Two places to put a markup, and why the difference matters

The Liquidity Bridge has two markup layers, and they do different jobs. The difference becomes concrete the first time a client asks why the quote on their terminal moved between the moment they clicked and the moment they were filled.

One answer to that question is a configuration choice you made deliberately. The other is a configuration choice you inherited.

The price stream layer and the execution layer

The first layer applies to the price stream. It changes the bid and ask a client sees before they do anything. Set it, and the client's terminal shows a wider quote.

The second layer applies at execution. The stream stays as it was, and the adjustment lands on the fill.

Both can be fixed or ranged. A ranged markup varies inside limits you set rather than applying one constant number.

This is not academic. A stream markup is visible to the client and to any comparison they run against another broker. An execution markup is visible in the fill. Those two facts produce different client conversations, different complaint patterns and different competitive positions, and a broker should be choosing between them deliberately.

Spread control is a calendar problem

Alongside markup sits spread control, with a minimum and a maximum spread, and it runs against a calendar.

That matters because the hours are not equal. Rollover, thin liquidity late on a Friday, a scheduled release, a market holiday in one region and a normal session in another: these are not exceptions to be handled by a person watching a screen, they are recurring facts about the week.

Throttling is calendar-driven in the same way, so the rate at which quotes are pushed onward can differ between a busy session and a quiet one.

Configuration reloads happen without downtime, which makes a calendar approach usable. A control you have to restart the bridge to change becomes a control nobody adjusts.

What to look at in your own configuration

If you are already running a bridge, three checks are worth the hour they take.

• Write down which of your markups is on the stream and which is at execution, and see whether the answer matches what your dealers believe.
• Look at your minimum spread setting during rollover and ask whether it was set for the market you traded three years ago.
• Check whether your throttling settings distinguish between a Tuesday morning and a Sunday open.

Most of the value in a bridge is in settings like these rather than in the aggregation. Aggregating prices is table stakes. Deciding what happens to a price on the way to a client is the part where a broker's judgment shows.

The controls above are part of the Liquidity Bridge. If you want to walk through your own markup and spread setup with the people who wrote it, send us the shape of the problem and we will book time.