CATS uses a system of several different types of trades. You can manage all the operations for hedging and futures against a physical trade using the Hedge/Fx menu. Physical trades are classified as either To-Be-Fixed (also called Unpriced or Fixing Required) or Fixed (also called Priced or Fixing Actual trades).

The currently open trades for an item are displayed next to the differential information.

Trades Area on the Item Screen

Fixing required trades, when present on a contract, indicate the number of lots being traded that have no fixed price. This is useful on reports to show which items need to be fixed and for projecting profit.

If you are adding an item on a contract, and have entered the price as a differential without entering a fixed price, CATS will prompt you to create a price-fixing for the number of lots calculated on the contract.

Create To-Be-Fixed Trades for this Item

Select Yes to have CATS create the fixing required trade for the entire item. Select No to cancel adding the trade.

Alternatively, you can add fixing required trades to any item without a fixed price by selecting Hedge/Fx from the item screen menu, then picking Add a Futures Trade.

Add a Futures Trade

From the drop-down boxes, select Fixing Required and enter the number of lots for the trade. CATS will calculate the number of lots based on the default lot size for the exchange code on the item.

Add a Fixing Required Trade

Select Save to proceed.

CATS will ask you to enter details about this trade. You can enter an optional Memo No and a Note.

Details about the TBF Trade

Click the Apply button to add the trade. The trade will be created and displayed on screen.

To Be Fixed Trades Shown on Item Screen

If you attempt to create a fixing required trade when the contract has a fixed price, you will see the following message.

Contract Has a Price

You will need to zero out the price before attempting to add a fixing trade to this item.

When you are ready to fix the price for the physicals, select Hedge/Fx > Add a futures trade.

Add a Futures Trade

CATS recognizes that there are 4 lots to-be-fixed for this physical and so has those values prepared. The other options are Fixing Required (which CATS created for us automatically), Commodity Hedge, Currency Hedge, and GTC (Open) Trade.

Types of Trades Available

You can enter the trade type as Long (purchase) or Short (sale). Enter the number of units to trade and select the appropriate brokerage. Click on Save or push the [F2] button on your keyboard to continue.

Add a Fixing Actual Trade

CATS will ask you to enter the details about this trade. Enter the trade price. If necessary you can also modify the date, memo, and a note. Click on Apply (F2) to create the trade.

Enter Details for this Fixing Actual Trade

The item now shows the new fixed price (as calculated from the differential and the fixation price). We can see the fixation date and the price at which the trade was fixed.

Price Details After Fixing

You can also fix some lots and leave other lots unfixed. Here, we see an item screen with two lots unfixed and two lots fixed. The average price calculated is shown in the top right.

Partially Fixed Item Screen

A description of each menu option is provided here.

View a list of the futures trades attached to this physical item, either open trades or liquidated trades. For our example, the only Open trades are the fixing actual trades we created.

Review List of Open Trades

Under the Liquidated futures trades options we can see the to-be-fixed trades that we created previously. Once the price has been fixed on this item, these TBF trades are moved to the liquidated area.

Review Liquidated Trades List

Select either Continue or Cancel to return to the item screen.

Remove a futures trade from the position it currently occupies. To see the full procedure on liquidating trades, review the tutorial on Working With Futures Trades in CATS.

Force CATS to recalculate the price-fixings on this item. Use this if the prices have changed. CATS will ask you to confirm changing the price.

Confirm Price Change to Item

Roll a hedge trade forward to another position month. To see the full procedure on moving trades forward, review the tutorial on Working With Futures Trades in CATS.

Execute a Good-Til-Canceled (Open) trade, converting it into a hedge. For more information on Hedges, see the wiki procedure on To see the full procedure on liquidating trades, review the tutorial on Working With Futures Trades in CATS.

Create or review the price fixing letter. See the wiki on creating a Price Fixing Letter.

Change the date/price/note on a futures trade. Choose the item from a list and pick Continue to change the details.

Select Trade to Edit from the Chooser

When you have finished making changes, select Apply to proceed and save changes. You can change the date, price, or note.

Change Date, Price, or Note on a Futures Trade

Select an unattached hedge to apply to this contract item. This option is used to take a hedge entered under the Trade Data Entry/Review file area and attach it to a physical contract.

You will be asked to confirm attaching. Select Yes to continue.

Confirm Attaching a Hedge to this Item

CATS will prompt you for a Trade No to look up the trade you want to attach.

Attach by Trade No

If you do not know the number, a chooser will pop up with all unattached hedges. Select one from the list and pick Continue to proceed.

Choose a Hedge to Attach from the List

Disassociate a hedge from the current contract item. This will simply return the hedge to the list of unattached trades and remove it from the item. Select the hedge from the chooser list and pick Continue.

Select Hedge to Unattach

A summary of the procedure will be displayed. Select Apply to continue unattaching the trade.

Unattach Procedure Confirmation

The hedge will be removed from the item screen.

Remove a trade from the system completely. If you select this menu option, you will be asked to choose from a list of trades.

Select the trade and pick Continue to proceed.

Select Trade to Delete

CATS will prompt you to confirm deletion of the trade and provide details of the trade.

Confirm Deletion of Trade

Select Yes to continue with deleting the trade or No to cancel.