CRXDocs

Act as a Sentinel

How do I watch my book and step in when needed?

Track your open exposure, fund ahead of the daily margin cycle, and assert a default when a taker is short. CRX automates the routine cranks — variation margin and liquidation run on their own keeper — but the desk that watches its own book catches the case the keeper has not reached yet. Time: ~6 min.

You will end able to read your live exposure, keep your general balance ahead of the IM re-true, and open a liquidation when a counterparty cannot pay.

Step 1 — Read your live exposure

Poll your firm state and your open agreements. This is the dashboard you check before every session.

GET /firm/0x…your address…
→ { "balance": "…", "open_acas": … }
  • Outcome: your general balance and your open-agreement count. Sum your open notional against the balance — there is no venue cap, so the ceiling is the one you hold yourself to.
  • Branch: if open_acas is higher than you expect, a position bound that you did not mean to win. Reconcile against your own quote log before quoting more.

Step 2 — Fund ahead of the daily cycle

Keep your general balance above what the daily margin cycle will draw. Each day the protocol re-trues your SCA toward its IM target out of your general balance, and variation margin debits your losses from it continuously.

  • Outcome: the IM re-true and VM both settle from a funded balance, and your SCAs stay at target.
  • Branch: if general cannot cover the re-true, the top-up is partial — no revert — and the gap surfaces to the cascade against you. Top up (deposit) before the daily valuation time, not after.

Step 3 — Watch the sessions

Track which of your pairs are about to close. A position on a session-windowed or managed currency carries gap risk across the closed window, and no liquidation runs while the session is shut.

  • Outcome: you know which open positions sit on a pair (USD/CLP, USD/COP, USD/PEN, or a gappy NDF) that will be frozen overnight or over the weekend.
  • Branch: if a managed-currency position looks under-margined going into a close, you cannot raise the IM on a bound trade — the rate was set at bind. Carry the exposure knowingly, or close it. See Security Considerations (~6 min).

Step 4 — Assert a default when a counterparty is short

When a taker you face cannot meet its variation margin and looks globally insolvent, you do not wait. Either counterparty of an agreement can open the liquidation.

  1. Confirm the taker is short — its general balance cannot cover its VM, and its SCA across its book will not close the gap.
  2. Open the assertion. This posts a bond from your own general balance and opens a 20-minute proof window, freezing the party.
  3. Supply the party's complete set of agreements (count-checked on-chain). The cascade force-VMs the whole book, then tests global solvency.
  • Outcome — insolvent: the waterfall runs. You are made whole from the taker's own SCA first, then its general balance, then the guarantee fund — never another counterparty's collateral. The book is burned, the party terminated and stamped DEFAULT, and your honest bond returned.
  • Branch — solvent: the assertion fails. The book is restored and your bond is forfeited to the accused — you do not get to default someone for nothing. Assert only when you have proven the shortfall.

The keeper usually asserts before you need to. The crx-keeper cranks VM and opens liquidations on a stress trigger automatically. Your assertion is the backstop for the case it has not reached — not the routine path.

Step 5 — Let settlement close the trade

At a position's settlement date you do nothing special. Settlement runs on one Pyth EMA — the same moving average that marked the trade — and either party can crank settle. There is no fixing to submit and no number to dispute.

  • Outcome: the position nets to one figure at the settled rate and clears. Your margin unlocks.
  • Branch: if CRX's services are dark, closeOnChain lets the two parties close directly, with no operator. Custody never depends on the relayer being up. See Custody & security (~4 min) for the failsafe.

The mechanics behind these steps are in Variation Margin (~5 min) and Liquidation & Default Waterfall (~5 min).

Next: Running a CRX Desk (~5 min) — the desk in full, from the top.