Program trading is permitted in an interactive FTS Trading case if the central moderator has allowed it.  To do so the moderator must amend the underlying case file.  For the case of B02 the case file is amended so that column C row 17 contains the word:  Autotrade and then Columns D, E, F, G row 17 given there are four securities in B02 enter Yes in each of the four cells.  That is, it now the trading case permits program trading.

What are the rules for program trading?

To answer the above question create the real time link to Excel as described in the earlier topic "The Book and Other Support Once you have created a real time link then program or program assisted trading can be executed by working with cells A2, A3, A4, and A5 as follows:

You can enter bids/asks/market buy limit orders/market sell limit orders/market orders/clear bids/clear asks commands in the following formats:

b/price/qty

a/price/qty

y/price/qty

s/price/qty

y/qty

s/qty

cb

ca

Example:  Suppose in cell A2 you entered or had a macro enter: b/100.60/10000

The following transaction would be automatically transmitted to the central market.  Coupon Bond Bid 100.60 for 1000 units.  The remaining rules are applied in the same way for market limit order (which sells to the bid or buys from the ask down to or up to the price indicated), the market order plus you can even eliminate all of your own bids/asks associated with a particular security.  There are other finer points such as if your own bid or ask is the best on the market it is color coded!  This allows a macro to interpret whether an existing bid or ask is your own.

You can learn a lot of how important concepts taught in the classroom apply in finance by combining them into a program trading strategy.