Market mechanics · not advice
Price is the last thing that moves your account.
Swaps, expiries, margin windows, exchange holidays, rulebook clauses. Every weekday, one documented mechanism with a date on it, for traders who already trade. Dates, not directions.
#ad — partner of IC Markets Global. Trading Derivatives carries a high level of risk to your capital, and you should only trade with money you can afford to lose. This is not financial advice.
Weekdays · Sunday 19:00
What you get every weekday
One series per day, the same day every week. Each episode ends with the thing you can check yourself: a date, a rule number, a row in a table.
Mon
THE CHAIN
Two worlds and the link between them: a date in one market that becomes a cost in another.
Tue
ON THE RECORD
A dated expectation about a mechanism: a rule, a window or a date that changes soon, and what it does to money on an account. Said on the record, so you can hold us to it.
Wed
FROM THE CODE
What a rulebook literally says. FX Global Code, ESMA, FCA, exchange rules: the clause itself, and what it does to a position.
Thu
SIDE BY SIDE
Two things with the same name, laid on one mechanism: two exchanges, two contract months, two settlement conventions, and the cost that only lives in the difference.
Fri
WHAT THE CALENDAR KNOWS
Next week’s dates that move money: expiries, triple-swap nights, holiday closes, session gaps. Times in Amsterdam; London one hour earlier.
Sun 19:00
TRADER LIFE
No analysis. Recognition. A real screen from a trader’s life and one uncomfortable truth, built to be sent to the one person who needs it.
Latest episodes
Just the hook here. Tap a tile for the full episode on Instagram.
THE CHAIN · 4
Mon 5 Oct · Columbus Day
FROM THE CODE · 1
Wed 7 Oct · loss-cut rule
TRADER LIFE · 2
Tue 6 Oct · London open
The gate
What has to be true before a post goes live
Eight questions, and a no on any one of them is a no. The four you would ask:
01
Would a trader with years on a live account use this tomorrow? If a broker’s glossary could say it, it does not go out.
02
Is the source a regulator, a central bank or an exchange, and is it in the frame?
03
Is there one thing you can check on your own statement: a date, a rule number, a window?
04
Does it name a direction, a level, an entry or an exit? Then it is not a post.
A day without a post costs nothing. A post that waters down the wall does.
Why IC Markets Global
Why I have sent 3,000+ traders to IC Markets Global
I am not a trading expert and I do not play one on camera. I am the person traders call when a line on a statement does not add up. Five years ago that made me choose a broker on three things, and all three are things you can check without me.
3,000+
Referrals in 5 years · none from social
#ad — partner of IC Markets Global. Trading Derivatives carries a high level of risk to your capital, and you should only trade with money you can afford to lose. This is not financial advice.
01
HOURS
Published per instrument, changes included. When Sydney moves its clock, the AUS200 session moves with it and the schedule says so before Monday, not in a support ticket after the gap.
02
SWAPS
A number you can read before it is a line on your statement: per instrument, per side, including the Wednesday that books three nights.
03
EXPIRIES
Your CFD’s close date is in your provider’s table, not the exchange’s. IC publishes its futures expiry dates in advance, so the day your oil contract rolls is a row you can look up.
What it costs · as published by IC, checked 7 Oct 2026
| Raw Spread | from 0.0 pips · $3.50 per lot per side |
| Standard | from 0.8 pips · $0 commission |
| cTrader Raw | $3.00 per USD 100k |
| Stop-out | 50% |
| Instruments | 2,250 on MetaTrader · 121 on cTrader |
Figures change. Check the current table on IC’s site before you trade.
What I do not do: signals, a course, or a bonus for signing up through me. If that is what you came for, close this tab. You will be happier.
#ad — partner of IC Markets Global. The button opens IC’s own site. If you open an account, IC pays me a partner commission. Your pricing is IC’s, not mine, and I cannot log into, trade on or touch your account.
Who is behind this
Stan. Middelburg, the Netherlands.
Cheerful, enthusiastic, and curious about far too many things. The thread through all of them is making connections, on every level: between people, between ideas, between a date in one market and a cost in another. That last one is how I ended up in trading.
Since 2021 I have been the connector between traders and IC Markets Global: 3,000+ of them, one conversation at a time, before this account existed. In June 2026 IC invited me to its Monaco Grand Prix weekend; that is where the photos are from.
If two things are connected, I will probably tell you about it. Enthusiastically.
Every weekday · Sunday 19:00
