Basic Order Strategies Introduction... 3 Using the Pre-Defined Order Strategies with your Trading Interfaces... 3 Entry Order Strategies... 3 Basic Entry Order Strategies explained... 3 Exit Order Strategies... 4 Basic Exit Order Strategies explained... 4 Understanding the Order Strategy Window... 6 1) Select an existing Order Strategy... 7 2) Create a New Order Strategy... 7 3) Delete an Order Strategy... 7 4) Copy and Edit an Existing Order Strategy... 7 5) Change Name, Edit and/or Save Order Strategy... 8 6) Load an Order Strategy... 8 7) Order Strategy Trigger... 8 8) Order Strategy Type... 9 9) Order Targets... 10 10) Menu for Order Targets... 11 New... 11 Add... 11 Add Sub... 12 Cancel... 12 Advanced... 12 Edit... 13 Delete... 13 Deselect... 13 Help... 14 Defining Your Order Strategy Target... 14 Trade Type... 14 Auto Trade Table... 15 Reference... 16 Lot Allocation... 18 Order Type... 20 Price (ticks)... 21 Price2 (ticks)... 21 Lot Size... 21 Indicator... 21
Adding Behaviors... 22 1) Enable First Amend... 22 2) Enable Trail... 23 3) Enable Chase... 24 Order Target Pre-Conditions... 26 Order Target Post-Conditions... 26 Sub Order Targets... 29
Introduction The pre-defined order strategies that come with your Trading Platform are described in this guide. These are simple strategies for profit and loss targets that can chase the market for entry and track positions for exits. Next this guide will teach you how to build basic order strategies with the Order Strategies window. This will allow you to be creative and build a strategy to meet your specific needs. Using the Pre-Defined Order Strategies with your Trading Interfaces There are a number of pre-defined Order Strategies that available to select under Long Entry, Short Entry, Long Exit and Short Exit. Just click the small arrow at the right side of these trade buttons and a drop down list of Order Strategies will be shown. Entry Order Strategies The Buy Market, Sell Market, Buy Bid, Buy Ask, Sell Bid and Sell Ask Order Strategies are the same as the Trading Buttons with that name. These are explained in the Basic Introduction to your Trading Platform Guide. 4) Click the Short Entry Button to place your Entry Order. As you can see on the picture six of these Entry Strategies are the same as the Trade Buttons: Buy Market, Sell Market, Buy Bid, Buy Ask, Sell Bid and Sell Ask. 1) Click on the small arrow on the right side of the Long Entry or Short Entry Trade Button to see a list of available Order Strategies. 2) In this case the Buy Ask + Chase is selected so you see it entered next to the Short Entry button. 3) There is also a black space that is an option to have no Order Strategy selected. Basic Entry Order Strategies explained Buy Bid + Chase This Order Strategy will place a Buy Limit order at the Bid price with the number of lots selected on your Trading Interface. After 3 seconds if the limit order is not filled, it will chase the market by moving your limit order UP by 1 tick. This strategy will make 3 chase attempts and then cancel itself. (It will move your Buy limit order a maximum of 3 ticks over a 9 second period.)
Buy Ask + Chase This Order Strategy will place a Buy Limit order at the Ask price and chase the market up just as the Buy Bid + Chase Order Strategy does. Sell Ask + Chase This Order Strategy will place a Sell Limit order at the Ask price with the number of lots selected on your Trading Interface. After 3 seconds if the limit order is not filled, it will chase the market by moving your limit order DOWN by 1 tick. This strategy will make 3 chase attempts and then cancel itself. (It will move your Sell limit order a maximum of 3 ticks over a 9 second period.) Sell Bid + Chase This Order Strategy will place a Sell Limit order at the Bid price and chase the market UP just as the Sell Ask + Chase Order Strategy does. Exit Order Strategies 1) Click on the small arrow on the right side of the Long Exit or Short Exit Trade Button to see a list of available Order Strategies. 2) In this case the Simple Bracket is selected so you see it entered next to the Short Exit button. 3) There is also a black space that is an option to have no Order Strategy selected. 4) Click the Long Exit Button to place your Entry Order. Basic Exit Order Strategies explained Simple Bracket This Order Strategy will place a Limit order Profit target 5 ticks from your entry Price. It will also place a StopLimit order for your Loss Target 5 ticks from your entry price. This will only be placed when you enter a new position.
