Trading accounts, venues, assets, and instruments

Structure separates where trading happens (venues and instruments) from how it is authorized (trading accounts). This page explains how those pieces fit together.

Venues

A venue is any place where trades can occur, such as:

• On‑chain derivatives protocols (for example, Drift).
• Other decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
• Centralized exchanges (CEXs).

Each venue has:

• A stable identifier used across Structure and its trading engine.
• A human‑readable name.

From your perspective, venues are:

• The exchanges or protocols you connect in Trading accounts.
• The labels you see in Holdings and strategy‑level views (for example, “Drift”, “CEX‑A”).

Assets

An asset is a base currency or token:

• Crypto assets such as SOL or USDC.
• Fiat currencies such as USD.

Assets have properties like:

• Symbol – for example, SOL.
• Name – human‑readable name.
• Type – crypto vs fiat.
• For crypto:
  • Which blockchain it lives on.
  • Its number of decimals.

Assets appear in:

• Balances and holdings (for example, “You hold 12.34 SOL”).
• Any price or P&L metrics that require a base unit.

Instruments

An instrument is a specific market you can trade, such as:

• A spot pair (SOL/USDC).
• A perpetual contract (SOL‑PERP).

Each instrument is linked to:

• A venue (for example, the exchange where SOL‑PERP trades).
• One or more underlying assets.

In the UI you typically see:

• Instrument symbols when configuring strategies.
• Positions per instrument in advanced holdings or P&L breakdowns.

Trading accounts

A trading account is how Structure trades on your behalf at a venue. It wraps the details of:

• Which venue the account is on.
• What type of account it is.
• How Structure is allowed to trade.

Types of trading accounts

Structure supports three broad types:

• Blockchain account:
  • A direct wallet account on a given chain.
  • Used when trading is performed by signing on‑chain transactions.
• DEX account:
  • A protocol‑specific account or subaccount (for example, a Drift account + authority + sub‑account ID).
  • Often tied to a controlling wallet, but with its own internal state (positions, margin).
• CEX account:
  • A centralized exchange account accessed via API keys.
  • Typically configured with read and trade permissions (no withdrawals).

Each trading account has:

• A human‑readable display name.
• A venue and type.
• A confirmation status:
  • pending – created but not yet verified.
  • confirming – undergoing checks and on‑chain/API operations.
  • confirmed – ready for Structure’s engine to trade.
  • failed – confirmation failed; see details.
• An optional link to a strategy that uses this account.

Why confirmation is required

Confirmation ensures that:

• You truly own or control the account.
• Necessary permissions and delegations are correctly set.
• The account is in a valid state for automated trading.

Only confirmed accounts are visible to the execution engine and to holdings aggregation.

How everything ties together

Putting it all together:

• Venues define where markets live.
• Assets are the tokens or currencies that underlie positions and balances.
• Instruments are specific markets (spot or derivatives) at venues.
• Trading accounts:
  • Sit at the boundary between you and a venue.
  • Hold balances and positions in instruments and assets.
  • Are the channels through which strategies trade.

From a high level:

• Strategies generate orders and position changes.
• Those orders are routed through specific trading accounts to particular venues and instruments.
• Resulting positions and balances are recorded per trading account and per instrument/asset.
• The Holdings view then aggregates this into the portfolio‑style summaries you see in the UI.

Understanding this model helps you answer:

• “On which venues am I actually trading?”
• “Which accounts belong to which strategies?”
• “How do my token and instrument‑level exposures relate to each other?”