How to properly set up Quik for bond trading and subsequent purchase - step-by-step action plan

Before purchasing bonds in Quik, you need to make the correct settings. Remove unnecessary information, leaving only the most necessary. This will allow for faster and better analysis of securities. Usually, when installing the terminal, certain basic settings are already set. But as a rule, almost everyone customizes everything to suit themselves.

In this article I will tell you how to set up the Kwik terminal for bond trading, in the form of step-by-step instructions: where to click, what to select and how to save all the settings.

1.Creating a table of current trades

For convenience, we will add a new tab. At the bottom, click the contextual (right mouse button) on any tab. In the pop-up menu, select – Add . Double-click (left mouse button) on the name of the tab and rename it “Bonds”.

Now in the Main menu: Create window → Current trading .

Create current trading table window appears , where you can select instruments and parameters. Let’s write the table name “All OFZ in rubles.”

“Available instruments” window in the search column, let’s start writing “obli” and we will see only the 4 sections of the Moscow Exchange stock market we need:

• T+ Bonds - federal loan bonds with settlements on the next trading day,
• T+ Bonds (settled in USD) – Eurobonds
• Т0 D-Bonds – Defaulted bonds
• T0 Bonds – corporate and bonds of constituent entities of the Russian Federation with settlements today.

Double-click LMB on “T+ Bonds” and all securities from this list are added to the “Row Headers” - i.e. will be table rows.

Now let's select the necessary parameters ( column headers ). I recommend choosing the following options:

Coupon duration —the duration of the current coupon period, in calendar days. Typically, such intervals are based on a year, six months, a quarter, adjusted for weekends, holidays and leap years.

Coupon size – payment amount in rubles.

Coupon payment date – the date on which the coupon will be paid for the current coupon period.

Accumulated coupon income - you can read here.

Profitability by assessment – ​​calculated from the weighted average price.

Profitability of the last trade – calculated from the price of the last trade.

The price of the last transaction is, in fact, to represent from what price the profitability is calculated. Indicated as a percentage of the nominal price.

Maturity Date – The day, month and year when the bond matures, the holders will be paid the face value.

The number of days until maturity - it is better to use this parameter, since it is intuitive, rather than, as many have written, the “very important parameter” of Duration.

The denomination of the paper is usually 1000 rubles, but it is available with an inflation-indexed denomination, for example, OFZ 52001. Repayment occurs at par value.

As a result, we get the following table.

Active trading

There are situations in the market when the value of a security decreases significantly for no apparent reason. Of course, there are reasons, for example, a large investor dumps a large package of bonds. Or there was unpleasant, but not critical news about the issuer.

As a result, you can observe a drop in quotes by several percent. As a rule, the price returns to its previous level after 1-2 weeks. And by buying securities 3-5% cheaper as a result of the decline, you can make money on the subsequent increase in quotes.

And don’t forget about the NKD, which will provide additional profit during the holding of the securities.

2. Depth of orders

As with stocks, double-clicking on the selected security in the table created in the first step opens the order book.

For convenience, we add two columns to the glass: the profitability of buying and the profitability of selling. To do this, right-click in the glass field and select edit table .

In the window, from the list of available parameters, add the necessary ones ( Sales profitability and Purchase profitability ), click Yes

and the glass takes the following form.

Brokers

Finam

Go to broker page.

The most popular broker in Russia, allows you to open an IIS in a few clicks and start investing . When working with Finam, you can get advice from analysts , invest using profitable trading strategies , or entrust account management to an experienced financier . There is also a small calculator on the Finam website where you can calculate the approximate income from investment and tax deductions.

I published a detailed review of the Finam broker earlier.

Open an account in Finam

Opening

The site of the company.

A reliable and popular broker that attracts beginners with a low threshold, the availability of ready-made strategies and the promise of huge interest rates. When opening an account, you can order investor consultations and automatic portfolio modeling with specified profitability and risk. Formally, there is no limit on the size of the deposit. True, the recommended starting capital starts from 50,000 rubles .

Article about the broker Otkritie.

BCS Broker

BCS website.

The broker offers to invest in world-famous giants and the largest Russian companies. It is clear that BKS Broker is betting on young people - minimalistic design, “average” income percentages. When you open an individual investment account, you can receive bonuses : assistance and advice on creating up-to-date portfolio , access to ready-made strategies . If, after registering an IIS, you deposit 300,000 rubles into your account, you can use the services of a personal for 2 months .

Open an account in BCS through State Services

Tinkoff investments

Tinkoff has focused on simplicity and positions investing in the stock market as the simplest possible process. They decided to abandon complex trading terminals; instead, shares can be purchased in much the same way as you do when making purchases in online stores.

For the starting tariff “ Investor ” the bank provides free account servicing; depository services are free for all tariff plans. The commission on the starting tariff plan is 0.3%; if you plan to actively trade, you can switch to the “ Trader ” tariff and reduce the commission significantly.

