The YAL Academy
One question, one answer.
Reference guides to how a market, a scheduled event or a piece of trading machinery works. Each one is written to be entered from a search result, read for the one answer, and left again. Nothing here assumes another page has been read first.
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115 guides, 4 groups, free, and nothing behind a sign-up
Markets
How each market works.
What a currency pair, an index, a commodity, a share and an exchange traded fund actually are, who trades them, and what reprices them.
The forex market
What the currency market is, who deals in it, how a pair is quoted, and how a CFD on one settles.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- Forex
Major currency pairs
Which pairs the market treats as majors, what each is sensitive to, and how their liquidity behaves.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- Forex
Minor currency pairs
How the market uses the term minor, and where the label overlaps with crosses and exotics.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- Forex
Exotic currency pairs
How the market uses the term, why depth and financing differ here, and what the pegged Gulf pairs share.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- Forex
Currency crosses
What defines a cross, how its rate is derived from two dollar pairs, and why it can move on its own.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- Forex
How a currency pair is quoted
Which currency is the base, what the two sides of the price mean, and how a pip becomes an amount.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- Forex
Events
How a scheduled event works.
The recurring items on the calendar, rate decisions, inflation and labour releases, inventories and earnings seasons, described as processes rather than as forecasts.
How the economic calendar works
What sits on the calendar, who publishes each item, and how its three number columns are built.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- All markets
The FOMC and the Federal Reserve rate decision
Who sits on the FOMC, what a rate decision decides, and the four documents a meeting produces.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- 3 classes
US CPI, the consumer price index
What the CPI basket contains, how it is collected and weighted, and why headline and core readings differ.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- 3 classes
US non-farm payrolls and the employment report
The two surveys behind one report, and why the payroll count and the unemployment rate can disagree.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- 2 classes
US GDP and the quarterly national accounts
What the national accounts measure, why the headline is annualised, and how the three estimates differ.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- 2 classes
US ISM and PMI business surveys
How a diffusion index is built, why its neutral level is the only reference point, and where it misleads.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- 2 classes
Mechanics
How a trade works at a broker.
The machinery behind a position, spreads, commission, financing, order handling, execution, margin close-out and the documents that record all of it.
The contract for difference as an instrument
What the two parties actually agree, how the settlement arithmetic runs, and how it differs from owning.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- All markets
Contract sizes and lots
Where the number in the volume box comes from, and how contract size turns a price move into money.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- All markets
Pip, point and tick
Three units of price movement used as though they were one, and how each converts into money.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- All markets
How a spread is formed
Where the bid and the ask come from, what widens the distance, and why a spread is not a fee.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- All markets
Commission and how it is charged
The three bases commission is quoted on, and why per side and round turn figures cannot be compared.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- All markets
Swaps and overnight financing
Why a position held past the daily cut off is credited or debited, and how the adjustment is worked out.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- All markets
Structure
The region, the rules and client money.
The Gulf trading calendar, the currency pegs, the regional market hours, and the regulatory framework a licensed firm operates inside.
Gulf trading hours against London and New York
Where the Asian, European and American sessions land on a Gulf clock, and why the local hour shifts.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- All markets
The Gulf working week against the global market week
How the regional business week, the exchange week and the global market week fall out of step.
- Level
- Foundation
- Covers
- All markets
The dirham peg and dollar exposure
What a fixed dirham parity does to a quoted pair, and how a peg relocates an exposure, not removes it.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- Forex
The Saudi riyal peg
The shape of the riyal's fixed rate arrangement, and where pressure is priced when spot cannot move.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- Forex
Gulf currency regimes compared
Which Gulf currency runs which arrangement, and why the region's monetary union was never completed.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- Forex
Oil as the regional macro driver
The chain from a barrel price to Gulf bank liquidity and equities, and why the currency never shows it.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Covers
- Commodities and metals
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