There will only be ONE Profit target and ONE Loss target placed. If you scale in, no additional profit or loss targets will be placed. When either your Profit or Loss target is filled, the other order will be automatically canceled. Multi Bracket This Order Strategy is placed every time an order gets filled where you are flat or in a position. It will place a Limit order for your Profit Target 2 ticks from your fill price. A StopLimit order for your Loss Target will be placed 6 ticks from your fill price. Both Profit and Loss targets will cancel each other depending on which one is filled first. If you scale into an existing position, more Profit and Loss targets will be added around the NEW fill. You can have multiple brackets around your position that will all work independently of each other. For example if you have scaled in at different prices, when your first Profit or Loss target is hit, the other order paired with that target will cancel but any other brackets will remain. This is a way to spread your risk as you keep scaling into a position. BE + 1 50-0 Trail This strategy will only be placed when you enter a new position. A Limit order for 50% of the lots selected on your Trading Interface will be placed for your Profit target 6 ticks from your fill price. (If 4 lots are selected, this strategy will place a profit target for 2 lots. If 3 lots are selected it will still place a limit order for 2 lots because it will round the order up rather than down. But if 2 lots are selected it will place an order for 1 lot.) A StopLimit order will be placed 8 ticks from your fill price. As you scale out of your position, your StopLimit order will adjust its lot size to the number of lots that are left in your trade. When you have your first 7 ticks of profit, the StopLimit order will move to 1 tick above the entry price for a Long trade and 1 tick below your entry price for a Short trade. For every additional 4 ticks of profit, your loss target will trail 4 ticks. This will repeat up to 16 times. This is a great way to lock in a partial profit and let your loss target trail allowing you to stay in a position until the market reverses. When either your Profit or Loss target are filled, the other order will be canceled. Another safety feature is added to this strategy that will automatically cancel ALL unfilled orders when you are flat.
BE + 50-25 Trail This is similar to the BE +1 50 0 Trail. The StopLimit acts the same with the BreakEven +1 tick, trailing stop and Cancel ALL positions when flat features active. This will give you 2 different Limit orders for your Profit target. The first Limit order for 50% of the lot size selected will be placed 6 ticks from your fill price. The second Profit target will be a Limit order for 25% of your selected lot size leaving you with the last 25% of your selected lot size to stay in the trade as long as it remains profitable. This strategy would be good for a lot size of 3 or greater. Understanding the Order Strategy Window Entry Order Strategies and Exit Order Strategies can be easily created using the Order Strategy window. You can chase entries with changing parameters, trail exits with changing parameters, create layered multiple entries with one click and many more automated tasks. In an Order Strategy each Order Target carries its own intelligence that can include: how to position itself as a buy or sell how to manage its own lot size breakeven, trail or chase behaviors sub targets associated with it pre and/or post behaviors associated with it Open the Order Strategies window from the menu at the top of the Trading Interface.
1) Select an existing Order Strategy Click the arrow to the right of this window and a drop down menu will appear with all the preset order strategies and any new strategies that you have saved to this menu. 2) Create a New Order Strategy Click New to create a new order strategy. A window will open. Type the name of your strategy and click OK. 3) Delete an Order Strategy Click the Delete button to delete the selected strategy shown under Order Strategy Name. 4) Copy and Edit an Existing Order Strategy Select a PreSet Order Strategy or any Order Strategy you have created. Click Copy and a window will open up where you can create a new name for the strategy. Edit any parameter(s) to change certain aspects of the strategy. Click OK to save the strategy.
This is useful when learning Order Strategy because you can copy a PreSet Order Strategy and change the ticks, Order Type, Order Strategy Trigger etc. to personalize the strategy without building a strategy from scratch. 5) Change Name, Edit and/or Save Order Strategy Select an Order Strategy from the drop down menu or using the Load button. Click the Save As button at the top of the Order Strategy window. A window will open allowing you to save the order strategy with a name of your choice. Your strategy will be saved to the Order Strategy folder (default) in your Installation folder. Your Order Strategies are saved in the layout you are logged onto by default when you choose Save & Exit in the Exit Platform window. Any Order Strategies created and saved in your current layout will not necessarily show up in the drop down menu under Order Strategy Name if you log onto a different layout. Any Order Strategies saved with the Save As button will be available when you click on the Load button in any layout you choose to logon to. 6) Load an Order Strategy Click the Load button to open a window and load an order strategy that is not in the drop down list under Order Strategy Name. This is useful if you are sharing order strategies. This saves the Strategy and adds it to the list under Order Strategy Name. 7) Order Strategy Trigger Choose an action from the drop down list to control when the order strategy is activated. New Position only activates the order strategy when entering a new position (from flat). It will not place your Order Strategy if you are already in a position (Long or Short).
