Order groups
You can create complex order groups within AgenaTrader.
The following possibilities are available:
- OCO (One cancels Other): once any order of a group is executed, the other orders belonging to this group will be deleted.
- IfDone: once any order of a group is executed, other orders belonging to this group will be submitted.
- ORO (One reduces Other): once any order of a group is executed, the size of the second order in this group will be reduced by the order volume of the first order.
The before mentioned methods of linking the orders to each other are especially practical for users who only have the basic version of AgenaTrader. More advanced versions of AgenaTrader perform this complex function automatically by means of the SetupEscort. However, there are no limits on traders using order grouping in their own strategies (especially OCO orders for breakouts).
OCO orders
To create an OCO group:
- Submit two orders to the market,
- then pressing and holding the CTRL button, click on the first order and then the second order.
You can link confirmed as well as unconfirmed orders to each other. The OCO connection line will be displayed in red.
The image below depicts two confirmed orders connected as an OCO group. The upper trade is a stop buy order and the lower is a stop sell order.
The idea is that you will trade in the direction in which the price moves first (e.g. breakouts). If one order is executed, the other order will be deleted automatically.
Two successive numbers in the OCO column of the Order Manager show the connection between orders.
IfDone orders
To create an IfDone group:
- Submit two orders to the market,
- then pressing and holding the ALT button, click on the first order and then the second order.
You can link confirmed as well as unconfirmed orders to each other. The IfDone connection line will be displayed in green.
The image below depicts two confirmed orders connected as an IfDone group. The trade in the middle is a confirmed stop sell order (entry order) and the other two are unconfirmed stop and target orders.
If the entry order is executed, the stop and target orders will be activated automatically. In this example the stop and target orders are also linked to each other via OCO-connection.
Three successive numbers in the IfDone column of the Order Manager show the connection between orders.
ORO orders
To create an ORO group:
- Submit an order to the market,
- then pressing and holding the CTRL and Alt buttons, click on the first order and then the second order.
The idea behind an ORO is to connect a stop order with a target order in case you have multiple targets being executed separately. The ORO connection line will be displayed in blue.
The image below depicts a stop-buy setup with one stop and two targets. There are four orders with three IfDone connections (once the entry order is executed, the stop and the targets will be submitted to the market). The stop order and the first target order create an ORO group. This means that the stop order will be reduced by the order volume of the partial execution (first target). If the ORO connection is not created, the stop order will move in the opposite direction after the execution of the first target, since the stop order size is not reduced. Additionally, the stop order is connected to the second target order via OCO, which implies that the execution of one of the two orders will exit the trade.
You also have the possibility of submitting the second target order to the market only after the first target order has been executed, using an If-Done connection. This connection between targets makes sense if you prefer not to reveal the real order volume for as long as possible.
What happens if only the stop (and not the first target) is reached? In this case, the ORO connection will cause the first target order to be deleted, since the order size will be reduced and will become negative (- 5000). The second target order will be deleted due to the OCO-connection.
Two successive numbers in the ORO column within the Order Manager show the connection between orders.
Grouping two entry orders for different instruments with OCO-connection
If you have similar setups for two different instruments but only wish to submit one trade, you can create an OCO group for these orders. If the entry order for one instrument is submitted earlier than the other entry order, the latter is automatically deleted. Nevertheless, unconfirmed stop and target orders must be deleted manually (although these have no impact on trades). If AgenaTrader++ is running, these stop and target orders will be deleted automatically.
The entry orders cannot be connected on the chart itself, therefore you must create an OCO group within the OrderManager in the following way:
- Mark both entry orders,
- Right click in the Order Manager tab to open the context menu,
- Select the Create OCO Group menu option.