Standard Course List

Duration of Course: One day

Course Covers

Front Arena can be extended at several extension points with a number of different technologies, and the ARENA Extension Framework (AEF) provides a programmatic framework into which extensions are registered As standard, Front Arena enables you to access a number of tools and technologies known as AEF Base (see AEF certification for details), to use these tools, the user must be AEF Base Certified. This course is normally the first step towards achieving AEF Base Certification. AEF Base Certification is also the prerequisite for certification in the Business Extension Packages, which enable the user to make advanced extensions in connection with these licensed add-ons, for example the AEF for Equity Pricing add-on.

AEF provides the user with many possibilities; the following are minor examples:

• Create custom real-time reports and applications as well as data extracts.
• Customize the function of the XML-based reporting engine.
• Programmatically access the database for reading and writing.
• Programmatically access the system’s business logic.
• Implement custom validations to implement business rules or to trigger any Python-based operation.
• Add custom columns to the Trading Manager.
• Implement Proprietary Valuation models.

This course is only an introduction to the tools that make the above possible, and it covers:

• AEF Introduction
1. Vision and design of AEF and Extensions
2. Overview of certification
• ARENA Data Model (ADM)
1. Important tables and keys
2. The basics of the ASQL reporting tool
• ARENA Class Model
1. Using the ACM Browser
2. Mappings between ACM and ADM
3. Using the Extension Manager
4. The ARENA Data Flow Language (ADFL)
• Python
1. Basic elements of the language and syntax
2. Using the AEL and ACM libraries

There will be a number of hands-on exercises.

Course Benefits

Important note: This course contributes to AEF Base Certification.

Goal of the Course

After the course, participants will:

• Be prepared for the remaining parts of AEF Base Certification and understand the overall nature of AEF
• Know the basics of ASQL and how to write simple queries
• Understand the basics of Python and know what can be done with Python in Front Arena
• Have observed ADFL, how ACM Extensions are implemented with it and for what purpose

Note that this course prepares the user to perform only the most basic AEF-related tasks. Skills are developed further in the other courses leading to AEF Base Certification. See AEF certification for more details.

Target Audience

The course is suitable for:

• Developers who wish to do further courses, complete AEF Base Certification and gain the ability and right to perform customization and extension of Front Arena
• Others who wish to gain a general understanding of AEF

Participants must be employed by a customer of SunGard Front Arena or an authorized Front Arena partner.

Required Knowledge Level

The participant needs to be an experienced software developer and should either have experience with standard Structured Query Language and Python, or they should be confident that they can learn these skills quickly despite that they are not covered in detail in this or any of the other AEF Base courses.

Type of Course: Technical/software deployment

Duration of Course: Two days

Course Covers

The ARENA Extension Library (AEL) and ARENA Class Model (ACM) allow users to extend and modify Front Arena’s business logic. Proprietary pricing models, broker fee schemes and other framework parameters can be implemented, and existing financial libraries can be accessed. The functioning of mark-to-market, archiving, aggregation and corporate actions can all be customized. It is also an important maintenance tool and is central in the area of Business Data Processing.

Only certified users are entitled to receive support from the Front Arena Help Desk in connection with Python AEL/ACM:

• The possibilities of Python AEL/ACM
• Architecture
• The Python programming language
• Extracting data from the ARENA Data Server
• Writing, testing and activating functions in AEL as well as ACM
• Working with the AEL core
• Working with the AEL application hooks
• Exercises
• Certification information

Goal of the Course

At the end of this course, participants will:

• Know what AEL and ACM can do within Front Arena
• Know how to write and test AEL and ACM functions and applications within Front Arena
• Have received hands-on training in Python syntax, AEL syntax, ACM syntax and how to develop AEL/ACM functions and apply them to Front Arena
• Expand their knowledge in AEL and ACM by continuing to practice, with the help of documentation
• Become certified users by taking a short test provided at the end of the course. More about AEL Certification

Target Audience

Python/ARENA Extension Language and Python/ARENA Class Model developers.

Participants must be employed by a customer of SunGard Front Arena or an authorized Front Arena partner.

Required Knowledge Level

Participants should have attended the "Starting with the ARENA Extension Framework" course or have knowledge of the ARENA Data Model. Programming experience (preferably object-oriented language) is vital. Some knowledge of the Python language is advantageous. See http://www.python.org/.

Type of Course: Technical/software deployment

Certification Exam Details

This course contributes to AEF Base Certification.