Scale In only activates the order strategy when scaling into an open position. It will not be placed if you get a fill when you are Flat. Always activates the order strategy on a new position (from Flat) and when Scaling into an existing position. This will place the order strategy whether you are Long, Short or Flat. Always Non-Auto this will only place the order strategy when a manually placed order is filled. If an automatic order such as AutoLimit or AutoStop is filled, the order strategy will not fire. This is useful when you have multiple strategies active. Blank - You can also choose to leave the Strategy Trigger window blank. This means that your Order Strategy will only be placed when you click on an Order Strategy button (Long Entry, Long Exit, Short Entry or Short Exit) on your Trade Chart or Trade Window. NOTE: For Entry Strategies it is generally better to choose the Blank option. If you become very familiar with Order Strategies and want to make a personalized complex order strategy, you can test using the other Order Strategy Triggers. If you do choose a Strategy Trigger and then click one of the Order Strategy buttons you could get duplicate orders placed depending on your Position and your Order Strategy Trigger selected. It is best to practice using Order Strategies in Simulation or Replay mode to understand how they will work with different parameters. 8) Order Strategy Type Entry Strategy this defines the order strategy as an entry strategy that will show up under the Long Entry and Short Entry drop down menus on the Trading Interfaces that use Order Strategies. Examples of Entry Strategies: Chase the price with a Limit order Layering multiple entries above or below price to Scale In to a position Breakout entry stop orders on both sides of current price Exit Strategy - this defines the order strategy as an exit strategy that will show up under the Long Exit and Short Exit drop down menus on the Trading Interfaces that use Order Strategies. Examples of Exit Strategies: Enter Profit target and Stop Loss around the entry price Create trailing Stop order(s) Create OCO orders Create Reverse orders
9) Order Targets This window shows the profit and/or loss order targets that were created with the order strategy. In the example below, the Multi Bracket order strategy is selected. There is a Profit target (Limit order) and a Loss target (StopLimit order) created with this strategy.
10) Menu for Order Targets The list of actions that can be used for creating, editing and deleting order targets are shown here. New Click this button to expand the Order Strategy window showing a choice of conditions you can use to create a new order target. When the New button is clicked the buttons on the right side of the Define Target section are: Add Click this to add a new separate Order Target in the Order Target window after you have chosen the conditions for the new order target.
Add Sub First select an order target that has already been added to the Order Target window. Click New to open the Define Order Targets window. Choose the conditions you want for this order target. When you click Add Sub the new sub-order target is now associated with the selected order target. It will be placed when the main order target has filled. In this example when the L0 Limit order is filled, the sub-target order will be placed as a Stop that will be 5 ticks from the fill price. Cancel Click Cancel to leave your order target unchanged. Advanced Click Advanced to open the Order Target Pre-Condition and Order Target Post- Condition sections. These sections are explained under the section with their respective titles.
Edit You must select an existing Order in the Order Targets window. Then click Edit and the Order Strategy window will expand C l i c k t h e U p d a t e b u t t o n a f t e r you change the conditions for your order target. (Or click Cancel to leave the order strategy target unchanged. NOTE: If you click Edit with an order target selected (and highlighted as shown above), the Order Strategy window will expand and the Add button will be replaced by an Update button and the Add Sub button will be faded (unusable). Delete You can delete the selected Order Target by clicking the Delete button. The selected order target will have a gray background as shown above. Deselect You can unselect the selected order target by clicking this button. This allows you to have no order targets selected.
