A powerful dashboard utility to improve situational awareness of the markets, place precise orders, and graphically monitor trading positions.

Transcription

1 A powerful dashboard utility to improve situational awareness of the markets, place precise orders, and graphically monitor trading positions. Position DashBoard Powered by BAR ANALYZER

2 Position DashBoard Trading App for TradeStation Table of Contents Introduction to the Position DashBoard Trading App... 3 Position DashBoard Setup... 4 Position DashBoard Form... 5 Header Block... 6 Market Analysis Block... 7 Position Analysis Block... 8 Order Entry Block... 9 Bracket Order Block Position DashBoard Input Settings User Defined Market Block Intervals Quantity Defaults Disclaimers Position DashBoard User Guide

3 Introduction to the Position DashBoard Trading App Thank you for purchasing the Position DashBoard Trading App for TradeStation. All PowerZone Trading tools are designed to be fast, reliable and perform in volatile intraday markets. If you are having difficulties using any of these tools, please contact us so we may be of assistance. It is our hope that the Position DashBoard Trading App will help you spot unique opportunities in the markets, improve your order entry experience, and become a more consistent trader. The Position DashBoard Trading App is a data visualization and order entry tool that displays market information as well as the status of open trades. The Position Dashboard consolidates and arranges key trading information into a small footprint that can be used alongside price charts, quotes, TradeManager windows or other trading apps. This Trading App includes an order entry interface with a unique bracket order calculator to help plan and monitor trades. The Position DashBoard is powered by the same analysis engine used in the popular BAR ANALYZER chart utility. These two tools can be used together to create a powerful intraday market analysis/order entry/ position monitoring system. Used alone, the Position Dashboard Trading App provides easy and fast position monitoring as well as an innovative order entry interface. Along with position monitoring and order entry, the Position DashBoard also includes several buttons that display subwindows to improve situational awareness: the Order Log provides a list of active orders and positions, the SnapShot displays key technical and fundamental information, and the QuickChart shows a daily interval price chart. The top of the Position DashBoard form includes three progress bars that graphically illustrate the strength or weakness of the symbol over different intervals. By default, these display the range information for the daily, weekly and 52-week intervals. If desired, users can customize two of these intervals to reflect their particular market preferences. The central block of the Position DashBoard form displays position information along a horizontal price axis showing the location of open trades relative to the current price. Additional information such as value area, VWAP and the P/L of the trade are also displayed within this block. WARNING: It is strongly recommend that you test the order entry features of the Position DashBoard Trading App on a simulated account prior to real trading. Traders who wish to use Position DashBoard for analysis purposes only can disable the trade buttons by checking the "Safety" checkbox. PowerZone Trading, LLC assumes no responsibility or liability for any trading gains or losses that occur while using this product. 3 Position DashBoard User Guide

4 Position DashBoard Setup Once users have subscribed to the Position DashBoard Trading App on the TradeStation TradingApp Store ( opening the Position DashBoard Trading App is easy...click on the Trading App tab along the left edge of the TradeStation desktop and choose "Position DashBoard" from the list. In the main TradeStation TradingApp menu, you may choose to drag this icon to the top of the list for easier reference. Choose Position DashBoard from the list of available Trading Apps The Position DashBoard opens as a new window that may need to be resized to fit the dimensions of the Position DashBoard form. To do this, hover the cursor over one edge of the window, and click and drag to the appropriate size. Do this again to size the other direction. Once the window is sized correctly, it can be saved within a workspace where it will remain correctly sized. 4 Position DashBoard User Guide

5 Position DashBoard Form The Position Form is broken down into five different modules, or blocks. Each block is a distinct section where users can view status information, place trades or interact with the app. Three progress bars provide quick situational awareness and are color coded to supply status information. In general, green colors represent buying (and bid prices) and red colors represent selling (and ask prices), while blue represents a developing value area. A progress bar that is completely green, for instance, shows strong bullish market conditions where price has reached the highest point on the right side of the display. Help Button Header Block Quick view buttons Market Analysis Block Dynamic Progress Bars Position Analysis Block Position Progress Bar Order Entry Block Trade Buttons Safety Checkbox (disables order buttons) Bracket Order Block Smart Buttons Checkbox (enables button highlighting) Stop Loss and Profit Target sliders 5 Position DashBoard User Guide

