The Order Escort Account tab contains all important account data and risk settings for a particular account.
Please consult the account settings to define the account to be displayed in this tab (depends upon the instrument type).
Currencies and conversion
Currencies are represented by the combination of profit & loss currency bases (see the Configuration Escort) and the current currency in which the instrument is listed.
The P&L currency is the first symbol, and the currency in which the instrument is listed is the second symbol.
This is not representative of an actual currency pair!
The conversion is performed using a synthetic exchange rate between the profit and loss currency base in which the corresponding underlying instrument is listed.
This exchange rate is set once a day (when AgenaTrader++ is started up and when the first conversion takes place).
Examples
P&L currency: EUR
Instrument: AAPL (listed in USD)
Currencies: EURUSD
P&L currency: EUR
Instrument: BMW (listed in EUR)
Currencies: EUREUR
P&L currency: EUR
Instrument: USDJPY (listed in JPY)
Currencies: EURJPY
NOTE! A 3rd party platform will hardly ever manage to calculate the P&L with regard to the exchange rate like a broker does. For this reason deviations are possible.
Many brokers calculate this at the end of a day, while others use foreign currency pools, which are gradually bought by users and reconverted - although not regularly (once a day, week, month etc.).
The exchange rates are obtained from Yahoo only once after starting AgenaTrader- at the moment when the first currency trading has been executed.
Therefore, if you perform trades at varying times and using different computers, your P&Ls that have been converted in the particular currency of brokers will deviate.
Account size and buying power
Account size (cash value)
This is the amount of money available on an account.
Buying power
Buying power is the number of shares, futures and currencies that can be bought. The initial risk is calculated based on the buying power.
Some brokers increase the account size by a predefined factor in order to provide your account with leverage. This should not be confused with CFDs since buying power refers only to account leverage.
The buying power may vary during the day (intraday) and the night (overnight trading). Usually the buying power is reduced by half for overnight trading.
Higher buying power allows you more flexibility when trading and thus the possibility to trade more stocks. But note that stocks are usually traded 1:1 and have no leverage attached to them, therefore the account size can be exhausted very quickly.
IMPORTANT NOTE! BP2Invest / BP4Long / BP4Short parameters (are temporarily deactivated in the account settings)
You can see the following fields within the account tab:
- BP2Invest: displays the size of the total buying power based on the risk restrictions for the specific trade.
- BP4Long: displays the amount invested into a long position based on the risk restrictions for the specific trade.
- BP4Short: displays the amount invested into a short position based on the risk restrictions for the specific trade.
In the Used fields you can see the current usage rate of the buying power.
The image below shows how these settings relate to the entry possibilities inside the General -> Account tabs within the Configuration Escort window.
Initial risk
See additional information about Initial risk (% field) in the Trade-Tab: Strategy box section.
On the right hand side of the Account tab you can see the total amount that will be risked per trade.
The "EUR" button shows the P&L currency, which is:
- used for calculation of all specific criteria for money and risk management
- not necessarily the currency in which the account is held
- always relevant when the instruments are traded in different currencies.
For example, American stocks or futures that are traded in a EUR account. In a case such as this, AgenaTrader ++ will automatically perform all conversions for the various risk and money management parameters for the P&L currency.