Like other listed brokers, the regulator is the Central Bank of the Russian Federation , which automatically means a high level of reliability .

Open an account with Tinkoff Investments

For convenience, I will present the brokers’ conditions in tabular form.

3.Bond yield chart

Quik has a graphical representation of the table of current bond trading. In the Main Menu: Create Window → All Window Types . In the window that opens, in the Other select Profitability graph .

In the Editing Chart Settings , add the required list of securities in the same way as when creating the Current Trading Table. Click OK .

We get the following diagram.

The dots indicate the paper (when you hover the cursor, the name is displayed). On the Y axis – profitability as a percentage. The X axis is the maturity date.

How to choose a broker?

It is difficult to answer the question of where is the best place to open an individual investment account. You cannot choose one broker, call him the best and advise all readers to work only with him. Each property and service can be assessed from two sides - from the side of a cautious, thrifty investor and from the side of "sharks" buying for millions. I will try not only to name the criteria, but also to give examples.

Reliability

Bankruptcy is a sudden thing. Often the management of a bank or other organization associated with money hides losses, the withdrawal of money from the budget and the impending collapse. Even more often, such banks give the final chord in the form of deposits and bonds with huge returns. The management is trying to collect more money and disappear, and the investors will then have to deal with the insurance company. In 2016, 109 banks went bankrupt in this way 2015 - 106 , and since 2000 more than 1,000 banks have ceased to exist Over the past 20 years, only 6 have gone bankrupt . The probability of liquidation of a “pure” broker is very low .

Why are brokers more resilient? Because their income is based on commissions from client trading and the provision of additional services. As long as there are clients , the broker works . And the main source of income in banks is loans . According to Fitch statistics for 2021, every third citizen has a loan or other type of loan from a bank. The total debt of the population is 11 trillion rubles . If every hundredth debtor cannot pay the loan, banks will lose 100 billion rubles, many of them will not survive the blow and will burst. Colossi like Sberbank, VTB Bank and Alfa Bank will survive due to reserves and government assistance; these banks are considered Too Big to Fall - too big to fall. If you want to buy bonds through a bank, choose one of the government ones .

Commissions

for each security (contract) separately , and if you buy OFZ worth 1000 rubles for the entire capital, you will have to pay for 400 transactions . Good brokers immediately say that you will definitely have to pay 0.01% of the contract value as a commission to the exchange. The bad ones hide it . Good ones consider their own commission as a percentage of the contract value or call fixed amount. The bad ones say “0.1% of the contract, but not less than 50 rubles ,” which for OFZ will result in a 5% commission. Of course, if you buy bonds worth 50,000 rubles or more , such a commission will seem profitable . But for the owners of a portfolio of government bonds, such a commission will eat up half of the profit.

I cannot create a table with commissions for transactions, since the information on brokers’ websites does not always correspond to reality. The commission may change depending on the total amount of transactions. For example, for the purchase of bonds worth 50,000 rubles Sberbank will take 1.5% , and for a purchase of 300,000 rubles - 0.5% . Finam’s conditions are 0.035% (minimum 41.3 rubles) of daily turnover ; for transactions of 120,000 per day, the commission exceeds the mandatory payment. Information about commissions is often hidden or made unclear, so before registering an IIS, be sure to call, ask and clarify !

Number of clients

The number of clients is an important indicator. The more active clients pay commissions, the lower the commission the broker can afford while maintaining income. Also, a large number of clients means that is popular among investors and that the working conditions are suitable for clients. Below are data on MICEX statistics for February 2021.

Tinkoff took the lead. Traders are captivated by the simplicity of trading .

Convenience of the trading terminal

Otkritie, Finam and BCS use the QUIK . The program interface looks complex and old-fashioned, but does not distract from the quotes and chart movement. For greater convenience, you can clean the program and add important windows yourself . For example, display on one screen a list of bonds available for purchase and information on them, information about your portfolio and open transactions. QUIK terminal can be installed on mobile device or opened in a browser.

Finam offers trading through its own Finam-Trade terminal If you previously had questions like “How to buy bonds in QUIK,” then in Finam-Trade everything will be simple and clear. The terminal has a built-in mode for copying the operations of successful traders. Some useful things include simple registration , demo account on Android and iOS.

Technical support

For the average investor registering an IIS, researching which bonds are the most profitable to buy, and purchasing takes three weeks . During this time, questions and problems may arise that are not described in any article. Complex instructions and a confusing terminal interface, failures in the web protocol, conflicts between programs on a PC, the difference between the expected and actual commission - all this raises the natural question “What?!” Technical support must answer questions about the operation of the software and the services provided quickly and solve real problems with lightning speed , otherwise the broker risks losing a client.