Help Click this button to launch the login to your Portal site. You can access the instructions for your Trading Interfaces on the Portal page. Defining Your Order Strategy Target In the Define Target section of the Order Strategy window you can choose the various characteristics of your target using different references for order placement, order types, lot size and using indicators if desired. Trade Type The Trade Type determines whether you control your Trade type: Long or Short. You can also choose to let your Trading Platform determine your Trade type Long or Short - based on your Order Strategy setup. Long Short Auto This will always place a Buy order. This will always place a Sell order. This will place a Buy or Sell order depending on 3 factors: Order Strategy Type: Entry or Exit Order Type: Limit, MIT#, Stop, StopLimit Whether the ticks are + or -. Please see the Auto Trade table for reference. The best way to understand how this order will work in your strategy is to build the strategy and test with the Replay data feed to see where it will place the order and whether the order placed is a buy or sell order.
Auto Trade Table Strategy Type Defined by either Entry or Exit Entry Entry/Exit Type Defined by which Order Strategy button on your Trading Interface you choose to display the order strategy Long Entry (Manual or Strategy Trigger) Order Type Chosen from the Order Type window Limit MIT# LimitIT# Stop StopLimit Stop# StopLimit# Ticks (+) This is the standard method for creating order placement in relation to the Reference price places Buy order below the Reference Price places Buy stop order above Reference Price Ticks (-) This gives added flexibility to the order strategy by placing a reverse type order in relation to the Reference price places Sell order above the Reference Price places Sell stop order below the Reference Price Short Entry Limit MIT# LimitIT# places Sell order above the Reference Price places Buy order below the Reference Price (Manual or Strategy Trigger) Stop StopLimit Stop# StopLimit# places Sell stop order below the Reference Price places Buy stop order above the Reference Price Exit Long Exit (Manual or Strategy Trigger) Limit MIT# LimitIT# Stop StopLimit Stop# StopLimit# places Sell order above the Reference Price (profit target) places Sell stop order below the Reference Price (loss target) places a Buy order below the Reference Price places a Buy stop order above the Reference Price Short Exit (Manual or Strategy Trigger) Limit MIT# LimitIT# Stop StopLimit Stop# StopLimit# places Buy order below the Reference Price (profit target) places Buy stop order above the Reference Price (loss target) places a Sell order above the Reference Price places a Sell stop order below the Reference Price
Reference The ticks used to set up your Order Targets will be based on the distance from this reference price. Group 1 can be used on Trade Window 3X and the Trade Chart. Group 2 can only be used with the Trade Chart. Group 1: Last Bid Current Bid price: Your ticks will be based on the distance from the current bid for your order entry. Last Ask Current Ask price: Your ticks will be based on the distance from the current ask for your order entry. Last Trade Current price could be the bid or the ask. Your ticks will be based on the distance from the current price for your order entry. User Defined Set User Defined price by left clicking in the white price column on the Trade Window 3.X. This will turn the cell around that price grey and set the User Defined price. Can only be used on Trade Window 3X (not on Trade Chart). The ticks will be based on the distance from the User Defined price. *If you use User Defined as your Reference Price and use Auto for your Trade Type you could activate an immediate buy or sell if your ticks offset was still below the current price for a Long Entry or still above the current price for a Short Entry. So pay attention to where the User Defined Price and tick offsets are in relation to the current price. Order Price Uses the price where you placed your Entry order to calculate your exit targets. This could be different from the Fill Price depending on order type and market conditions at the time of the fill. Your ticks will be based on the distance from the order price. Fill Price Uses the price your order was actually filled to calculate your exit targets. This could be different from the Order Price depending on order type and market conditions at the time of the fill. Your ticks will be based on the distance from the fill price.
Average Price If you scaled into your position at different prices, there will be an average price calculated from the different fill prices. If the average price is a decimal that does not match the tick decimal your Trading Interface will round UP the average price. Your ticks will be based on the distance from the average price. Track Average Price The order price will track the average price of all open fills +/- the specified ticks (ticks selected under Price (ticks) ). This is useful when you scale into a position and want your exit target to be a specified number of ticks from the average fill price. Group 2: PrevBar Open The reference point will be based on the previous bar open on your Trade Chart. PrevBar Close The reference point will be based on the previous bar close on your Trade Chart. PrevBar High The reference point will be based on the previous bar high on your Trade Chart. PrevBar Low The reference point will be based on the previous bar low on your Trade Chart. Indicator Price This must be a price-based indicator such as a Moving Average. The order will be placed the specified number of ticks from the selected indicator price (rounded to the nearest tick). Once the order is placed on your Trade Chart, it will remain at that price regardless of the changing indicator value as the market moves. NOTE: Indicators such as oscillators (i.e. MACD) will not work because the indicator is not price based. Track Indicator Price The order will initially be placed the specified number of ticks from the selected indicator price (rounded to the nearest tick). Once the order is placed on your Trade Chart, it will dynamically update its position based on the changing indicator value as the market moves. For example if you chose to place a limit order 3 ticks from the simple moving average, the order will update always remaining 3 ticks from the simple moving average as the moving average value changes.
