The life of an Arlo
Every Arlo goes through the same five stages: waiting, started, trading, closing and paid out. Here is what happens in each one, and who can do what.
Waiting in line
You put in your contribution and take a place in line. Each size has two lines: one for Traders and one for Backers. Places match in the order they arrive, and neither side picks the other.
Your money waits in the queue’s code. Nobody can use it, and you can cancel your place for all of it back. A Backer can hold several places at once. One wallet is never matched with itself: the line skips your own places and moves to the next one.
Anyone can ask the code to pair the next places, so a match never depends on one person. An Arlo starts only once Arlo has set aside the money to close its trades at the end. If that fund needs topping up, places wait and keep their spot.
The Arlo starts
When a Trader’s place meets a Backer’s place, the Arlo starts in the same step. A new wallet is made for it. The Trader’s wallet owns it, but the code locks it: the Trader can trade with it, and cannot take money out. Both contributions move in, $3,000 in all.
From this moment the rules are fixed for this Arlo: the time, the fee, the line and the payout order. Nothing anyone does later can change them.
Trading
For up to 30 days, the Trader trades on GMX. The code checks every order before it goes out. An order that opens or grows a trade must fit in the loss room and inside the two caps. An order that closes or shrinks a trade is always allowed.
The Backer can watch the wallet and every trade. Nobody but the Trader can trade, and nobody at all can take money out.
Closing
An Arlo ends in one of three ways. From that moment, no new trade can open. Every open trade closes, and any orders left behind are cancelled.
Once an Arlo has ended, anyone can start the closing and the payout. The code checks the conditions first, so nobody can end a healthy Arlo early. Arlo runs a closing service that does it automatically, but the Backer or anyone else can do it too.
Paid out
When every trade has closed and the money is back from GMX, the wallet pays out. The order is fixed: the Backer’s money, the Backer’s bonus, Arlo’s share, then the Trader. Then the wallet is empty, and the Arlo is done.
The payout never runs on a guess. If money is still on its way back from GMX, it waits. Who is paid, and when has the details.
Who can do what, at each stage
| Stage | Trader | Backer | Anyone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waiting | Cancel their place | Cancel their places | Ask the code to pair the next places |
| Trading | Trade, close, end early | Watch | Close every trade if the wallet reaches the line |
| Closing | Close trades | Start the closing | Start the closing |
| Paid out | Receive their share | Receive their share | Start the payout |
Starting the closing or the payout never changes who gets what. The code works out every amount.