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Glossary

Glossary

A

Asset

A tradable financial instrument, such as a cryptocurrency token, stock, or commodity. In the platform, assets are identified by their symbol, address, decimals, and chain_id.

AssetSpec

A specification that defines what to trade, including the asset and optionally the amount or percentage to trade.

B

BaseStrategy

The abstract base class that all trading strategies must inherit from. It provides the core structure and lifecycle methods that the platform’s runtime uses to manage and interact with strategies.

C

CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)

A pattern that separates read and write operations into different models, allowing for independent optimization. In the platform, commands (intents) write to the event store, while queries read from optimized read models.

Chain ID

A unique identifier for a blockchain network (e.g., 1 for Ethereum mainnet, 42161 for Arbitrum).

D

DEX (Decentralized Exchange)

A cryptocurrency exchange that operates on a blockchain without a central authority, allowing users to trade directly with each other.

DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging)

An investment strategy where a fixed dollar amount is invested at regular intervals, regardless of the asset’s price.

E

Event Sourcing

An architectural pattern where all changes to application state are stored as a sequence of immutable events. Instead of storing the current state, the system stores the history of events that led to that state.

Execution Plan

A concrete, ordered list of steps required to fulfill an Intent. It’s created by the Execution Planner and executed by the Execution Orchestrator.

Execution Style

A hint to the planner about how to execute an intent:

  • AGGRESSIVE: Prioritize speed over cost
  • PASSIVE: Minimize market impact
  • ADAPTIVE: Balance speed and cost based on market conditions

F

FastAPI

A modern, fast web framework for building APIs with Python based on standard Python type hints.

H

Hydration (Frontend)

In Next.js/React, the process of attaching event listeners to the server-rendered HTML to make the page interactive on the client.

Hybrid Architecture

The platform’s approach of using Python for orchestration and business logic, while delegating performance-critical operations to a Rust core.

I

Intent

A high-level, declarative statement of a trading goal. It represents the what (the desired outcome) rather than the how (the specific steps to achieve it).

Intent Constraints

Rules that define how an intent should be executed, including:

  • max_slippage: Maximum price deviation tolerated
  • time_window_ms: Deadline for execution
  • execution_style: Hints for the execution engine
  • allowed_venues: Specific venues to use or exclude

Intent Lifecycle

The complete journey of an intent from submission to completion, including stages like validation, planning, execution, and finalization.

Intent Type

The high-level action the strategy wants to perform:

  • ACQUIRE: Increase a position
  • DISPOSE: Decrease a position
  • REBALANCE: Adjust portfolio weights
  • HEDGE: Reduce risk exposure

J

JetStream

NATS’s persistence layer that provides at-least-once delivery guarantees for critical events.

JWT (JSON Web Token)

A compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties, used for authentication in the platform.

M

ML Features

Machine learning features extracted from market data and intent parameters to help the ML Prioritizer assign priority scores to intents.

ML Prioritizer

A component that uses machine learning models to assign priority scores to incoming intents based on market conditions, urgency, and potential profitability.

N

NATS

A high-performance, lightweight messaging system used for real-time communication between services in the platform.

Next.js

A React framework for building full-stack web applications, used for the frontend dashboard.

O

ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange)

A standard format for representing machine learning models, enabling interoperability and high-performance inference.

Order Book

A list of buy and sell orders for a specific asset, organized by price level.

P

Pydantic

A Python library for data validation using Python type annotations, used extensively for data modeling in the platform.

PyO3

A set of Rust crates for creating native Python modules in Rust, serving as the bridge between Python and Rust code.

Portfolio

A collection of assets held by a user or strategy, including quantities, current values, and unrealized profit/loss.

Q

Quantitative Developer

A developer who creates mathematical models and algorithms for trading strategies, often using statistical analysis and machine learning.

R

Ray.io

A framework for scaling Python applications, used in the platform for distributed intent processing.

Read Model / Projection

A denormalized view of data, built from an event stream, designed for fast read queries. In the platform, these are stored in Redis for quick UI access.

Redis

A high-performance in-memory data store used for caching frequently accessed data and storing CQRS read models.

Ring Buffer

A fixed-size data structure that overwrites the oldest data when it becomes full, ideal for storing the most recent N items in a data stream (like price ticks).

Route Optimization

The process of finding the most efficient path for executing a trade, often involving multiple hops across different liquidity pools or venues.

Rust

A systems programming language focused on safety, speed, and concurrency, used for the performance-critical core of the platform.

S

Slippage

The difference between the expected price of a trade and the actual executed price, often caused by market movement or insufficient liquidity.

SSR (Server-Side Rendering)

A technique where the server pre-renders the initial HTML for a page, improving initial load performance and SEO.

Strategy

A set of rules and algorithms that automatically generate trading intents based on market conditions, user preferences, or other criteria.

Strategy Manifest

A dataclass that provides metadata about a strategy to the platform, including its name, version, description, and configuration schema.

T

TanStack Query

A powerful library for managing server state in React applications, providing caching, background refetching, and request deduplication.

TimescaleDB

A PostgreSQL extension optimized for time-series data, used as the event store for the platform.

Token

A digital representation of an asset on a blockchain, such as WETH (Wrapped Ether) or USDC (USD Coin).

U

ULID (Universally Unique Lexicographically Sortable Identifier)

A type of unique ID that is time-sortable, making it excellent for use as primary keys in event logs.

V

Venue

A trading location or platform where assets can be bought or sold, such as a DEX (Uniswap) or CEX (Coinbase).

Venue Adapter

A component that provides a unified interface to interact with different trading venues, abstracting away venue-specific details.

W

WebSocket

A computer communications protocol providing full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection, used for real-time updates in the frontend.

Z

Zustand

A lightweight state management library for React, used in the platform for managing live/volatile state that changes frequently.

Technical Concepts

Event-Driven Architecture

A software architecture pattern where the flow of the program is determined by events (user actions, sensor outputs, messages from other programs, etc.).

Microservices

An architectural style where an application is built as a collection of small, independent services that communicate over well-defined APIs.

Real-Time Processing

The ability to process data and provide results immediately as the data becomes available, rather than in batch processing.

Scalability

The capability of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system.

Latency

The time delay between the cause and the effect of a physical change in the system, measured in milliseconds for the platform.

Throughput

The rate at which a system can process requests or transactions, often measured in requests per second.

Fault Tolerance

The ability of a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of some of its components.

Idempotency

The property of certain operations whereby they can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application.

Financial Terms

Liquidity

The degree to which an asset can be quickly bought or sold without causing a significant movement in the price.

Market Impact

The effect that a large trade has on the market price of an asset.

Volatility

A measure of the rate at which the price of an asset increases or decreases for a given set of returns.

Yield

The income return on an investment, typically expressed as a percentage of the investment’s cost or current market value.

Arbitrage

The practice of taking advantage of price differences between markets or exchanges to make a profit.

MEV (Maximal Extractable Value)

The maximum value that can be extracted from block production in excess of the standard block reward and gas fees.

Next Steps

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API Reference