Duration of Course: One day

Course Covers

Much of the business logic available in PRIME is defined in the ARENA Class Model (ACM). A user interface makes it possible to customize and extend the ACM according to specific needs. The base logic here is written using the ARENA Dataflow Language (ADFL), which can reference all published ARENA Extension Language (AEL) and ARENA SQL (ASQL) functions. You also learn how to do basic customization.

Goal of the Course

After the course, participants will understand the possibilities of the ARENA Class Model. The course is a base for the "AEF for Equity Pricing" course.

Target Audience

Developers and consultants working with the customization and extension of Front Arena. Participants must be employed by a customer of SunGard Front Arena or an authorized Front Arena partner.

Required Knowledge Level

Participants need to be familiar with Front Arena and have a thorough understanding of PRIME and the ARENA Extension Framework (AEF).

Certification Exam Details

This course contributes to AEF Base Certification.

Type of Course: Technical/software deployment

Duration of Course: One day

Course Covers

Reporting is a central part of front-, middle- and back-office work. This course introduces the XML (Extensible Markup Language) and XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) reporting framework that is the foundation for all reports in Front Arena.

Basic Reporting

This section covers basic day-to-day usage of the reporting functionality included in Front Arena. It includes an introduction, demonstration and exercises of the following:

• Producing a portfolio report
• Highlighting differences between these reports and ASQL based reports
• Scheduling batch reports on the ATS
• Understanding the report pipeline
1. Overview of the reporting script structure
2. XML's role in the reporting
3. XSLT transforms for multiple output formats
• Exercises:
1. Create reports from PRIME with different data formats including HTML, text and PDF.

Customizing reporting

In the second part of the course, we cover how to customize the existing reports. This requires in-depth understanding of the technologies. It includes:

• Introduction to XML, XSLT, CSS
• The basics of XSLT needed for understanding the report templates and making changes to them
• An exercise on creating customized versions of templates

Goal of the Course

After the course attendees should:

• Have a solid understanding of what the Reporting framework encompasses and how it is structured
• Be able to produce and schedule the standard reports
• Be able to make customized versions of the existing reports

Target Audience

Front-, middle- and back-office personnel working with reporting.

Participants must be employed by a customer of SunGard Front Arena or an Authorized Front Arena Partner.

Required Knowledge Level

Users should be familiar with:

• Basic usage of Front Arena
• Basic usage of the Trading Manager

Type of Course: Technical

Duration of Course: One day

Course Covers

Adapt, extend and build custom Front Arena GUIs.

The course covers creating new meny extensions to launch newly created Python modules and tasks. It also covers modifying existing GUIs by adding new fields and changing existing layouts.

Menu Extensions

Menu extensions are new menu items that can be added to almost any application in the system. In this section users learn how to:

• Create new menu items
• Launch applications from the new menu items
• Learn the different menu types and how to use them
• Show how to group menu items

Automation API

The automation API can be used for:

• Retrieving data from GUI about active objects, applications, etc.
• Controlling GUI applications
• Automatic testing

Layout UI

With the Layout UI we can modify existing screens and add functionality to new fields. In this section you will learn how to:

• Rename existing GUIs
• Change the layout of existing GUIs
• Add new fields to existing GUIs

Goal of the Course

After the course attendees should:

• Have a solid understanding of menu extensions and how to create and group new menu items
• Be able to modify GUI layouts and add new fields
• Have an understanding of the Automation API and be able to automatically launch tasks and applications

Target Audience

Developers working with the customization and extension of Front Arena.

Participants must be employed by a customer of SunGard Front Arena or an authorized Front Arena partner.

Required Knowledge Level

Participants should have attended the "AEF – Calculation Trees, ADFL and ACM" course or have the equivalent knowledge.

Participants must be familiar with Front Arena and have a thorough understanding of PRIME and the Arena Extension Framework.

Type of Course: Technical/software deployment

Duration of Course: One day

Course Covers

Front Arena has powerful tools that enable users to implement complex valuation methodologies and business logic:

• Arena Extension Library (AEL) is used to interface external valuation libraries and adapt the values and the behavior of the client.
• ARENA Data Flow Language (ADFL) is used to define valuation flows and dependencies, which are the basis for all calculations in PRIME.

This course shows users how to:

• Encapsulate C/C++ libraries so that users can pass parameters, classes, objects and results back and forth to AEL
• Map valuation extensions to corresponding libraries, including calculated risk figures
• Define parameters to pass to the functions, how to override existing values and how to optimize their usage

Course Benefits

Please note that AEF - Equity Pricing is not a standard part of Front Arena and requires an additional license. Please contact your account manager for details.

