Investing basics
Where an account begins: the broker, the depository, the first trade, and what separates investing from speculation.
20 articles
The secondary market for DFAs: why the asset never leaves its own platformA DFA can be sold before redemption only inside the platform where it was issued, and only through an exchange operator listed in the Bank of Russia register. Why the asset cannot be moved to another operator, how selling it differs from placing an order in a bond's order book, and what the sale changes in the purchase limit and in the tax.8 min
Terms of Trade: How the Ratio of Export to Import Prices Moves the Rouble and ProfitsThe terms of trade are the ratio between the prices at which a country sells its exports and the prices at which it buys its imports.5 min
TWAP order: the algorithm slices volume by time, not by liquidityA TWAP order (time-weighted average price) is an instruction to the trading system: take a large order, break it into a stream of small child orders and release them in equal portions at equal intervals until the end of a set window.5 min
The Impossible Trinity: What a Central Bank Pays for a Fixed Exchange RateThe impossible trinity is the proposition that, out of the set of goals "fixed exchange rate", "free movement of capital" and "independent interest rate", a state can hold any combination except the complete set.5 min
Broker Fees: How to Calculate the Total Cost of Ownership, Not the Commission RateBroker fee schedules should be compared not by the commission rate per trade but by the amount you will pay for your own year of transactions.5 min
Spoofing: the order that is never meant to be filled, and how it shows up in the order bookSpoofing is the placing of a large limit order that its author never intends to have filled: its purpose is to let other participants see a "wall" of demand or supply in the order book and move their prices after it, so that the spoofer can cancel the order and profit from a trade on the opposite side at an improved price.5 min
Total Factor Productivity: The Residual That Explains GrowthTotal factor productivity (TFP) is the part of output growth that cannot be explained either by an increase in the number of people employed or by the build-up of capital.5 min
Merger Synergy: Who Creates It and Who Captures It — the Buyer or the SellerSynergy is not the sum of two businesses but the difference between the value of the combined company and the value of the same assets held separately.5 min
Short Selling on the Exchange: A Securities Loan, Not a Bet on a FallA short (short position) is the sale of a security you do not own: the investor borrows it from the broker, sells it straight into the order book at the market price and undertakes to return the same security later — the security itself, not money.6 min
A Losing Streak: Where Statistics End and a Broken System BeginsA losing streak proves nothing by itself.5 min
The Most Traded Stocks on the Moscow Exchange: What Turnover Measures and What It Does Not ShowThe "most traded" stocks are the ones through which the most money passed during the trading day: turnover is calculated as the total value of all trades in an instrument, not as the number of trades and not as the number of shares that changed hands.5 min
DFA risks: whose obligation you are buying and where you cannot sell itA DFA that certifies a monetary claim carries the same credit risk as a bond, but without a prospectus, a depository or an exchange order book. We look at issuer, platform, liquidity, payout-formula and legal-transition risk — and at what the debtor's bonds reveal about it.8 min
Carrying a Position Overnight: What You Are Charged For and Who Decides to Close ItThe night costs more than it seems: the broker charges a fee for carrying an uncovered position, and the main risk of this interval is the kind that no protective order can close.6 min
Revolving Credit Facility: What a Company Pays For Before It Has Borrowed a RoubleA revolving credit facility is a bank's commitment to lend money within a set limit as many times as the borrower wishes, on the condition that the repaid portion becomes available again.6 min
Labour productivity: what output per worker measures and what it fails to seeLabour productivity is the ratio of output to the labour spent on it: how much value added falls on each hour worked or on each person employed.5 min
CIR: what counts as costs, what counts as income, and why the denominator is the more contested partThe cost-to-income ratio (CIR) is a bank's operating expenses divided by its operating income before provisions.6 min
Earn-out: how part of the deal price depends on what happens after closingAn earn-out is a deferred part of the deal price that the buyer pays the seller only if the company delivers pre-agreed results after closing.6 min
FIFO: the costing method that changes profit, not what sits in the warehouseFIFO (from "first in, first out") is the assumption that whatever arrived in the warehouse first is the first to go into cost of sales.5 min
Sum-of-the-parts valuation: how to break a holding company into segments without paying twiceSum-of-the-parts valuation (SOTP) is a way of valuing a company not as a whole but piece by piece: each business inside the group is valued separately by the method that suits it, the results are added up, and then everything that belongs to the group as such is deducted from the total — net debt5 min
Bond price gains: what the ranking measures and why a rise lowers future yieldThe list of bonds that have risen more than the rest sits directly below this paragraph: it is sorted by price change over the month, from the largest gain to the smallest, and is recalculated from the platform's database — the line-up changes, which is why no security is named in the text.5 min