🗺️ Trading Page Explained
Understanding the elements of the trading page
1: User Funds Summary
The User Funds Summary section gives you an overview of your funds which are available or in-use.
Available Funds: indicates the total amount that is available for you to to use. Funds which are held for open orders are not counted in available funds.
Frozen Funds: Indicates the total amount you have escrowed in both positions (shares) and open orders. These funds are unavailable for use at present.
It may be possible to free up Frozen Funds by closing positions, settling shares when a market finalizes or cancelling open orders. Frozen funds may not be possible to free up if there is no one on the other side of your trade available to close a position; or if the end payout of shares is zero or less than the escrowed amount. Frozen Funds represent Worst Case Loss, the most a trader’s portfolio can lose in value, based on current holdings and open orders.
Total Funds: Equal to Frozen Funds plus Available Funds.
2: Market Data
The market data section displays the information necessary for you to discern the details, resolution rules, and activity in a market; as well as assess the validity of the market.
Market Type: Augur has three types of markets: YES/NO, Multiple Choice and Scalar:
A YES/NO market has two potential outcomes:
YESorNO. It may also resolve asInvalid Market. For example, “Will the Dolphins win on Sunday?” The market may resolve asYES,NOorInvalid Market.A multiple-choice market has at least three and up to eight potential outcomes.
Invalid Market, will always be included as one of these outcomes. For example, “Which team will win the Super Bowl?” with theChiefs,Patriots,Saints,49ers,Ravens,Cowboys,Other (Field), andInvalidas potential outcomes.A Scalar market concerns a numerical outcome measured along a scale. For example, “How many points will the Dolphins score on Sunday?” A Scalar market resolves as a numerical quantity.
Sharing: You can share the market directly to Twitter and Facebook; or anywhere else by copying the link. Sharing is a good way to show "skin in the game".
Watchlist: You can add a market to your watchlist (saved in the Account Summary) by selecting the ★ icon.
Resolution Details: A market creator may add Market Terms that specify any details on how the outcome should be determined. This is the fine print of Augur markets. A market may resolve as Invalid Market if the Market Terms contradict the Market Question or if they fail to clarify how the answer to the Market Question should be determined (if otherwise ambiguous).
Note: Markets will resolve using 'general knowledge' unless a resolution source URL is in the market's title.
If the winning outcome will be determined using a specific source, the source URL or its full name must be in the Market Question. Otherwise the market will likely resolve to Invalid Market.
The Resolution Source defaults to “General Knowledge,” for any outcome that is broadly known and uniform across different sources. For instance, a market on who will be elected the next president of the United States may cite General Knowledge.
The Resolution Source may, instead, be set to a publicly-available URL. For example, a market concerning the price of Bitcoin at the end of the week, may specify the URL of an exchange or price feed. This is suited for cases where the outcome is not generally known or varies across different sources.
Volume: Volume is the sum of all shares that have changed hands for a particular market. The market data section displays both total volume for the market as well as the volume over the prior 24 hours.
Open Interest: Sometimes referred to as OI, is the amount at stake in an Augur market. It is, to be precise, the total amount of DAI escrowed in an Augur market in the form of complete sets. A market’s OI increases when new shares are minted, as a result of an order creator and filler both using currency (DAI) to obtain shares. OI decreases when shares are settled (destroyed) as a result of either a trader claiming payout once a market has finalized or a trade in which both the creator and filler paid using shares (not DAI).
Fee: This is the fee that is collected from the winning shares in a market. This amount is split between the market creator, reporters, and affiliates who refer new users.
Market End Time: is the time at which Augur users can start reporting on the outcome of the market. Since Augur does not have a centralized operator, it uses a system of incentivized communal reporting, sometimes referred to as the “Augur Oracle” to deem what outcome occurred.
If a market’s outcome is not known by its Market End Time, then it will almost certainly resolve Invalid Market. After a market's End Time, a market may still be traded in.
3: Order Book
The order book is a list of buy orders (bids) and sell orders (asks) for an outcome, organized by price level. In the case of Augur, the order book indexes buy and sell orders for shares in a market outcome. Bids, displayed in green, are the price at which someone is willing to purchase shares in an outcome; and offers, displayed in red, are offers to sell shares in an outcome.
An Augur order book lists three things: the price of all unmatched orders, quantity (how many shares are available to buy or sell at each price point), and the user’s open orders.
The order book displays bids on the bottom and offers on the top in red. Orders are listed in ascending order, by price, from bottom to top, The highest buy order is called the “best bid,” as it is the best bid for sellers and the lowest sell order is called the “best ask,” as it is the best deal for buyers. The difference between the best ask and best bid is called the bid-ask spread.
Any trader may add an order to the book or may fill an existing order. The party that creates an order is called the “maker,” while the party that fills an order is called a “taker.”
When a bettor places an order, he specifies a limit price and quantity, for example, 5 shares at .49 DAI. The limit price, .49, is the highest price a buyer would be willing to pay for the shares, or the lowest price a seller would be willing to sell the shares for. An order will never be filled above the buyer’s limit price nor below the seller’s limit price.
If the price and quantity in the limit order is available on the order book, the order will be executed immediately. If the order cannot be filled or can only be partially filled, then any remainder that is unfilled will be added as a new order on the order book.
For example, if a bettor places a limit buy order for 5 shares at .49 DAI and the best offer on the order book is 3 shares at .49 DAI. Those 3 shares will be immediately filled, and the remaining 2 will be added as bids to the order book at .49 DAI.