Lot Allocation This setting will determine how many lots are placed when your order is activated or how your filled lots will be tracked. Fill Size This refers to the number of lots filled. The order will not activate until all specified lots are filled. Net Position Net Position is looking at your total position without requiring a Fill to activate the strategy. Track Net Position This keeps track of your net position and adjusts to add any lots that were scaled in or subtract any lots that were scaled out. Specified Lots This refers to the Lots in the box labeled Lots (just below Lot Allocation window) that are specified in the Order Strategy window. (Does not look at Lots selected on Trade Window or Trade Chart.) Specified Percentage This refers to a specified percentage of the Lots selected on the Trade Window or the Trade Chart (depending on where the Profile was logged on from). You would type a percentage in the Lot Size window. Examples: 25% would be entered as.25 300% would be entered as 3.0 Note: If the percentage does not divide evenly it will default to the larger lot size. Examples:.3 for 10 lots would enter a trade for 4 lots..5 for 11 lots would enter a trade for 6 lots. Track Remaining This would track the remaining lots as you were scaling out of your position, but would not track the new lots as you are scaling into a position. So this will only decrease your original order size as it is being scaled out. Lots This refers to the Lots specified on the Trade Window or the Trade Chart. ( Lot Size in the Order Strategy will not be available to use.) Lotsx2 (etc) This refers to 2 times (etc) the number of Lots specified on the Trade Window or the Trade Chart. Lots+2 (etc) This refers to the Lots specified on the Trade Window or the Trade Chart plus 1 (etc).
Percentage NetPos This allows you to set a percentage of the net position as the lot size. NetPosDelta This refers to the difference between the lot size on the Trading Interface and the open position, (This is used for Exit Strategies.)
Order Type You can set your Order Type for your order strategy here. The Order Type available depends on the Exchange and your broker. The CBOT does not offer StopLimit orders that are held on the Exchange. Any order with # is a synthetic order that is held on your computer. Market Limit Market orders go to the Exchange and get filled immediately. Buys are filled at the Ask and Sells are filled at the Bid. Your order will go to the head of the line so you get a guaranteed fill at the current bid or ask. Limit orders go to the Exchange and go to the end of the cue. Limit orders guarantee a fill at the Limit price or better. Placing a Limit order does not guarantee a fill but does guarantee the price. Stop StopLimit LimitIT# MIT# Stop# StopLimit# Stop orders go to the Exchange. As soon as the Stop price is hit your order becomes a Market order. This guarantees a fill but does not guarantee a price. StopLimit orders go to the Exchange. As soon as the StopLimit price is hit it becomes a limit order at Price 2 of your StopLimit. This will not guarantee a fill but it will guarantee the price. LimitIT# (Limit If Touched) orders are a special order type that are available on your Trading Interfaces. They can only be used with Order Strategies. These synthetic orders are held on your computer and become a Limit order that is sent to the Exchange when that price is touched. (Similar to MIT# orders but a Limit order is sent instead of a Market order) The price does not have to trade through this LimitIT# price to send the order to the Exchange. This will guarantee the price but will not guarantee a fill. MIT# (Market If Touched) orders are held on your computer. They become a Market order that is sent to the Exchange when that price is touched. This will guarantee a fill but not guarantee the price. Stop# (Stop If Touched) orders become a Stop order that is sent to the Exchange the instantly and becomes a Market Order. This will guarantee a fill but will not guarantee the price. StopLimit# orders stay on your computer. As soon as the price is touched it sends a Limit order (Price 2) to the Exchange which in normal market conditions would fill immediately. This does not guarantee a fill but does guarantee the price.