Certification is available, see AEF Advanced Certification.

Goal of the Course

The attendees should understand how to define and call on valuation libraries from Front Arena, how to pass real-time updated parameters and how to access the resulting values within Front Arena.

Target Audience

Anyone responsible for developing and setting up proprietary algorithms and valuation models and incorporating them into the Front Arena financial calculations, particularly:

• Quantitive analysts
• Application managers
• Developers

Participants must be employed by a customer of SunGard Front Arena or an authorized Front Arena partner.

Required Knowledge Level

Participants should have attended the following courses:

• AEF – Customization with Python AEL and ACM
• AEF – Calculation Trees, ADFL and ACM

Participants should have a thorough knowledge of the following

• C/C++ programming knowledge
• Experience of working with PRIME

Type of Course: Technical

Duration of Course: One day

Course Covers

Define custom pay-off expressions for exotics. The User-defined Monte Carlo (UDMC) Engine allows users to price new contracts with a minimum of effort. The contract payoff is entered in a high-level language which is evaluated by a fast C++ Monte Carlo Engine. The main features are:

• Input data at your fingertips, such as real-time yield curves, volatility data, dividends, etc.
• A growing library with built-in payoff expressions available out-of-the-box
• Powerful language that enables users to customize payoff patterns
• Flexible scenario and what-if analysis to stress test the pricing and risk figures

This course will show you how to:

• Represent new valuation parameters specific to the new contract in the data model and in the valuation trees
• Create a payoff expression in PEL (Pay-off Expression Language)
• Work with matrixes and vectors to accelerate calculations
• Map the new valuation to instruments and specify its properties, such as event discretion steps and methods

Course Benefits

Please note that the ARENA UDMC Engine is not a standard part of Front Arena and requires an additional license. Please contact your account manager for details.

Certification is available, see AEF Advanced Certification.

Goal of the Course

After completing the course, the attendees should be able to quickly set up valuation of completely new contracts using the UDMC Engine.

Target Audience

Anyone responsible for developing and setting valuation of completely new contracts using the UDMC Engine and incorporating them into the Front Arena financial calculations, particularly:

• Quantitative analysts
• Application managers
• Developers

Participants must be employed by a customer of SunGard Front Arena or an authorized Front Arena partner.

Required Knowledge Level

Participants should be AEF Base Certified.

Participants should have a thorough knowledge of the following:

• C/C++ programming knowledge
• Experience of working with PRIME

Type of Course: Technical/software deployment

Duration of Course: 1.5 days

Course Covers

The ARENA Message Broker (AMB) is the real-time messaging backbone of Front Arena. This component, with its associated Software Development Kit (SDK), enables the connection of other systems, front office, back office, data warehousing, etc. Front Arena can then serve as an enterprise risk management engine or the core of a complete straight-through processing system.

The course includes:

• Messages and data model
• Technology and programming interface
• Import/export data to and from Front Arena
• AMBA messages
• AMB Adapter and Arena Extract options
• Sample export and import messages
• AMB hands-on workshop
1. Running Arena Extract in connection with AMB
2. Running AMB Adapter in batch and real time
3. Understanding default message values set by the AMB Adapter (AMBA)
• AMB-SDK hands-on programming workshop
1. amb_trade_reader and amb_trade_writer
2. Programming a trade tracking sequence

Goal of the Course

At the end of the course, participants will understand the role and functioning of AMB as well as know how to use the AMB Adapter in real-time and batch mode. Participants will have received hands-on training in developing AMB adapters using the SDK.

Target Audience

AMB adapter developers, Front Arena application managers and Front Arena system managers.

Participants must be employed by a customer of Front Arena or an authorized Front Arena partner.

Required Knowledge Level

Participants should have attended basic AEF training or have an equivalent knowledge of the database. If you wish to develop AMB adapters you will need to have experience in C-programming. Without this knowledge, some parts of the course will be difficult to follow.

Type of Course: Technical/software deployment

Duration of Course: Two days

Course Covers

What is FIX?

The Financial Information Exchange (FIX) protocol is a technical specification for electronic communication of trade-related messages. More precisely, the FIX protocol is a series of messaging specifications developed through the collaboration of banks, broker-dealers, exchanges, industry utilities and associations, institutional investors and information technology providers from around the world. These market participants share a vision of a common global language for automated trading of securities, derivative and other financial instruments (See http://www.fixprotocol.org for more information).

