Trade Panel
Note: Customizable features (including defaults and templates) are only available in the Professional Edition and above. Editions below this will use the default trade panel layout.
Default Layout
The default layout is very similar to the layout in previous versions of MotiveWave™. This layout consists of three tabs:
Position – Used to create and manage open positions. Several new buttons have been added to this layout. A Time in Force choice and Exit Strategy control have also been added.
Order – Use this tab to place and modify existing orders. Stop/Trail and Limit orders can also be attached for a stop loss and profit target.
Bid/Ask – This tab contains a buy/sell box for quickly placing market orders.
Trade Panel Preferences
Click on the preferences icon (gear) in the top right corner of the Trade Panel to modify the preferences.
The General tab contains the following options:
Location – Left or Right side of the chart
Exit Attach – Determines the base price for computing offset values in the Exit Strategies:
Entry Price – Average Entry Price for the Position. this is the same as the average fill price for an entry order.
Last Price – Last traded price
Show Order Ticket Panel When Selecting an Order – If this is checked, the Order tab will be shown when an order is selected in the chart. The order ticket form will be filled with the order properties.
Customizing the Layout
The layout of the Trade Panel can be customized from the Panels tab. Existing panels can be modified or deleted. New panels can be added by clicking on the + button.
The Edit Panel dialog contains a table of widgets (form controls). Each row in the table represents a row in the panel (arranged vertically). Optionally a row can have one of the following layouts:
Grid – Widgets within the grid are centered in the row with a fixed number of columns. Optionally a widget may span multiple columns.
Flow – Widgets are arranged from left to right in a row. If there is not enough space, the widgets are wrapped around to the next line.
The screen shot below shows the Edit Panel dialog for the existing Position panel. Rows may be added to the layout by clicking on the + button. Existing rows may be modified or removed by selecting and pressing the edit/delete buttons.
The screenshot below shows how to add a new widget to a panel. The vertical order of the widgets can be adjusted by dragging them up/down or selecting and using the up/down arrow buttons.
Widgets
A widget is a generic name for a control, button, label or layout/formatting that can be added to a panel. The following widgets are currently supported:
Controls
Controls are used to execute actions or set properties. The following controls are currently supported:
Account Chooser – Selects the active account for the chart. This account will used for placing, modifying or cancelling active orders.
Buy/Sell Box – Buy/Sell box for placing market orders. This control also contains a quantity chooser and labels for display information such as Day High/Low/Last Price etc.
Exit Strategy – Selector for the active exit strategy and buttons for attaching to an existing position and enabling/disabling the control
Order Ticket – Order ticket form. This may be used to create new orders or modify/cancel existing orders
Quantity Chooser – Allows you to set the quantity for placing an order.
Quantity Selector – Contains preset quantities (in horizontal tab format) for quickly selecting a quantity for order placement.
TIF Chooser – Selects the Time in Force attribute for placing new orders.
Buttons
Buttons are used to execute an action such as placing or cancelling an order. The label, font and color can be customized for any button. Some buttons include additional parameters (such as offset) for customizing the behavior.
Break Even – Creates a stop or limit order at the break-even price for an open position (stop if you are showing a profit, limit if showing a loss). The optional Offset will add an offset (in ticks) to your breakeven price, this can be used for breakeven +1 tick to cover commission costs.
Breakout – Creates two stop orders above and below the current market price with the given offset. When one of the orders is filled the other is canceled (OCO orders). This may be used to enter the market in the direction of trend when it breaks out of a fixed range.
Break Down/Fade Up – Creates a sell stop order below the market and a sell limit above the market with the given offset. These orders are submitted as OCO (One Cancels Other)
Break Up/Fade Down - Creates a buy stop order above the market and a buy limit below the market with the given offset. These orders are submitted as OCO (One Cancels Other)
Buy Ask – Submits a buy limit order at the ask price. Optionally an offset may be set to place the order a given number of ticks below the ask.
Buy Bid – Submits a buy limit order at the bid price. Optionally an offset may be set to place the order a given number of ticks below the bid.
Buy Limit – Submits a buy limit order at a given number of ticks from the input value (Bid Price, Ask Price, Last Price, Day High, Day Low, Open or Previous Close)
Buy MIT – Similar to Buy Limit, but places a Market If Touched order instead.
Buy Mkt – Places a Buy Mkt order
Buy Stop – Similar to Buy Limit, but places stop order instead.
Cancel All – Cancels all active orders for the given instrument and account.
Cancel Buys – Cancels all active buy orders for the given instrument and account.
Cancel Sells – Cancels all active sell orders for the given instrument and account.
Fade – Creates a Sell Limit above the market and Buy Limit below the market using a given number of offset ticks (submitted as OCO orders). This may be used to trade an instrument that is range bound (stays within a given price range).
Flatten – Closes an open position at market price (for the given instrument and account).
Flatten All – Same as Flatten, but also cancels active orders.
Reverse – Closes an open position and opens a new position in the opposite direction (with the same quantity).
Sell Ask – Similar to Buy Ask, but submits a Sell order instead.
Sell Bid – Similar to Buy Bid, but submits a Sell order instead.
Sell Limit – Similar to Buy Limit, but submits a Sell order instead.
Sell MIT – Similar to Buy MIT, but submits a Sell order instead.
Sell Mkt – Similar to Buy Mkt, but submits a Sell order instead.
Sell Stop – Similar to Buy Stop, but submits a Sell order instead.
The screen shot below shows an example of a button dialog. The available parameters (such as input or offset) will be different depending on which button is selected.
Labels
Labels display live information:
P/L Label – Current Profit/Loss for the given instrument and account.
P/L Price Label – Current Profit/Loss measured in price movements instead of a dollar amount.
Position – Current open position and entry price for the given instrument and account.
Spread – Difference between the best bid and best ask prices for the given instrument.
Formatting
Formatting widgets are useful for controlling how the other widgets are arranged on the panel:
Flow Pane – Contains a set of widgets that are arranged from left to right. When there is no more room to display on the current row, the remaining widgets are wrapped onto the next line.
Grid Pane – Contains a set of widgets that are arranged in a grid with a fixed number of columns. The number of rows depends on how many widgets are in the pane.
Horizontal Spacer – Adds horizontal space between widgets
Divider – Draws a horizontal divider (typically displayed on a single row)
Vertical Spacer – Adds vertical space between rows.
The screen shot below shows an example of customizing the trade panel. In this case there is only one panel, so the tabs are not displayed.
Cancel Existing Orders
An option has been added to cancel existing orders on the same account before executing a button action. This applies to the following custom buttons in the Trade Panel/DOM: Break Even, Flatten and Reverse.
Defaults
When the trade panel is modified, the changes are only applied to the active trade panel within the chart. The default layout can be modified from the Preferences Dialog (click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the trade panel). At the bottom of the dialog, click on the Defaults button. This will set the default for any new Trade Panels that are created (but will not affect existing Trade Panels).
Reverse Button
The functionality of this button has been changed to cancel all open orders (for the instrument/account) before reversing the position.
Templates
Templates can be very useful for creating and applying multiple layouts. If you are trading different instruments you may want to have one or more Trade Panel layouts. From the template drop down button at the top of the Trade Panel there are options to Save, Manage or apply templates (there is also a Template button at the bottom of the Trade Panel Preferences dialog).
In the screen shot below we are saving the customized Trade Panel that we created in a previous section as “Simple Panel”. This new template can then be applied to another trade panel by selecting it in the Templates button drop down.
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