The record, in practice

How we count set out the rules for the record and kept the figures private. Since then, we decided that the people deciding whether to work with us should have something they can check without writing in first. So three figures from the record are now published on the Record page and refreshed each month. They are activity figures. None of them says whether the trading made or lost money.

As of October 6, 2026, the date of the export this note was written from:

Figure	As of October 6, 2026	Rounded
Quoting since	January 2026, with trades in every month since	Not rounded
Trades executed	More than 75,000	Down, to the nearest 5,000
Volume traded	More than $2.0 million	Down, to the nearest $100,000

The Record page shows the latest month’s figures. This table stays as it is, because a figure separated from its date is a different figure.

Time in market

The first figure is the simplest: the desk has been quoting since its first trade in January 2026, and it has traded in every month since. It answers a question venues ask early, which is whether a market maker is a standing presence or an occasional one.

It does not measure how many hours a day the quotes are up, or how often they are two-sided. Those are measures of quoting quality, set out on the venue page, and they differ by venue and by contract.

Trades executed

Every trade on the firm’s venue accounts counts once, taken from the venues’ own records. A trade of one contract and a trade of several thousand count the same. That makes the figure a measure of how often the desk’s quotes are met, which is the plainest sign that the quotes are where people want to trade.

It is rounded down, so the true count is always at least the figure shown. It says nothing about size, and nothing about whether any of those trades made money.

Volume traded

Volume is the dollar value of the contracts bought and sold, at the prices they traded at, again from the venues’ records. On contracts that settle at 0¢ or 100¢, volume needs one caution. A contract bought at 97¢ adds 97¢ to volume and can lose at most 97¢. A contract bought at 3¢ adds 3¢ and can lose at most 3¢. A contract sold at 3¢ adds 3¢ to volume and can lose 97¢. Volume measures how much changed hands, not how much was at risk, and certainly not how much was earned.

What none of them shows

Results stay with the full record: the operating revenue, the result of trading and the value of open positions, counted as How we count describes. Published to everyone, results would tell the people we trade against more than they tell anyone else. Venues, banks and counterparties with a reason to see them can ask, and every copy carries its as-of dates and notes.

One part of that record is worth naming here. We take part in the liquidity programs venues run for market makers: incentive programs on some venues, and market-maker agreements with quoting requirements on others. In the record, program payments are operating revenue, kept separate from the result of trading. A reader of the full record sees each on its own line, so neither can flatter the other.

How the figures stay honest

The published figures come from the same monthly export as the full record. They are rounded in the cautious direction, as every figure in the record is. They always carry their as-of date. If one is ever restated, the Record page will say so, with the date and the reason. None has been.

They are unaudited.¹ They are also not a forecast: a count of past trades says nothing about how many there will be, and nothing here is an offer or advice.

Footnotes

1. Unaudited means no outside accountant has examined the figures. The method for each is given on the Record page so that readers can judge it for themselves. ↩

@techreport{cipherg-n004,
  author      = {Dodson, Grayson},
  title       = {The record, in practice},
  institution = {CipherG Liquidity LLC},
  type        = {Research note},
  number      = {004},
  year        = {2026},
  month       = oct,
  url         = {https://cipherg.io/research/the-record-in-practice/},
  note        = {Version 1}
}