Change Program Settings

 

Global Program Option settings for the trading platform can be customized to enhance your trading experience. As these are "global" changes, they will affect settings throughout the platform regardless of the layout selected. Change the General default settings on your Order Entry Bar, control Options defaults, set stock alerts (Warnings) and request Alerts notification (audio, email, or both).

To access these controls, select Program Options from the Tools drop-down menu, and make your changes. To preserve the changes for future sessions, you must select Save Layout from the File drop-down menu before exiting the platform.

 

Set General Order Defaults

By default, order entry windows appear with "0" in the "Shares" field and "Market" selected for "Order Type," etc. To change these defaults for use throughout the platform, change the settings in the General Order Defaults window as indicated below.

 

Note that Order Entry settings can be manually overridden at any time. Additionally, each trade-enabled tool (Charts, Market Depth, etc.) provided in this platform has its own Order Entry Properties window, which can be used to override the "general" settings for that window.


  1. Select Program Options from the Tools drop-down menu, and click the General tab.
  2. Change any of the Order Defaults:

    Shares: Number of shares you generally want to trade.
    Order Type: Market, Limit, Stop Market, Stop Limit, Trail Stop, Make Best, or Best Bid/Ask
    Price Increment: Sets the amount the Price and Stop field increment arrows will increase/decrease in price when you press them.
    Route: Exchange preferred to transact the trade.
    TIF: Time in Force: Day, Day+, GTC, and GTC+.

  3. Change additional defaults:

    Display Order Verification before submitting: Any time you press the "Buy," "Sell," or "Sell Short" buttons, an Order Verification window will appear, showing the details of your trade and requesting a second approval before the order is sent.

    Display Verification for Cancels: Any time you press the "Cancel," "Cancel Select," or "Cancel All" buttons, an Order Verification window will appear, requesting a second approval before the order(s) is/are canceled.

    Display Warning for existing Trade Strategy Symbol : Check this box to receive alerts of any duplicate orders entered through trade strategies.

    Restore Defaults on Symbol Change:     Check this box if you wish your Order Entry default settings to be restored every time you change the symbol in your Market Depth Window. If this box is not checked, any overrides will be kept in favor of your default options.

    Restore Defaults on Symbol Change When Portfolio Has Attached Order Entry: Check this box if you wish the Order Entry default settings in your Portfolio to be restored every time you change symbols.

    Title Bar Symbols: Sets the symbols or indexes that appear in the main title bar of your platform.

  4. Click "OK" to save your changes.

 

 

Set Options Defaults

 

This window controls the defaults for Options Order Entry defaults, and the default settings for the Trade Dollar Amount feature.

 

Changing Options Order Entry defaults: By default, option order entry windows appear with "0" in the "Contracts" field and "Limit" selected for "Order Type," etc. (Limit is recommended.) To alter these defaults, do the following:

  1. Select Program Options from the Tools drop-down menu, and click the Options tab.
  2. Change any of the Order Defaults:

    Contracts: Number of contracts you generally want to trade.
    Order Type: Market, Limit
    Price Increment: Sets the amount the Price and Stop field increment arrows will increase/decrease in price when you press them.
    Route: Exchange preferred to transact the trade.
    TIF: Time in Force: Day and GTC.

    Remember: Contracts trading greater than $3.00 have a ninimum increment of $0.10.

  3. Click "OK" to save your changes.

 

Changing Trade Dollar Amount defaults: By default, the Trade Dollar Amount feature reserves $25.00 to cover commissions (and other miscellaneous fees), and selects Limit as the pre-selected order type. To alter these defaults, do the following:


  1. Under Trade Dollar Amount Options, select a Default Order Type: Market, Limit or Both. (Limit is recommended)
  2. Enter a Reserved Dollars for Limit Order amount. This reserve is designed to cover any commission and/or miscellaneous fees.
  3. Click "OK" to save your changes.

 

 

Set Warnings

 

The Warnings section is designed to warn you before you unintentionally place a trade at a disadvantage. To set warnings, do the following:

 

  1. Select Program Options from the Tools drop-down menu, and click the Warnings tab.
  2. Set warning options for Price, Shares and/or Totals:

    Prices : Check the box and set a dollar (or percentage) safety net for your trades. If the price you enter in the Price field is higher or lower than the bid or sell (to your disadvantage) by this amount, you will be warned before the order is sent.

    Shares : Check the box and set a share number safety feature for your trades. If the number of shares you order is greater than this, you will receive a warning before the order is sent. This could prevent you from ordering 1,000 shares when you meant to order 100.

    Totals : Check the box and set a "total price" warning for your trades. If the total cost of the shares you ordered is higher than this amount, you will be warned before the order is sent.

3    Click "OK" to save your changes.

 

 

Set Alerts

 

The Alerts section provides a way to set audio alerts to inform you when 1) orders are executed, 2) alerts are triggered or 3) notifications are sent. To set Audio Alerts, do the following:

 

  1. Select Program Options from the Tools drop-down menu, and click the Alerts tab.
  2. Check Order is executed, Alert is triggered, or Notification is sent in the Play Sound box. A field will appear to the right of checked options.
  3. Click the " ..." box to import a sound file (.wav) for each audio alert from your computer.
  4. If you wish to receive e-mail notifications for the checked items, check the Email for Alerts box and enter an email address in the space provided.
  5. Click OK to save your changes.