# Cascading

Cascading (also called stepwise in Molecule terms) is a granular and flexible way to see a trade's volume settle out during the delivery month. However, it produces a lot more data than the alternative, [Decay](/core-functionality/core-features/specialized-features/decay.md). The most clear way to describe cascading is by example.

#### Example

In this example, consider a **monthly** frequency product that is set up to cascade into **dailies**, and then to **hourlies**. In this example, the trade is entered for April.

* The trade is entered for the April (**monthly**) product.
* Molecule automatically generates **daily** and **hourly** trades related to it. To make sure there is never duplication in reporting:
  * For the user-entered **monthly**, the **trade date** is set to today. The **settlement date** is set to the day before the flow month. This means that valuation rows will be created only for as-of dates between those two days, inclusive.
  * The Molecule-generated **daily** is a 30-day strip, with a tenor of the full delivery month. Its **trade date** is set to the first of the delivery month. Its **settlement date** is set to the day before flow. So, valuation rows for each leg will be created only for as-of dates between those two days.
  * The Molecule-generated **hourlies** are a single trade for each day in the delivery month. Each trade is a 24-hour **hourly** strip. Each trade's **trade date** is set to the delivery date. Each leg's **settlement date** is also set to the delivery date. So, valuation rows for each leg will be created only once.

The resulting valuation row counts will look like:

<figure><img src="https://files.helpdocs.io/56bu62syz9/articles/27pz25xa2m/1689346804956/screenshot-2023-07-14-at-9-59-44-am.png" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

#### Quantities/Prices

The children/grandchildren of cascading trades may need quantities and prices scaled. Molecule scales quantities today.

#### Considerations

* As you can imagine, cascading creates a fair number of trade and reporting rows! Molecule doesn't have an issue with this volume. What important is that the reporting rows never overlap.
* If you view the Trades screen in grouped mode, you can avoid seeing the auto-generated trades as well.
* Molecule has special treatment for the portions of a cascading trade that aren't all the way at the bottom. When, for example, the monthly expires, it doesn't print a proper realized row. Instead, it marks the trade as if it's still alive through its last day.
* If you want to make a change to a cascading trade, change the highest-level trade in the series (in this example, the **monthly**). Molecule should take care of the rest.

#### Setting it Up

Cascading is set up by the Molecule Customer Success team. Of note, it takes a bit of work -- so it's likely to take longer than most requests, and likely to involve you in the process of setup and validation.


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