Price (ticks) This controls how many ticks above or below the Reference choice your order will be placed. This number can be positive or negative. Example: If you set the Price (ticks) to 2 and your Reference is your Fill Price, the order strategy will place your Limit order (Profit target) 2 ticks above your Fill Price Price2 (ticks) If you choose any type of Stop Limit order, you must select a number of Ticks for the limit part of your order. A StopLimit is composed of 2 prices: a Stop price and a Limit price (Price2 controls the Limit order). Lot Size If you choose Specified Lots, Specified Percentage or Percentage NetPos you must put a value in this window. When Specified Lots is selected it will refer to the number of lots you choose under Lot Size. When Specified Percentage is selected you must put a percentage in this field. The order strategy will use this percentage of the Lot size selected on the Trade Window 3.X or the Trade Chart (.5 = 50% and 2.0 = 200%). Example: If you put 0.50 under Lot Size and you have 6 lots selected on your Trading Interface, the order strategy will enter 3 lots for that order. Indicator You can choose an indicator to use as a Reference for placing your order target. You MUST have a chart open with the same indicator you choose to use in your Order Strategy. You would choose either Indicator Price or Track Indicator Price from the Reference drop down list. This will refer to the indicator selected in this section. 1. Click the Select button to open the Chart Indicators window. Select an indicator just as you would select any indicator you want to add to your chart. See the Chart Indicators section of the Customizing Your Charts guide for more information about selecting and setting parameters for your indicators. 2. The selected indicator will be displayed in the Indicator window. 3. If the selected indicator has a choice of values there will be a drop down list in the Output window. Most indicators only have the one choice which is Value. But for example, Bollinger Bands will have several different options to chose. 4. Select the Bar form from the drop down menu that matches your chart. 5. Type in the Bar Value of your chart. Remember if using a Time bar this value should be in seconds (not minutes).
Adding Behaviors This section gives you the ability to add behaviors to your order. NOTE: These check boxes do not uncheck automatically. Be careful when setting up your next order target to uncheck these boxes or these behaviors will be added to the next order target. 1) Enable First Amend By checking Enable First Amend the order will adjust your Loss target to a particular price determined by the tick values you add to the windows below. Tick Difference is the amount of profit (positive number) or loss (negative number) in your position. When the market has moved the selected number of ticks, your Loss target will be adjusted based on the number of ticks selected in the BreakEven+ window. BreakEven+ refers to your entry price (or your average entry price if scaling in). If you enter and exit your position at the same price (or same average price) you will break even (minus commissions for your trade). The order will amend to the current average price plus or minus the BreakEven+ amount of ticks. If the BreakEven+ number is positive the number of ticks will be above your entry price guaranteeing a profit. If the BreakEven+ number is negative the number of ticks will be below your entry price. If the Tick Difference number is positive then it will adjust after a certain amount of profit is reached. In the example below the Loss target will adjust to your entry price plus 1 tick when 5 ticks of profit is reached.
If the Tick Difference number is negative it will be adjusted after a specified loss is reached. In the example below after a 3 tick loss is reached the Loss target will be adjusted to 7 ticks below your entry price. Note: Your BreakEven+ value should always be less than the Tick Difference. If Enable First Amend is active your Loss target will not trail until this behavior has been executed. Enable First Amend will only amend your Loss target one time. You can trail after the Enable First Amend if both Enable First Amend and Enable Trail are checked. 2) Enable Trail Trail behavior can be added to the order by checking the Enable Trail check box. There are five different trailing levels that can be setup in the window to the right of Enable Trail. For each level, the number of trail attempts is defined in the Trail Attempts window. The Tick Difference determines when the order should trail. This is the difference between the last traded price and the last price to which this order was amended. The Amend Ticks determines how many ticks this order should be amended for every trail attempt. Example: For Trail 1 there will be 3 trail attempts (or the Loss target will trail 3 times). 1. For every 4 ticks of profit the Loss target will amend 2 ticks. So after the first 4 ticks of profit beyond the entry price the Loss target will amend 2 ticks (Profit +2). 2. For the next trail after 8 ticks of profit beyond entry price (4+4) the stop will amend 2 more ticks guaranteeing 4 ticks of profit (2+2). 3. For the third trail attempt after 12 ticks of profit (4+4+4) the stop will amend 2 more ticks, which will guarantee 6 ticks of profit (2+2+2). There will be no more trail attempts with these parameters after 3 trails.
