Chart Trading

Trading from the chart

Chart trading with AgenaTrader is both easy and professional. It enables you to submit complete setups from the chart directly to the market with just a mouse click.

To place an order, right click within the chart. This will bring up a context menu with the following functions:

Buy Order -

Sell Order -

AT++ Buy -

AT++ Sell -

AT++ Buy Dynamic -

AT++ Sell Dynamic -

Order mode and order types

Orders submitted within the chart are available in the following modes:

• Order buttons: Direct orders

• Order buttons: Synthetic orders

• Order buttons: Dynamic orders

For more detailed information about the order, types see the section: Order buttons: Order types

Once submitted, a position will be opened and the trader bars will appear. You will be able to manage your entry order within the chart trader bars.

AgenaTrader++ Buy/Sell

Even if the AT++ plusplus setup is not activated within the chart, you still can enter an order and accomplish the risk, money, and trade managed strategies. For this purpose AgenaTrader has an ergonomic function that activates the AgenaTrader++ components AT++ Buy or AT++ Sell as soon as an entry order is submitted from the context menu. You may also start AgenaTrader++ by left clicking on the icon within the chart toolbar.

The image below shows how a strategy can be changed and applied to the trade:

AgenaTrader++ setup with multiple entries

AgenaTrader++ allows you to create a setup with multiple entries. Stops and targets will automatically be adjusted when additional limit and/or stop orders are included.

Example 1. Buy limit entries

Example 2. Sell stop entries

The One Click Trading Pad

The "One Click Trading Pad" in AgenaTrader is a small window or tool that allows you to execute positions with just one click, instead of going through multiple steps.

It enables you to set predefined trading parameters, such as trade size and order type (e.g., buy or sell). Once these parameters are set, you can click the button to execute the transaction immediately, without additional confirmations or inputs.

This feature is particularly useful for day traders and other active traders who need to make quick trading decisions and don't want to spend time on manual input and confirmation processes. It can also help reduce human errors since all relevant information can be set in advance, and execution is done with a single click.

Chart traders bars

You can define the appearance of chart trader bars in the General -> Chart tabs within the Global Configuration. If the option Use ChartTraderBar-Boxes is not enabled, the chart trader bars will be shown as lines on the chart.

The chart trader bar consists of the following components (left to right):

Component name	Function
Cancel box	Allows you to delete or edit an order
Order mode	Allows you to change the order mode
Order type	allows you to change the Order types
Strategy selection	Includes available strategies (only if AgenaTrader++ plusplus is started)
Order size	Allows you to input the volume of the order (order size)
Confirmation box	Confirms the proposed order i.e. applies the changes

The chart trader bar can have the following states:

• Suggestion: the order is simply a suggestion and can be freely modified:

  • Move it with a mouse click, changing the price;

  • Edit the order size, order type and other parameters;

  • Enter/change the order strategy (only available if AgenaTrader++ is started).

• Confirmed:

  • You can only move a confirmed order bar with the mouse if the option Move Confirmed Order Bars is enabled within the Global Configuration -> General -> Chart menu;

  • If this option is not enabled, AgenaTrader will protect you from accidentally switching the order;

  • The color representation of the chart trader bar shows whether it is a buy order (green) or a sell order (red).

• Confirmed suggestion order:

  • Left click on the cancel box in order to edit the confirmed orders;

  • The color will turn a lighter shade of red/green;

  • Change the order size and order strategy (only available if AgenaTrader++ is started). Please note that the order type and order mode cannot be edited;

  • Clicking on the confirmation box will apply the changes to the current order.

Displaying risk/profit of the stop and target orders in the AgenaTrader++ setup If AgenaTrader++ plusplus is activated, you will see potential profits or losses that may occur once an order is executed. These values are displayed next to the chart trader bars for the corresponding stop and target orders. Although estimations are quite accurate, minor differences may still arise due to slippage.

Left click on the position bar to choose between the following display modes:

• Amount: Absolute amount in P&L currency

• %: percentage of the account size

• Risk: Risk multiples

• Ticks

Limit entry for StopLimit orders

If you place a StopLimit order, the chart trader bar will display an additional field. Inside this field you can enter either a fixed limit price or deviation from the stop price.

Example 1.Fixed limit price Question: What happens when you move the chart trader bar? Answer: The limit price will not change, neither in the corresponding field of the chart trader bar, nor in the Trading Information: Order Manager.

Example 2.Deviation from the stop price

The following inputs are possible: "0" - the limit price is equal to the stop price "+/-x" - the limit price is equal to the stop price +/- x (x is the minimum tick size and defines the difference between stop price and limit price).

Question: What happens when you move the chart trader bar? Answer: The value within the chart trader bar will not change. The limit price in the Trading Information: Order Manager will be adjusted to the stop price according to the entry.

Order groups

You can create complex order groups within AgenaTrader.

Order connections are mechanisms that link your entry orders with target(s) and stop(s), allowing for automated order management. There are three main types of order connections:

• OCO (One cancels Other): once any order of a group is executed, the other orders belonging to this group will be deleted.