• Finam uses a remote access system - first you need to call technical support, describe the problem, and, if necessary, provide a login and password to access Team Viewer .
• Opening invites you to fill out an online application , call on Skype , or come into the office in person for a consultation. Before registering an individual investment account, you can get advice and learn more about purchasing bonds, working conditions, commissions and other nuances.
• BCS-Broker offers to order a call back or send a request describing the problem. The decision will be given by telephone .
• Tinkoff offers support in any convenient way - both through chat and a phone call.

Additional services

Brokers like to offer additional services : a personal manager, voice control, assistance in compiling a portfolio, trust management. Many services are initially free under the guise of a registration bonus. The expectation is that the investor will get used to doing everything with hints and will decide that it is easier to pay than to independently analyze the situation on the market. Don't use ready-made solutions - learn to think for yourself. Then you will receive dividends and remember this advice.

Margin lending can also be classified as additional services. The broker is ready to lend you money to purchase securities at 12-20% per annum . This is an analogue of leverage , which beginners should not use . Firstly, it is better to start investing with reliable bonds with a yield of 7-15%. With such interest rates it is difficult to make a profit at all unless you invest in high-yield securities. Secondly, without several years of experience, buying bonds with borrowed money is not worth it at all.

Interest accrual on balance

If you haven't used the money in the account, some brokers will charge interest like a regular bank deposit. 3-4% per annum is lower than the interest on deposits in banks, but in an IIS you can take advantage of tax benefits (deduction or not pay tax on profits received) and get a yield of 8-17% per annum , which is already better than a bank one. This mode will help level out commissions and increase capital if you want to make regular contributions throughout the year.

4.Receiving data from the server

Just in case some broker has an old version of QUIK or for some other reason. The selection of requested and received data is carried out as follows. Main menu: System → Data ordering → Quote flow . In the window, select the one you need by checking the boxes.

Main menu: System → Settings → Basic settings . In the Client Place Settings window, click “ + ” before Program → Receiving Data . Select the desired item on the right.

My trader story

At the moment, I am deeply engaged in studying investments in bonds. At the very beginning of my formation on the path of finance and investment, I bought shares. I bought my first shares in Gazprom back in 2006. For those interested, I wrote about this here.

Afterwards I tried my hand at the Forex market, but like many people I got burned and quickly got out of there before I lost all the money, because I realized what kind of kitchen it was.

Then I became interested in scalping, from the word scalp. This is a type of trading where you take profit little by little, buy, sell, sell, then buy back, and so on all day.

This type of trading usually occurs in the forts futures market, where there is good liquidity and high volatility. Trading this way requires perseverance, concentration and resistance to stress and it is not suitable for everyone, certainly not for me.

And I don’t know why I avoided bonds, I just didn’t notice such a tool and didn’t understand how it works. I just knew that a bond is a debt security, but I didn’t understand what the essence was.

Then, delving into the details, it suddenly dawned on me. It turns out that buying bonds means lending money to a corporation, municipality or state, depending on whose securities you buy. That's why a bond is called a debt security.

Imagine you have 2,000,000 rubles, what will you do with them?

1. Spend it: having bought an expensive car, an apartment, go on vacation, telling yourself, oh, we only live once, and spend all the money.
2. Or invest in a bank at interest, thereby protecting the funds from inflation, but if the bank is bankrupt, only 1,400,000 rubles will be returned to you, thereby losing 600,000 rubles.

Agree, the average person doesn’t even think about what to do with this money.

Do you know why most people don’t have savings? Because they don't know what they will do with this money. It’s easier for them to sell it off than to invest it somewhere. You agree with me, right?

If a person is financially savvy, then he probably invested two million in federal loan bonds. And this is much more reliable, since you lend money to the state and is much more profitable than bank interest.

Read more about what a bond is and its types in this article.

And so I decided for myself, the time has come to study this financial instrument thoroughly and I even managed to buy bonds, which I want to share with you in this article.

5.Video - setting up QUIK tabs

And finally, a video from the channel of ARQA Technologies, the developers of the QUIK platform, about the basic principles of working with tabs in the client terminal, and about some other important settings for beginners.

Share

Published 09/07/2016 Yours. You can also read in the QUIK section and search by tags quik, setup, bonds, order book, current trading table.

Which is better, stocks or bonds?

Eurobonds of Russia and Russian companies on the Moscow Exchange

Acknowledgments

The publishers and Reuters Limited would like to thank:

Dr. Jonathan Batten of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, for his careful study of the book and constructive advice;

Keith Rogers, author of the first version of this book;

Tom Windas of Reuters Limited for preparing some of the material for the book;

Professor Brian Scott-Quinn from the ISMA Center - Business School for Financial Markets, University of Reading, UK - for support of this project;

London Stock Exchange Limited for providing the glossary at the end of the book;

Numa Financial Systems Ltd. – for providing the list of futures markets and options exchanges given at the end of the book.