6 Header Block The Header Block displays the current symbol and includes several buttons to launch quick-view windows that display additional information about trade orders or symbol information. A help button appears in the upper right corner of the window. Symbol There are two methods to switch between symbols within the app: 1. Click just above the header block (top gray window border) and type in the new symbol in the Command Line that appears automatically. 2. Symbol link the Position DashBoard to a quote screen, chart or other trading app. View Order Log Click to launch a window that displays real-time information about open positions and orders. View SnapShot Click to launch a window that displays key technical and fundamental data for the symbol. View Quick Chart Click to launch a daily interval chart of the symbol. Help Use this button to access Position DashBoard Help, visit the PowerZone Trading website, or for alternative access to the Order Log, SnapShot and QuickChart windows. 6 Position DashBoard User Guide

7 Market Analysis Block The Market Analysis Block is directly below the Header Block. The active symbol is displayed at the top of the block, along with the Last Price, an arrow indicating the direction of the last trade, and the Net Change (over the previous session s close). This section of the form includes three progress bars that graphically illustrate the strength or weakness of the symbol for three different intervals. By default, the progress bars display the range information for the daily, weekly and 52-week intervals. If desired, users can customize two of these intervals to reflect their particular market preferences. For more information, please review the Position DashBoard Trading App Inputs section of this user guide. Each progress bar functions as a gauge for current price, relative to a particular range. The Daily Range progress bar, for example, displays the range of prices for today s trading activity, from the low price, which appears on the left of the progress bar, to the high of the day, which appears on the right. If the current price is near the high of the daily range, the progress bar will appear mostly green; if price is at the high of the day, the bar will appear entirely green. If the current price is close to the low of the day, on the other hand, the bar will appear mostly red; if price is at the low of the day, the bar will appear entirely red. As long as price is not at either the low or high of the day, the progress bar will display with two colors: red and green. The current price is where these two opposing colors meet. The elements of the Market Analysis Block include: Last Price The price at which the most recent trade took place. Arrow Indicates the direction of the last trade (the last bid tick); displays green for up-ticks and red for down-ticks. Net Chg The distance current price is from the previous session s close, represented as both a dollar and percentage. Daily Range A progress bar that displays the range of the day, from low to high. Low and high prices are shown below the progress bar. Weekly Range A progress bar that displays the range of the previous week, from low to high. Low and high prices are shown below the progress bar. 52-Week Range A progress bar that displays the range of the previous 52-week period, from low to high. Low and high prices are shown below the progress bar. 7 Position DashBoard User Guide

8 Position Analysis Block The Position Analysis Block is directly below the Market Analysis Block, and displays position information along a horizontal price axis that shows the location of open trades relative to the current price. The average entry price of an open position appears as a small white trade arrow along the price axis; the arrow is highlighted in green and points up if the open position is a long trade, or red and pointing down for short trades. A yellow rectangle indicates the current price. A green horizontal line connects the yellow rectangle with the small trade arrow if the position is currently profitable. The arrow and current price are connected by a red horizontal line if the position is currently losing. The low (L) and high (H) prices at either end of the progress bar represent the low and high prices for the day, or the point at which a trade was entered (if the entry price falls outside of this day s range). The blue area within the price axis represents the developing Value Area that is calculated based on one standard deviation of the Volume Weighted Average Price. The elements of the Position Analysis Block include: Current Position Indicates Flat if there is no open position, or Long Trade for long positions (buy) or Short Trade for short positions (sell). Position P/L - The profit or loss of an open position, shown as a dollar amount in green for winning trades and red for losing positions. Entry Price The average price at which the trade was filled. Position Size - The size of your current position; for example, 3 (contracts) or 500 (shares). VWAP The price level for the Volume Weighted Average Price. 8 Position DashBoard User Guide