• IfDone: once any order of a group is executed, other orders belonging to this group will be submitted.

• ORO (One reduces Other): once any order of a group is executed, the size of the second order in this group will be reduced by the order volume of the first order.

The before-mentioned methods of linking the orders to each other are especially practical for users who only have the basic version of AgenaTrader. More advanced versions of AgenaTrader perform this complex function automatically by means of the Setup Builder. However, there are no limits on traders using order grouping in their own strategies (especially OCO orders for breakouts).

OCO orders

To create an OCO group:

1. Submit two orders to the market,

2. then pressing and holding the CTRL button, click on the first order and then the second order.

You can link confirmed as well as unconfirmed orders to each other. The OCO connection line will be displayed in red.

The image below depicts two confirmed orders connected as an OCO group. The upper trade is a stop buy order and the lower is a stop sell order. The idea is that you will trade in the direction in which the price moves first (e.g. breakouts). If one order is executed, the other order will be deleted automatically.

Two successive numbers in the OCO column of the Order Manager show the connection between orders.

IfDone orders

To create an IfDone group:

1. Submit two orders to the market,

2. then pressing and holding the ALT button, click on the first order and then the second order.

You can link confirmed as well as unconfirmed orders to each other. The IfDone connection line will be displayed in green.

The image below depicts two confirmed orders connected as an IfDone group. The trade in the middle is a confirmed stop sell order (entry order) and the other two are unconfirmed stop and target orders. If the entry order is executed, the stop and target orders will be activated automatically. In this example the stop and target orders are also linked to each other via OCO-connection.

Three successive numbers in the IfDone column of the Order Manager show the connection between orders.

ORO orders

To create an ORO group:

1. Submit an order to the market,

2. then pressing and holding the CTRL and Alt buttons, click on the first order and then the second order.

The idea behind an ORO is to connect a stop order with a target order in case you have multiple targets being executed separately. The ORO connection line will be displayed in blue.

The image below depicts a stop-buy setup with one stop and two targets. There are four orders with three IfDone connections (once the entry order is executed, the stop and the targets will be submitted to the market). The stop order and the first target order create an ORO group. This means that the stop order will be reduced by the order volume of the partial execution (first target). If the ORO connection is not created, the stop order will move in the opposite direction after the execution of the first target, since the stop order size is not reduced. Additionally, the stop order is connected to the second target order via OCO, which implies that the execution of one of the two orders will exit the trade.

You also have the possibility of submitting the second target order to the market only after the first target order has been executed, using an If-Done connection. This connection between targets makes sense if you prefer not to reveal the real order volume for as long as possible.

What happens if only the stop (and not the first target) is reached? In this case, the ORO connection will cause the first target order to be deleted, since the order size will be reduced and will become negative (- 5000). The second target order will be deleted due to the OCO-connection.

Two successive numbers in the ORO column within the Order Manager show the connection between orders.

Grouping two entry orders for different instruments with OCO-connection

If you have similar setups for two different instruments but only wish to submit one trade, you can create an OCO group for these orders. If the entry order for one instrument is submitted earlier than the other entry order, the latter is automatically deleted. Nevertheless, unconfirmed stop and target orders must be deleted manually (although these have no impact on trades). If AgenaTrader++ is running, these stop and target orders will be deleted automatically.

The entry orders cannot be connected on the chart itself, therefore you must create an OCO group within the OrderManager in the following way:

1. Mark both entry orders,

2. Right click in the Order Manager tab to open the context menu,

3. Select the Create OCO Group menu option.

Position display

Positions and orders are displayed in a visual manner with the cancel box, unrealized profit/loss, strategy and position size on the chart.

Name	Description	Icon
Cancel box	Closes the position immediately
Profit/loss	shows the current profit or loss of the position (estimated but not yet realized). If you left click in this field, you will see the following display options in the drop-down list: Amount; Percent; Risks (AgenaTrader++); Ticks Important: Outside market trading hours the ask/bid prices can differ from regular ask/bid prices. This influences the display of the current open P/L. Usually when the markets are open this resolves itself automatically. We do not want to ignore this ask/bid prices since it is possible that the market opens with a gap and this P/L become realized.
Strategy	Contains the name of the selected trading strategy
Position size	Shows the volume of the position and the number of underlying buy (or sell) orders. The position size can be changed any time.
Edit Trade (Trade Expires at)	As far as an order is executed you can change the expiration date of the trade:

Should an order neither be touched nor activated then it can be edited and replaced:

Function	Description
Order General Options	The order size can be changed as well as the option "Out RTH" (out regular trading hours) can be selected.
Order Expiry	Allows to select between the options: Good till Cancel (GTC), Good till Date (Gtd) and Day.
Order type options	Allows to select order types and change a Stop or Limit price.
Name	Allows to select from the drop-down list available strategies in Setup Builder.

If the order has been activated some functions will not be available anymore:

The position price is not adjustable due to the fact that it is based on the average price of the underlying buy (or sell) orders. This means that it cannot be affected by adding new sell (or buy) orders.

Orders templates

Orders templates are ONLY suitable for trading in standard mode (without AgenaTrader++).

