Order Types - How to Enter
Market Order are Buy or Sell orders to be executed immediately at current the Market Price. Execution of the trade is more important than price. As long as there is a willing buyer or seller, the trade will be executed.
Limit Orders (including Net Debit and Net Credit) allow you to set the Maximum Price to Buy or Minimum Price to Sell a security . Because these orders have ‘limits’ they may not be executed. When they are, they will be executed at the Limit Price – or better.
Low Volume, a slow or very fast market may mean your Limit Price may not be reached and thus, your order not executed.
Stop & Stop Limit Orders
These are protective orders, to be placed on a current position.
A Stop Order becomes a Market Order when the Stop Price is reached. This does not mean you will get the Stop Price when the Order executes. You are willing to Buy/Sell at any price once your Price is reached to have the Order execute.
A Stop Limit Order generally offers more protection: Once the Stop Price is reached, the order converts to a Limit Order to execute once that price – or better- is reached. Thus, there are two values to enter on the Order Ticket for Stop Limit Orders.
How to enter a Stop Order/Stop Limit Order:
On the Positions tab, click “Close” for the Stock/ETF entry you want to add a Stop/Stop Limit Order to. You’ll be navigated to the Order Ticket tab to continue.
On the right side of the Order Ticket (Exit Order):
1. Change Exit Condition from default “Limit” to “Stop” or “Stop Limit“
2. Enter Stop Price. For Stop Limit Orders, the Stop Price will be the higher of the two values.
Enter Limit Price, if applicable.
3. Change Duration from Day (default) to GTC (which may vary by brokerage)
4. Review & Submit
Notes: As long as it’s not a Day order, the Stop/Stop Limit order will remain Live until you cancel the order or it executes*. (Some brokerages have expiration dates on such orders)
Trailing % and Trailing $
As the names suggest, these orders follow trades upward by a set $ or %. They are placed on a current position. Click “Close” from the Positions Tab, then follow the steps below:
1. Change Exit Condition to “Trailing % (or $)“
2. Enter price or percentage to exit trade
3. Select Duration (Day/GTC)
4. Review, then Submit
This will be a Live Order until it Executes, Expires or is Cancelled.
Bracket Order – One Cancels the Other (OCO)
- Opening Order OR the existing Position to Close
- Select “Bracket (OCO)”
- If the trade is favorable, the Limit Price will trigger to close and secure profit.
- If the trade is unfavorable, this Stop (or Stop Limit) Order can limit your loss
- Duration: “Day” or “Good Til Canceled”
- Summary of the Bracket-OCO Order
- Review for accuracy, then Submit on the next screen
Positions Tab
The Positions Tab offers 4 table views of your current trades. You can access these by clicking on the drop-down box in the upper right of the screen. “All” combines the 4 views.
Total Gains
This table view displays the Overall $ and % Gain/Loss and the Daily $ and % Gain/Loss based on the previous trading day’s results.
Share Performance
This table breaks down Total Gains by showing Entry Cost compared to Current Value per Share.
Total Performance
Similar to Share Performance, but shows Total Entry Cost and Total Current Value.
Greeks
Access Trading Account Information
No need to login to Brokerage Account site for normal day-to-day activity.
Each account includes a Summary page showing the Account Balance, Margin Balance, Stock, Option & Day Trading Buying Power and tracks the current trading day’s activity.
Besides the Order Ticket, the Order Status, Current Positions & Transaction History are all available. You can view previous order history in the Order Status tab by clicking on the drop-down menu on the upper-right corner of that screen.
You can access any account and switch accounts with a single click. You can even change the account from the order ticket.
The newest feature, Journal provides the means of organizing, noting, analyzing & reconciling trades.
Expand Trade Detail - Positions Tab
There are 3 ways to expand multi-leg trades in the Positions Tab.
Smart Icon – Click on the icon to the left of the stock symbol, select ‘Expand/Collapse’. Repeat to close.
Expand All – Click the button above the trade entries if you wish to expand all multi-leg trades. Once clicked, the button will change to Collapse All.
Double-Click – if you want to expand one trade or specific trades, simply ‘double-click’ on an open space of the trade entry line. Repeat to close.
Trade Management
This platform makes it easy to manage and adjust trades when needed. The Snapshot feature and the P/L graph enables you to visually assess adjustments.
Once the existing trade is showing on the options page, take a ‘snapshot’. Enter the adjustment, then take another ‘snapshot’.
To submit the adjustment to the Order Ticket of your brokerage account, click “Trade”. The smart ticket system will even handle the trade adjustment automatically by entering the appropriate buy/sell, open/close combination.
Journal Account Multi-Selector
Reviewing your Journal Accounts is made easier by using the Multi-Select tool on the Journal Tab. Control your Journal Account Views by selecting from Live, Virtual, Manual accounts or Notes or any combination of these.
Use the “Toggle All” button to switch or toggle your selection. Example: If you have your virtual selected and not your real accounts, Toggle will switch to real account and unselect virtual account. This can be a great way to analyze your results and compare real and virtual.
You can further sort by Symbol, Tags, Notes or Date Range within an Account by using the following tabs in the Journal:
NOTE: Any filtering, including account selection, will refine your analytics results too. Want to find your results from a specific account. Select just that account and analytics will refect accordingly.
Position Download Ability
Downloading/exporting capability added to the Positions tab.
This feature is also available in the “Gains” tab.
This allows even greater flexibility with record-keeping from the Journal/Brokerage Account.
Reconcile Trade Notice
The Tags including the P/L Summary, Graph and new Insight tabs rely on updated Journal entries which includes reconciled trades.
The following notice appears in the Journal when trades needs to be reconciled:
All trades in the trading account(s) selected will display with the option to change back to Regular View:
Individual trades are reconciled by clicking on the “Reconcile” tab outlining the Journal Entry.
The Journal Tab will update showing the trade had a profit/loss or adjustment in the underlying.
Updating Journal Entries
Logging into your account will update Journal entries for up to the last two months. However, trades that expired will need to be Reconciled. If the system is unable to match trades, a Yellow ‘Close’ tab will result, requiring manual action to close.
Follow the steps as shown below to reconcile your trades.
Note: Step 2 is not required, however, if you are just learning to use the Journal and it’s features, sorting by Symbol, especially if you have multiple trades, simplifies the process.
Symbol Journal
This is more than just documenting trades
This Journal has benefits and features that allow you to truly customize a vital part of the trading process. Each trade allows you to: Make Notes, add Tags for organizational purposes as well as Color Tags you customize, Outlook icons further customize each trade entry.