For Trail 2 there will be 1 trail attempts: After Trail 1 has completed 3 trails, then Trail 2 will trail 1 time. After 10 more ticks of profit, the stop will move 5 ticks. For Trail 3 there will be 20 trail attempts: After Trail 2 has completed 1 trail, Trail 3 will trail 20 times. For every 1 tick of profit the Stop will move 1 tick. Note: The Stop could be hit before the trail attempts have completed. You can set up to 5 different Trails with as many trail attempts as desired. 3) Enable Chase Chase behavior can be added to the order target by checking the Enable Chase checkbox. The order target can be setup to chase on a timeout, volume, or ticks. Every time this condition is reached the order will be amended the number of ticks specified. NOTE: Renko, Reversal and Price Change are not supported. Time When Time is selected, the order will chase the market a specified number of ticks ( Amend Ticks ) after the specified number of seconds chosen in the Diff(T)/Timeout(s) window elapses. Example: After 3 seconds the order target will amend 2 ticks in the direction of the trade.
If a Buy order was placed the Buy Limit would amend to a price 2 ticks higher than the current order price after 3 seconds. It would amend only 3 times. After 9 seconds (3+3+3) the chase would stop and the order would be canceled if the order was not already filled. Volume When Volume is selected, the order will chase the market a specified number of ticks ( Amend Ticks ) after the specified volume increase chosen in the Diff(T)/Timeout(s) window occurs. Example: After a volume increase of 100, the order target will amend 2 ticks in the direction of the trade. If a Buy order was placed, the Buy Limit would amend to a price 2 ticks higher than the current order price after 100 contracts have traded. It would amend only 3 times. After the volume increases 300 (100+100+100) the chase would stop and the order would be cancelled if the order was not already filled. Tick When Tick is selected, the order will chase the market a specified number of ticks (price change) ( Amend Ticks ) after the specified number of ticks (number of trades) chosen in the Diff(T)/Timeout(s) window occurs. Example: After 50 trades, the order target will amend 2 ticks in the direction of the trade. If a Buy order was placed, the Buy Limit would amend to a price 2 ticks higher than the current order price after 50 trades are completed. It would amend only 3 times. After 150 trades (50+50+50) the chase would stop and the order would be cancelled if the order was not already filled.
Order Target Pre-Conditions This section is opened and closed by clicking the Advanced button. Pre-Conditions are conditions only used with Synthetic Orders (#). Synthetic orders are MIT#, LimitIT#, Stop# and StopLimit#. These orders are held on your computer and not at the Exchange. These synthetic orders are only released to the Exchange only after the Pre-Conditions are met. Example: If Depth Below was selected and you placed a value of 100, your order will be sent to the Exchange when the Market Depth goes below 100. NOTE: Timeout is not supported. Order Target Post-Conditions The Post-Condition is meant to have an Action selected that will activate when that Post-Condition is met. Depending on the Post-Condition this could activate the selected Action immediately or when the order is filled. Post-Conditions are conditions associated with your Order Target that are being evaluated with every tick when that order is placed. There are 3 drop down menus in the Order Target Post-Condition section that are all related to each other: 1) This drop down menu gives you a choice of conditions linked to the Order Target that will activate another action selected from menu 2. 2) The drop down menu under Action shows the choice of subsequent actions that can be activated when the condition chosen from menu 1 has been met. 3) This menu under Action Order Strategy is the menu of the Order Strategies that you have available. It is only applicable when you have chosen the Exec Strategy option under menu 2.
Drop Down Menu 1: When one of these conditions occur, the Action chosen the Actions drop down menu (menu 2) will fire. Filled Cancelled Amended Depth Above Timeout Flat Reversed When the Order Target is filled the selected Action will be executed. When the Order Target is cancelled the selected Action will be executed. When the Order Target is amended the selected Action will be executed. When the Market Depth (as shown on the Trade Window) goes above the value specified in the Depth Above window, the selected Action will be executed. Places a value in the timeout box (this will be seconds) so that if the order is not filled within the number of seconds added the selected Action will be executed. If you are currently Flat when the Order Target is placed the selected Action will be executed. This is not supported at this time. No Profit Targets No Loss Targets If there are no Profit targets on your Trade Chart or Trade Window when the Order Target is placed the selected Action will be executed. If there are no Loss targets on your Trade Chart or Trade Window when the Order is placed the selected Action will be executed. Long Pos Short Pos If you are currently Long when the Order Target is placed the selected Action will be executed. If you are currently Short when the Order Target is placed the selected Action will be executed. Filled or Cancelled When the Order Target is filled or cancelled the selected Action will be executed.
