Lavender Desk FAQ¶
Answers for trading desks. For the feature list, see Desk features; for the overview, Lavender Desk.
What is Lavender Desk?¶
Lavender Desk is options risk management and trading for trading desks. It builds the whole desk's book from your clearing firms' records, shows live risk on every position, and lets traders trade from the same screen through your choice of executing brokers. Lavender sets it up and runs it for you.
Can Lavender take start-of-day files and drop copies from several clearing firms?¶
Yes. Your clearing firms' start-of-day positions and a drop copy of every fill build the book, in one place for every trader, account and clearing firm, current all day. A fill confirmed by the clearing firm shows once, marked cleared. We support a select list of clearing firms — tell us yours.
Can traders send orders from the risk screen?¶
Yes, if you want them to. Single and multi-leg orders go through your choice of executing brokers from the same screen as your risk, and the fill comes back into the book and the risk. A trader confirms every order, hedges included. The risk features in Lavender require no outside market data, but live trading and intraday P&L require market data from one of our supported market data vendors. We support a number of the widely used executing brokers — tell us yours.
Can I test a trade idea without sending it?¶
Yes. Card a trade beside the real book, see what it does to the desk's risk, keep it through the day, and send it when it is ready. Carding is also called paper trading, simulated trades, or trade ideas.
Can I override dividends, rates and borrow?¶
Yes. Override rates, borrow and dividends by name and expiry, and each override shows what it replaced. Mark your own vols by option, strike or expiry; they drive your theos and your risk. Overrides can be shared across the desk, and the book's risk can be shown on the market's vols or on your marks, with the difference between them.
What risk does Lavender show for the whole desk?¶
Greeks in dollars for the whole book, rolled up by account, underlying, expiry, strike or side, and broken down by trader. P&L is explained by Greek, with opening and day-trade P&L shown separately. Scenarios run on shock sets you define, with historical stress such as 2008 and COVID and Monte Carlo with the 5% tail loss, for the whole desk or name by name. Every feature has its own entry in Desk features.
Does Lavender cover haircuts, Reg T and pin risk?¶
Yes. Desk shows an OCC-style haircut by product group, with headroom and a what-if for a proposed trade, tied to your clearing firm's figure. It shows Reg T margin for the whole book and by account, and portfolio margin, estimated for the accounts you name. Into every expiry it shows pin risk, which calls are worth exercising for the dividend, which puts are deep enough to go early, and your book as it will stand after expiry.
Who can see our positions?¶
Only the people you name. Each trader sees and trades only the accounts you give them, and a risk manager sees everything. Your positions and trades are kept apart from every other firm's.
How does a desk move to Lavender?¶
In three steps. First a trial on your own start-of-day file, with nothing to connect. Then a parallel run beside your current system, on your clearing firms' files. Then the switch, after a close. We set it up, connect your clearing firms and executing brokers, and keep it running.
Who runs it?¶
Lavender does. We set it up, connect your clearing firms and executing brokers, and keep it running. It is always on, redundant, with a hot secondary standing by, and upgrades happen when you choose, never under you mid-session.
Which clearing firms and executing brokers do you support?¶
We support a number of the widely used executing brokers and a select list of clearing firms — tell us yours. Which ones is a conversation with your desk: email info@lavender-ts.com with how your desk is set up.
How is Desk different from Terminal, Gateway, Discord and Enterprise?¶
- Desk is for trading desks: clearing firm feeds and real trading through executing brokers.
- Terminal is for individual traders on retail brokers (Interactive Brokers, Tastytrade and Tradier), with paper trading only.
- Gateway is the API, for quants and their systems.
- Discord is the free, easy way in: try the analytics in chat.
- Enterprise is bespoke to your desk.
All of them run on the same numbers, so the risk screen and the risk API cannot diverge.