> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.ampfutures.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.ampfutures.com/trading-platforms/quantower/portfolio-panels/synthetic-symbols.md).

# Synthetic Symbols

## What is Synthetic Symbols <a href="#what-is-synthetic-symbols" id="what-is-synthetic-symbols"></a>

**Synthetic Symbols** panel allows to create any non-standard instruments (symbols) or spreads that you can both trade and use as an indicator of the current market situation or market divergences.

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Spread Trading - How to Create\_Trade Synthetic Symbols
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Spread trading is a strategy that simultaneously creates a long and short position for different assets, in order to reduce the risk of the entire portfolio. Each side of the spread is called a "Leg", which is necessary to set the weighting factor for, i.e. the number of contracts for buy or sell. A market-neutral position, which does not depend on whether the market will go up or down is obtained with a proper selection of these coefficients.

![General view of Synthetic Symbols in Quantower platform](https://gblobscdn.gitbook.com/assets%2F-LD6FsRvQ3jgwJIg6O7r%2F-LMlL5CKrkoUpIVWhYeG%2F-LMlbXVrQD2fKMO21RAS%2FSynthetic%20symbols.png?alt=media\&token=e7ef7bef-5547-46f0-b079-2b428c10f492)

## How to Create a Custom Spread in Quantower? <a href="#how-to-create-a-custom-spread-in-quantower" id="how-to-create-a-custom-spread-in-quantower"></a>

For example, let's build a spread between different brokers within the same asset and see if there is a difference in prices. This is a classic example of Broker arbitrage.

* Open the Synthetic Symbols panel and click "**Create Synthetic**".
* Set the name for your spread and select a trading instrument.
* Click "**Add Leg**" to add another instrument. You can add an unlimited number of instruments by creating new "legs"
* Set the coefficients for each leg. In our example, we buy 1 lot of AUD/USD from the broker "A" and sell 1 lot of AUD/USD from the broker "B".
* Click the "**Save**" button to calculate the received spread.
* Open the Chart panel and select your spread from the list of instruments.

![](https://gblobscdn.gitbook.com/assets%2F-LD6FsRvQ3jgwJIg6O7r%2F-LMlL5CKrkoUpIVWhYeG%2F-LMliFc-qAi028Mst3VS%2Fsynthetic%20chart%20of%20AUD_USD%20beetwen%20two%20brokers.png?alt=media\&token=3bf51859-d36e-4c58-b823-d868c26eaaea)

Spread between different brokers within the same asset — AUD/USD

![Spread between WTI and Brent Crude Oil](https://gblobscdn.gitbook.com/assets%2F-LD6FsRvQ3jgwJIg6O7r%2F-LMlL5CKrkoUpIVWhYeG%2F-LMlj7ypKyUS7XSzCw2r%2FSpread%20between%20WTI%20and%20Brent%20crude%20oil.png?alt=media\&token=838c00f8-2930-47c7-8e20-31bdb49bed46)
