A-Book Clients and Hedge account you can click on “Adjust” button to adjust the discrepancy.

· Hedge Button in B-book Table– adds a new A-book rule to hedge (If you hedge clients with open positions please remember about opening positions on hedge account on these instruments manually or turn on Auto Hedge on your bridge.)