In matching unmatched orders on the book, orders are executed on a price/time priority. The best price order will be matched first. If multiple orders are placed at the best price, the earliest orders are executed first. An order creator may cancel an unfilled order at any time.
4: Order Form
The order form is the section where you compose your order. Alternatively, you can click on an order from the order book to pre-fill the form to match that order.
Buy/Sell: Choose whether to buy or sell shares in a particular outcome.
Outcome: Choose which outcome you'd like to buy or sell.
Quantity: Input the quantity of shares you wish to order.
Limit price: The lowest price at which you'd be willing to buy or sell per share.
Total Order Value: Displays the total potential cost for the order, minus gas costs. This value is the product of the limit price per share and the quantity.
5: Outcomes
The outcomes section allows you to toggle between order books (and charts) for each individual outcome.
'Invalid Market' Outcome: A market may resolve as Invalid Market if its terms or end outcome are ambiguous, subjective or unknown. If a market resolves as Invalid Market, shares in any other outcome do not pay.
Traders may buy or sell Invalid Market shares, and If a market resolves to that, shares in any other outcome do not pay, while each Invalid Market share pays out one DAI.
The Invalid Market order book, in theory, can be used as a signal of the risk of Invalid Market resolution. Higher bids or a higher last-traded-at price may indicate a greater risk, while lower asks or a lower last-traded-at price may indicate a lesser risk of Invalid Marketresolution. Traders may also buy Invalid Market shares to hedge against these resolution risks.
The Market List page attempts to filter out markets at high risk of resolving as Invalid Market, and Augur attempts to disincentivize market creators from creating these markets. However, the risk remains.
Bid and Ask Quantity: These numbers convey the quantity of shares (to either buy or sell) for a particular outcome that is available to be matched on the order book.
Best Bid and Best Ask: At any moment in time, the best bid is the highest price someone is willing to pay for shares in an outcome. The best ask is the lowest price someone is willing to sell their shares. The difference between the best bid and the best ask is called the bid-offer spread.
Another way of thinking about it is that the best bid is the best available price a seller can receive in return for their shares, while the best ask is the best available price a buyer can pay to obtain shares.
Last (price): is the most recent price paid by anyone trading on an outcome in an Augur market. Specifically, it is the last price at which an order was filled or partially filled. Last price is used to calculate a trader’s Unrealized P/L, Current Value, and Total Value.
The Last Price is displayed for every outcome on a market that has been traded in.In a prediction market, price may be interpreted as a rough signal of present perceived probability of an event occurring. For instance, if YES shares just traded at .45 DAI, that may be interpreted as “the market thinks there’s a 45% chance that the event in question will occur.”
6: Charts
You can toggle between different charts which visualize different types of information about the price of each outcome over time.
Price History: Line chart of the price history of outcomes over time.
Candlesticks: Outcome's price history over time in candlesticks to give more context around intraday moves.
Market Depth: Visualization of the depth of the order book for both buy and sell orders over a price scale.
7: Trade History
Trade history is a chronological log of all trades (quantity and price) for an outcome in the market, with the most recent at the top.
8: User Market Summary
Finally, towards the bottom of the page is the user's market summary. Here, you can toggle between three sets of data: open orders, my fills, and positions.
Open Orders
The open orders tab displays information on orders which have been submitted, but not filled.
Outcome: Displays the outcome(s) for which you have open orders.
Type: Buy (long) or sell (short).
Quantity: The number of shares requested.
Price: The limit price to execute the order.
Total Cost: the total amount that would be spent (quantity * price) to fill the order in full; can be denominated in DAI or in shares.
My Fills
The my fills tab displays information about orders which have been executed in a particular market.
Outcome: Displays the outcome(s) for which you have executed order.
Type: Buy (long) or sell (short).
Quantity: The number of shares filled.
Price: The price per share within the filled order.
Fill Date: The date which the order was executed.
Fills: The number of separate taker orders for a given fill.
Positions
The positions tab displays information on your net holdings in each outcome. You can think of your positions as a running sum of all of your filled orders.
Outcome: Displays the outcome(s) for which you have executed order.
Type: Buy (long) or sell (short).
Quantity: The number of shares owned.
Average Price: The average price paid per position. Total cost divided by number of shares.
Realized P/L (Profit/Loss): Indicates the total amount you have gained or lost on trades in a market, market outcome or in all markets and is denominated in DAI. Your total Realized P/L is the amount you have gained or lost from all positions in all markets.
Profit (or loss) can be realized form either a market finalizing and shares settling or from closing a position or partially closing a position on the open market.
Example: If you buy 5 YES shares at .50 Dai and sell 2 at .60 Dai your Realized P/L is .20 Dai. But if you then sell the remaining 3 shares at .40 Dai, your Realized P/L will be -.10 Dai.
Unrealized P/L (Profit/Loss): The amount a user would gain or lose on a market outcome. if they were to close a position at the Last Price. The Last Price is the most recent price paid by anyone trading on that outcome. Unrealized P/L is denominated in Dai and can also refer to the total Unrealized P/L for a user across all positions in all markets.
Example: If a user has 10 long shares in a YES/NO market that they bought at an average price of .50 Dai, and the last price is .75 Dai, then Unrealized P/L would be 2.5 Dai.
Unrealized P/L is typically displayed in green if positive (at a profit) and red and in parentheses if negative (at a loss).
Position: The number of shares a user currently owns in a market. If Position is positive, the trader has a Long position and profits if the price of shares goes up. If the Position is negative, the trader has a Short position and profits if the price of shares goes down.
Example: in a YES/NO market, a user with 3 YES (Long) shares and 4 NO (Short) shares, has a Position of -1.
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