9 Order Entry Block The Order Entry Block appears directly below the Position Analysis Block, and provides a graphic display of the inside bid and ask volume, an order data section and eight dedicated trade entry buttons. The progress bars in the center represent the relative size of inside bid and ask. Also in this section is the spread (the difference between the inside bid and ask). The Order Data section includes: Account The account you want to use in settlement of your order. Quantity The amount of a specific symbol that you want to buy or sell, specified in shares, contracts or lots. Duration The length of time that an order will remain valid in the market. There are four duration options: DAY orders remain valid until the end of the regular trading session. GTC Good till canceled. IOC Immediate or Cancel. These orders are filled immediately or canceled. Partial fills are accepted when using this order duration. FOK Fill or Kill. These orders are filled in their entirety or canceled. Partial fills are not accepted. The eight trade buttons include: Buy Market Places an order to buy at whatever the current market price is at the time the order reaches the trading floor. Buy Ask Places a limit order to buy at the inside ask price. Buy Bid Places a limit order to buy at the inside bid price. CLOSE Click this button to close an open order with a market order. CANCEL Click this button to cancel all outstanding orders for the symbol. Sell Market Places an order to sell at whatever the current market price is at the time the order reaches the trading floor. Sell Bid Places a limit order to buy at the inside bid price. Sell Ask Places a limit order to sell at the inside ask price. WARNING: It is strongly recommend that you test the order entry features of the Position DashBoard Trading App on a simulated account prior to real trading. Traders who wish to use Position DashBoard for analysis purposes only can disable the trade buttons by checking the "Safety" checkbox. PowerZone Trading, LLC assumes no responsibility or liability for any trading gains or losses that occur while using this product. 9 Position DashBoard User Guide

10 The lower left-hand side of the Order Entry Block has a checkbox that allows you to disable the trade buttons. Check the Safety box to disable the trade buttons; uncheck the Safety box to enable the trade buttons. When the Safety box is checked, you will not be able to use the app s order entry buttons to place any orders, including the CANCEL and CLOSE order buttons. The lower right-hand side has a checkbox labeled "Smart Buttons". When checked, this allows users to highlight the location of a trade when holding the cursor to the edge of the buy or sell trade buttons. This allows traders to see the price level that will become active during a particular buy or sell trade order. This feature may take some time to get familiar with since the buttons become highlighted when the cursor is off to the side of the button and not directly over it. Also, traders must move the cursor directly up or down from the Order Entry Block to remove the highlighting from the button and bid or ask display, and not off to the side of Position DashBoard App: sliding the cursor directly off the left or right side of the Position DashBoard will not disable the highlighting. Below are two examples of the Smart Buttons feature: When the Smart Buttons checkbox is checked, moving the cursor just to the left of the buy buttons or the right of the sell buttons will highlight the appropriate order price. Moving the cursor up or down removes the highlights from the button and price. 10 Position DashBoard User Guide

11 Bracket Order Block The Bracket Order Block appears directly below the Order Entry Block. This block is used to attach Bracket OSO orders to trade entry orders. A very useful feature of this block is the Bracket Order Calculator, which allows traders to quickly determine the dollar value of a stop loss and profit target, based on position size (as set in the Quantity field of the Order Entry Block) and the number of ticks set in the slider (the minimum increment for price changes, such as $.01 for shares or stocks or $5 for the E-mini Dow). For example, a 20-tick profit target in the E-mini Dow contract (YM) equals $100. If the profit target slider is set to 20 ticks, the value $100 will appear in the Bracket Order Calculator progress bar (which appears directly above the profit target slider). If the Quantity is changed to 2 (in the Order Entry Block), the profit target slider will remain at 20 ticks; however, the profit in the Bracket Order Calculator progress bar will now show $200 (20 ticks X $5 tick X 2 contract = $200). By enabling the Attach Bracket OSO checkbox, traders can automatically send profit target and stop loss orders to the market as soon as the primary trade order is filled. Traders can use the sliders to set precise stop loss and profit target levels while instantly viewing the corresponding dollar amounts in the progress bar. Here s an example of how to use the Attach Bracket OSO feature: 1. Before placing an order to enter a new position, use the sliders to set a stop loss and profit target for the order (in the example below, the stop loss has been set to $500 and the profit target to $875). 2. Any changes made to the Quantity field will be reflected in the value in the Bracket Order Calculator progress bar. 3. Enable the Bracket OSO by checking the box next to Attach Bracket OSO. 4. Click the appropriate order entry button (Buy Mkt, Buy Ask, Buy Bid, Sell Mkt, Sell Bid, or Sell Ask). 5. Once the primary trade order is filled, the Bracket OSO automatically sends two orders to the market: one for the stop loss and one for the profit target. 6. The progress bar now displays the relationship between the current price and your position, and has the heading LIVE Progress to indicate an active position. The progress bar appears mostly green if you are close to your profit target, or mostly red if you are near your stop loss. 7. As soon as either the stop loss or profit target order is filled, the remaining order will be instantly and automatically canceled. 11 Position DashBoard User Guide

