Help with an Order Type

[Shanghai]

Apologies if this is not the correct forum but I am having trouble in working out how to place an order type, although it may be just that my broker (IB) cannot accomodate it.

What I want to do is place an order that says:

1 market opens
2 Price falls to a specified level
3 Price rises to a trigger level

I had thought that a conditional buy stop order would do this. However IB say that a buy stop cannot be used with a conditional order. Only market or limit orders can be used with a conditional order.

If I was to instead place an order that had two conditions would that work? The first condition would be that price falls to the specified level.. The second would be that it rises to the trigger level (a limit order would then be raised). However these two conditions are mutually exclusive so would this still work?

I'm sure I have explained that very badly.

 

[NetTecture]

Depends on your broker, but in general - no, sorry.

This goes into algorythms, and not normal simple trigered orders. As such - this can not be done on the broker side.

And it is not just "the broker can not accomodate it", it is "it is not the brokers job to handle tht complex orders". You need a platform that handles that, which goes into the area of trading systems.

 

[Shanghai]

Thanks for the reply NetTecture. I know some platforms can handle this. I have a colleague that uses Tradestation to place these type of orders. Perhaps I need to look for an alternative broker.

 

[NetTecture]

TradeStation, though, is not a broker per se. Yes, they handle orders... but TradeStation is a programmable front end that allows you to program your own logic. Like Ninja Trader etc.

Noone stops you from using a front end that IB supports that you can program. Just in this case, it is not the BROKER doing the logic, it is your software.

This alows one to do quite a lot more, like stop orders that are triggered via volume (I.e. only if X volume trades above the market etc.) - but then, again, this is not the broker side doing it.

NinjaTrader supports IB.

 

[Shanghai]

I did look at the Ninja Trader option and like what it does but when I asked them the same question i received this reply yesterday:

"If your broker does not support a particular type of order, unfortunately you will not be able to submit it via NinjaTrader either. If your broker does support it, you should be able to submit the order via Ninjatrader."

Do you think that I could get this to work using something like Ninja Trader where a trade is only placed once the software has seen that the trigger has been achieved? I haven't had the chance to look closely enough at Ninja Trader to know.

 

[NetTecture]

Yes, Sounds to me like a very symple strategy setup. THis is not an order type per se, but the entry of a strategy. And Ninja supports strategy development.

 

[Shanghai]

OK thanks. I will look into in further then. Appreciate your help.