What is the ARENA Integration Framework for FIX?

The ARENA Integration Framework (AIF) for FIX makes it easy for Front Arena users to connect to any broker or exchange that uses FIX for the electronic communications of orders and trades.

The course covers:

Becoming familiar with the ARENA integration framework (AIF) for FIX

1. What participants can do with the AIF for FIX
2. How participants can benefit from the mapping structure
3. Which components are involved

• Hands-on – AMAS FIX toolkit
1. Installation
2. Configuration and adaptation
3. Testing and deployment
• Hands on – ARENA FIX Gateway (AFG)
1. Installation
2. Configuration and adaptation
3. Testing and deployment

Course Benefits

AIF-FIX Certification

This certificate comprises two parts. The first part (D06F) consists of nine multiple-choice or one-line answers. You will receive grading on this part of the test immediately. The second part (D06M) consists of three essay-style questions.

Click here to register for the AIF-FIX certification program and assessments D06F/D06M.

Goal of the Course

• After the course, participants will understand the overall scope of the AIF for FIX from a functional and technical perspective and be prepared to configure and adapt both the AMAS FIX toolkit and the ARENA FIX Gateway (AFG).

Participants will be able to understand the context within which the various customization tools function.

• Participants will be trained to use the toolkits for AMAS and AFG.
• After the course, participants can take a test that offers AIF-FIX Certification (see info box below).

Target Audience

• Application and system managers wishing to learn how to adapt a FIX based integration into Front Arena
• Developers who are going to use AIF for FIX
• Registered partners involved in deliveries and implementation projects based on the FIX protocol

Participants must be employed by a customer of Front Arena or an authorized Front Arena partner.

Required Knowledge Level

Our intention is to secure maximum value for course participants, so candidates new to Front Arena are not suited to this education.

• At least one year of experience as a system administrator with Front Arena, including AMAS/AIMS components. Alternatively, participation and understanding of the course Front Arena – Overview for Managers and Developers
• Knowledge of how to start and stop system components such as an AMAS
• Knowledge of the TNPFind component for monitoring and troubleshooting (see Kbase document FCA1319)
• Participants must have a basic understanding of the FIX protocol.

Type of Course: Technical

Price

Price for course + price for certification

Certification Exam Details

FIX certification required for using FIX with Front Arena

Duration of Course: One day

Course Covers

PACE boosts PRIME Trading Manager performance by efficiently utilizing modern multicore hardware. Calculation of Trading Manager sheets is done in parallel on several cores. PACE can be used locally on clients as well remotely on servers. High-volume, calculation-intensive Trading Manager applications can be diverted to servers. At the same time, server-based PACE makes it possible to use hardware resources more economically by allowing several users to make use of the same computations. PACE also allows for prestarted calculations, giving zero startup time for the users.

This course covers:

• Description of PACE technology architecture
• Which use cases fit PACE
• Requirement analysis for PACE deployment
• PACE installation and configuration
• Hands-on exercises for PACE installation and configuration

Goal of the Course

At the end of the course the participant will understand what PACE is used for, how to analyze use cases and how to deploy it.

Target Audience

• Managers who want to understand the potential and benefits of PACE and how to deploy it
• Technical staff tasked with the deployment of PACE

Required Knowledge Level

• Basic knowledge of the Front Arena client/server architecture and its components
• Basic knowledge of the PRIME client

Type of Course: Technical/software deployment

Duration of Course: One day (Could be extended to two days, see below)

Course Covers

Day 1

• Application fundamentals and concepts
• Defining instruments and entering trades
• Trade management – Creating trade filters, portfolios
• Valuation – Yield curves, volatility structures and the volatility manager
• Position keeping – Trading Manager: Portfolio sheet, Trade Sheet, Risk Matrix sheet, etc.

Day 2

• Development in PRIME, AEF and AIF, Extension Manager, Python editor, etc.
• Overview of trade flow through the system
• PRIME configurations and administration
• The basics of Electronic Trading and Market Making
• Basics in Operations and Back Office

Goal of the Course

After the course users will be familiar with the normal use of Front Arena PRIME in the above areas and how to use the product in their respective roles in the financial institution.

Target Audience

Front- and middle-office staff as well as application managers who are new to Front Arena PRIME or wish to deepen or broaden their understanding of the software.

Back-office personnel may also find the course useful to develop their knowledge of the system.

Required Knowledge

Relevant business knowledge. No previous knowledge of Front Arena is required.

Type of Course: Functional