Drop Down Menu 2: Choice of Actions to link with the condition selected from the first menu. Exec Strategy Select this and choose an Order Strategy from the Action Order Strategy drop down menu (menu 3). Cancel All This will cancel all open Orders. Cancel Buys This will cancel all open Buy Orders. Cancel Sells This will cancel all open Sell Orders. Flatten This will flatten your open position and cancel all open orders. Reverse This will reverse your position. If you are long, your long position will be filled and a short position with the same number of contracts and order targets will be placed. Vice versa if you are short. Cancel Strategy This will cancel any orders from your order strategy that are still open on your Trading Interface. Drop Down Menu 3: This shows the list of all available Order Strategies. If you have chosen Exec Strategy from the Action drop down menu, you can now choose an Order Strategy to activate when the condition from the first drop down menu (1) is met.
Sub Order Targets Sub Order Targets can be attached to an Order Target. The sub order target is placed when the order target it is associated with is filled. For example if you place a Limit order for an entry you could add a sub order target(s) that would place a stop (loss) target and/or a profit target when that Limit order was filled. Note: When a sub order target is added that you want to act like an Exit Strategy but is created in an Entry Strategy as shown in the example below you will need to use negative ticks (-)(under Price ) instead of positive ticks. The best way to understand sub order targets is to build your Order Strategy and test this with the Replay data feed. This will allow you to use the Up and Down buttons to force the market to hit your Order Targets so you can see where their respective sub order targets are being placed. In the example above, the first order target (L0) which is a Limit order that will be placed 6 ticks from the market price (Last Trade) with the number of lots set on the Trading Interface. There are 2 sub targets linked with this Limit order. When the Limit order is filled a Limit order will be placed 4 ticks from the Last Trade and a Stop Limit order will be placed 5 ticks from the Last Trade. Using Negative Numbers: When using Auto under Trade Type you can use negative numbers to place the next order target where you want. A negative number does not necessarily mean it will be below the current market. It is about the type of order being filled or activated and the relationship of that sub target to the target it is linked to. A negative number puts the order on the "wrong" side of the market and would reverse the side if needed.
For example: A Buy Stop with a negative number would be placed in the market depth and rejected (because it would be immediately filled), so the Trading Platform automatically switches the order to a Sell Stop with a positive offset, with the selected number of ticks, on the correct side of the market. The reason to use it would be if you want to force the side change because you are using an Entry or Exit strategy. This adds a great deal of versatility and options to create an Order Strategy that can trigger complex orders. Each order target and sub order target can have as many levels below it as desired. The first Order target is labeled L0 (Level 0): Create your L1 sub order target with any parameters you want. The sub order targets are just like the order targets but attached to the order target in the level above. This means that L1 is attached to L0 but can be set with any parameters you want.
If you highlight L0 again you can add a second L1 sub order target with L0. If you highlight L1 you can add a sub order target associated with L1 that will be labeled L2. The sub order target labeled L2 will not placed until L1 is filled. In the example shown above a Limit order is placed 4 ticks above the current price (L0). When L0 is filled it will put a Limit order 4 ticks from the Last Trade. When L1 is filled it will put a new Limit order 8 ticks from the Fill Price of L1. Using Auto under Trade Type has its own intelligence and will know where to place the trade relative to the market depending on whether you are buying or selling. For example: If you place a Limit Order for your Order Strategy and use this strategy in the Long Entry menu, when you click the Long Entry button it will place a Limit order below the market. If you used this same Order Strategy from the Short Entry button, it will place a Limit order above the market. This guarantees that your Limit order is placed correctly so it will not just become a market order. Remember a Limit order on an Entry strategy goes on the buy side, but if you changed the same order strategy to an Exit Strategy (adding an Order Strategy Trigger for the Exit Strategy), that Limit order becomes a Sell order. These sub order targets can be used creatively if your order strategy is more advanced. The best way to learn to use the Sub Order Targets is to plan a strategy and open a Profile with Replay as the data feed. Then create your strategy starting with ONE sub order target at a time and test the Order Strategy with Replay.
Use the Up and Down buttons to force the market to hit your Order Target and see where your sub order targets are placed. Change the ticks to + or - to see the difference.