12 Position DashBoard Input Settings The Position DashBoard includes several user definable inputs that can be changed to customize the app to fit specific user preferences. This can be helpful when assigning initial position sizes or defining how many shares, contracts or lots to scroll through when setting a trading size. To change any of the inputs, click on the Position DashBoard and then, at the top TradeStation menu bar, click Format > Trading App > Inputs tab. User Defined Market Block Intervals This input section allows users to define the first two chart intervals used in the Market Analysis Block. By default, these are set to daily and weekly intervals. For each of the two editable progress bars, the type and span can be defined. Below are the interval types: Name Value Description Daily 2 Bar intervals representing one or more days. Minutes 1 Bar intervals of one or more minutes. Monthly 4 Bar intervals representing one or more months. Seconds 14 Bar intervals of one or more seconds. Ticks 0 Bar intervals of one or more ticks. Weekly 3 Bar intervals representing one or more weeks. Bar1_IntervalCaption - Defines the text that will appear to the left of the first progress bar on the form. This value must be in quotes. Bar1_IntervalType - This defines the interval type of the first progress bar (see table above). Bar1_IntervalSpan - This defines the range of values used within the interval. (ex. 5 = 5 minute interval when set to a Minute type chart). Bar2_IntervalCaption - Defines the text that will appear to the left of the second progress bar on the form. This value must be in quotes. Bar2_IntervalType - This defines the interval type of the second progress bar (see table above). Bar2_IntervalSpan - This defines the range of values used within the interval. Quantity Defaults Each of these inputs defines the initial position size for a particular symbol type and the incremental value of each numeric up or down click. QuantityInt_Futures - This represents the initial number of contracts that appears in the Quantity box when a new futures symbol is opened. 12 Position DashBoard User Guide

13 QuantityIncr_Futures This sets the increment for the up and down increment buttons in the Quantity box of a futures symbol. QuantityInt_Forex - This represents the initial number of contracts that appears in the Quantity box when a new Forex symbol is opened. QuantityIncr_Forex This sets the increment for the up and down increment buttons in the Quantity box of a Forex symbol. QuantityInt_Stock - This represents the initial number of contracts that appears in the Quantity box when a new Stock symbol is opened. QuantityIncr_Stock This sets the increment for the up and down increment buttons in the quantity Box of a Stock symbol. QuantityInt_Options - This represents the initial number of contracts that appears in the Quantity box when a new Options symbol is opened. QuantityIncr_Options This sets the increment for the up and down increment buttons in the Quantity box of an Options symbol. 13 Position DashBoard User Guide

14 Disclaimers All content contained in the PowerZone Trading, LLC ( websites, and all videos, literature, products and services (including but not limited to consulting and programming services) are for educational purposes only. PowerZone Trading makes no guarantee that you will become a successful trader, even with the best education, tools and guidance. PowerZone Trading does not make any trading recommendations, and nothing should be construed as such. You are responsible for any and all trading activities in which you engage, including any resulting losses. You should consult your broker or financial advisor before placing any trade. PowerZone Trading assumes no responsibility for your trading and investment activities or results. By accessing the PowerZone Trading website(s) and/or by purchasing any PowerZone Trading product or service, you agree not to hold PowerZone Trading, LLC, its managing members and/or its affiliates liable for any loss or damage arising either directly or indirectly from such action. Required USA Government Disclaimers: Futures and Options trading has large potential rewards, but also large potential risk. You must be aware of the risks and be willing to accept them in order to invest in the futures and options markets. Don't trade with money you can't afford to lose. This is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell futures or options. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed on this web site or during instructional sessions. The past performance of any trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results. CFTC RULE HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN INHERENT LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN ACTUALLY EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN PowerZone Trading, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 14 Position DashBoard User Guide