Order Escort: Order buttons

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The order buttons are categorized into three sections:

• Direct orders
• Synthetic orders
• Scale-in orders (Scale-In orders are temporarily deactivated)

The functionality of all available buttons is always applied to an entry order.

CLick the Ignore/Flatten trade button to delete the suggested order ("Ignore") or close the currently running trade ("Flatten trade").

Order types

The following order types can be submitted to the market:

Order type Description Market Assumes no price limits since the purpose of this order type is to execute an order as soon as possible. There is a potential danger of a worse price execution in comparison to the initial entry price due to incurred slippage, especially in highly illiquid markets. Limit Requires a price limit to be entered. The execution price is supposed to be: for a buy order - at most, the price of a limit order or lower. for a sell order - at least, the price of a limit order or higher. Stop Is a combination of a stop and market order. It is characterized by automatic submission of the "best order" (market) to the market (order book) as far as the predefined stop price level is reached. StopLimit A stop limit order is a combination of a stop and limit order. It is characterized by automatic submission of the limit order (market) to the market (order book) as far as the predefined stop limit price level is reached. Example here

 

Direct orders

 
Direct orders are submitted to the broker. Once a direct order is placed on the market it will be located on the exchange.

Even if the application is closed, the direct orders will remain active.

Note that if the direct order was submitted within a strategy and AgenaTrader is closed, then the trade management rules will no longer apply and the automatic order management will not remain active for this trade.

Direct orders can be recognized on the chart by the Direct label as well as by the solid connection line between the chart trader bar and the price scale.

You can submit all order types as direct orders.

Synthetic orders

 
Synthetic orders are not forwarded to the exchange and remain locally placed on your computer.

The advantage of synthetic orders: market participants will not be able to see your positions, which allows you to submit "invisible" orders to the market.

Synthetic orders can be recognized on the chart by the Synthetic label or by the dashed connection line between the chart trader bar and the price scale.

The following order types are supported:

• Limit: submits a limit order to the inside bid or inside ask when the limit price is reached.
• StopLimit: forwards a limit order to the exchange when the stop price is reached. If a stop price and a limit price are equal, a limit order will be placed in the inside bid or inside ask.
• Stop: executes a market order when the stop price is reached.

A synthetic market order does not make sense due to its immediate execution as a direct market order.

Dynamic orders

 
The possibility of submitting dynamic orders is an innovation implemented in AgenaTrader++. This function is only available in the Andromeda or higher versions.
Essentially, a dynamic order is a synthetic order that is only submitted when a „suspicion“ arises.

The dynamic order trading pad parameters:

• An order type ;
• The entry strategy is set within the Setup Escort;
• Exact order size or stops, target and other usual order parameters are excluded.

AgenaTrader will only activate a strategy when the market price reaches an entry price. Once reached, the setup within the Entry Escort will automatically be applied to the chart by setting the appropriate stop and target orders.

The order size will also be calculated based on risk parameters.

The following dynamic order types are supported:

• Limit: submits a limit order to the inside bid or inside ask when the limit price is reached.
• StopLimit: forwards a limit order to the exchange when the stop price is reached. If a stop price and a limit price are equal, a limit order will be placed in the inside bid or inside ask.
• Stop: executes a market order when the stop price is reached.

A dynamic market order does not make sense due to its immediate execution as a direct market order.

This order is highly important in terms of a micro-hedging approach, since it will allow you to submit orders on hundreds of charts.

How does the dynamic order work?

1. After submitting an order, the market will decide if it is activated or not;
2. If activated, the system will apply the specific setup parameters;
3. If a dynamic order is placed on a chart and no strategy is running, the AT++ strategy will be activated immediately;
4. The automatic account management will start to control your trade. The orders can be moved into the fallout list when the invested amount exceeds the allowed limit for market-neutral positions.

A dynamic order makes sense when used as an entry order. If you define a stop or target order as a dynamic order then these orders become synthetic orders.

Example: Cancel an order if the market has moved far away in the opposite direction
The image below shows a situation in which a dynamic order was not activated because the price did not increase as expected.

If you wish to enter a short position you can use a dynamic order and simply place an order at the desired price level. The setup (stop, targets, order size etc.) will be calculated once the price level has been reached.
If you do not wish to submit a short order because the last high price has been reached, then you can place a dynamic order and connect it with a price alert (OCO order via the Ctrl button), which will delete the order as soon as the level is achieved.

The scenario shown on the image would also be acceptable:

This illustrates the advantage of dynamic orders. You can place an entry order for hundreds of instruments. When the order is actually submitted, the setup (incl. targets and order size) will be calculated and adjusted according to the specific setup conditions.

Scale-in orders

 

IMPORTANT NOTE! SCALE-IN ORDERS ARE TEMPORARILY DEACTIVATED.

A scale-in order sends multiple orders (tranches) to the market until the desired position size is reached. AgenaTrader manages the order logic.

The following order types are supported:

• Limit: submits a limit order with the scale-in size to the inside bid or inside ask when the limit price is reached (minus the scale-in interval). If this limit order is executed, the next order will be placed. This process will repeat as many times as necessary until the desired position size is filled completely.
• StopLimit: submits a limit order to the inside bid or inside ask if the stop price and the limit price are equal, or forwards it to the exchange when the stop price is reached (minus the scale-in interval). This process will repeat as many times as necessary until the desired position size is filled completely.

You must adjust a limit price within the Trading Information: Order Manager, otherwise the limit price and the stop price will be the same.

If the market moves away from the last position of the scale-in order, then this order will be automatically adjusted.

The appropriate parameters can be defined within the Configuration Escort in the AT (Plus Plus): Order Rounding tabs:

Parameter Description Scale-In Size Displays the size used for the scale-in orders. Scale-In Distance Scale-in orders will be submitted to the market as limit orders. The scale-in distance defines how many ticks away from the inside bid or inside ask the limit order will be placed. "0" - inside bid/ask; "1" - 1 tick below the inside bid or above the inside ask. Scale-In Area (ATR) As long as the market is within the ATR area, the order will remain unchanged. If the market leaves this area then the scale-in order will be automatically adjusted based on the ATR-Factor (the default setting is 20 periods).

 

Limit order buttons

 
The limit order buttons in each of the three categories only become active when the current price is lower than the suggested limit entry price (long position) or higher than the suggested limit entry price (short position).

You can see this in the price fields on the right hand side next to the Market button.

• The left field displays the current price
• Еhe right field shows the distance of ticks/pips from the suggested entry price.

If the background color of these fields is green, then no limit order can be submitted, since the current price is currently above the limit entry price (long position) or below the limit entry price (short position).

If the limit entry price is below the current price (long position) or above the current price (short position), the background color will be red and a limit order can be submitted.

"Ignore", "Flatten" and "Status" buttons

 

Ignore/flatten buttons

Depending upon whether the trade is already opened or not, the following options are available:

• Ignore: deletes the suggested setup and the orders that have been already sent to the exchange.
• Flatten trade: deletes the suggested setup and the orders that have been already sent to the exchange, and also closes running trades.

 

Trading status

The Order Escort accepts the following statuses:

• Stalking: Order Escort is deactivated and is waiting for an Entry Escort signal or activation of the manual mode.
• Proposing: Order Escort is in suggestion mode, which allows you to edit a setup.
• Pending: the entries and parameter definitions have been accepted, and the entry order has been submitted but not yet executed.
• Trading: a position has been opened, the stop and target orders have been activated by the system and the Strategy Escort is monitoring the trade.