You can manually place orders on the chart and link them to each other and then apply the saved manual (discretionary) setup to other trades.

The easiest way to demonstrate how this works is with the help of several examples.

Example 1. SimpleLong

To create an orders template, complete the following steps:

1. Manually place 3 orders on the chart:

• Target = Sell Limit Order

• Entry = Buy Stop Order

• Stop = Sell Stop Order

2. Create an IfDone group consisting of the EntryOrder linked to the TargetOrder and StopOrder (Alt + left click)

3. Create an OCO group consisting of the TargetOrder and StopOrder (CTRL + left click)

4. Save the orders template in order to use it again for other trades by doing the following:

• Right click in the charting area to bring up the context menu;

• Select Settings and then Orders Templates;

• Left click on the Create Template from Chart option.

Note! The orders template will only be ACTIVATED if you check the checkbox for the entry order!!

Example 2. SimpleShort

To create an orders template, complete the following steps:

1. Manually place 3 orders on the chart:

• Target = Buy Limit Order

• Entry = Sell Stop Order

• Stop = Buy Stop Order

2. Create an IfDone group consisting of the EntryOrder linked to the TargetOrder and StopOrder (Alt + left click)

3. Create an OCO group consisting of the TargetOrder and StopOrder (CTRL + left click)

4. Save the orders template in order to use it again for other trades by doing the following:

• Right click in the charting area to bring up the context menu;

• Select Settings and then Orders Templates;

• Left click on the Create Template from Chart option.

Note! The orders template will only be ACTIVATED if you check the checkbox for the entry order!!

Example 3. Channel Breakout (combines examples 1 and 2)

To create an orders template, complete the following steps:

1. Apply both templates (in this example SimpleLong and SimpleShort) to the chart.

2. Create an OCO group consisting of the entry orders from both templates (CTRL + left click)

3. Save the orders template in order to use it again for other trades by doing the following:

• Right click in the charting area to bring up the context menu;

• Select Settings and then Orders Templates;

• Left click on the Create Template from Chart option.

Note! The orders template will only be ACTIVATED if you check the checkbox for BOTH entry orders!!

See the Order groups (connections) section for further information.

Multitarget-Setups

In Logs-tab you will receive an orange warning message. This means that the Broker-API does not support OCO with multi targets.

This is not really an error message but rather a warning for the user. As the broker cannot manage this order type via the API, the trade is traded by the AgenaTrader trade manager.

AgenaTrader must be running during a running strategy and also has to be connected to internet, broker and data feed in order to execute the trade properly.

Information about which order types are supported by the broker APIs you can find in the Broker Disclaimer, which appears as soon as you create or edit the account details in AgenaTrader in Tools -> Settings -> Add (or Edit) Broker Connections.

General

Divergences in PnL calculation

Issue:

1. PnL calculation differs from broker platform.

2. PnL calculation shows differencies between amount and percent.

3. PnL calculation differs from my calculation.

This means:

There are different ways of calculation: @ 1. and 3. There are minor differences based on different calculation of commissions, spread and execution.

@ 2. When you chose an amount, then the absolute account size comes into effect in the calculation. When you chose percent, then the absolute size of the account that was available, when you opened the trade, comes into effect in the calculation. As every trade is opened with a different account size, the calculation of percent can differ.

Solution:

Unfortunately there is no solution - minor divergences cannot be avoided.

Will my AT++ or scripted trading strategy also be executed, when I am offline?

An AT++ strategy usually consits of several trailing stops, OCO and IfDone order connections. Only in very few cases the three mentioned order types are supported by your broker´s APIs. For executing your strategy properly, AgenaTrader needs to be running and be connected to the internet, your broker and data feed.

Whern this connection is interrupted, faulty exections might happen. The same might happen with scripted strategies in case you used above mentioned order types.

Can I purchase some trading logic for automated trading for AgenaTrader (strategies, indicators, conditions)?

We do not offer support for creating strategies, indicators or conditions. Yet a scripted logic can be implemented in the platform - it requires skills in our scripting language AgenaScript.

Alternative to this you can create conditions with our SignalBuilder without any scripting knowledge and link it to an AT++ trading logic.

For very specific scriptings we are cooperating with Quanteo . Please contact Quanteo directly. In our Forum there are many experienced AgenaTrader user as well, so here you also have the chance to share ideas and ask for help.

Profit and Loss in positionbar

Profit/loss shows the current profit or loss of the position (estimated but not yet realized). If you left click in this field, you will see the following display options in the drop-down list Amount Percent Risks (AgenaTrader++) Ticks

Important: Outside market trading hours the ask/bid prices can differ from regular ask/bid prices. This influences the display of the current open P/L. Usually when the markets are open this resolves itself automatically. We do not want to ignore this ask/bid prices since it is possible that the market opens with a gap and this P/L become realized.

Trading function is deactivated

Problem:

Trading function in chart context menu and/or QuickSetup-buttons are deactivated:

Reasons and possible solutions:

• Account settings for multibrokerage are not correct. -> Please check, if you have activated broker as well as asset classes and exchanges you want to trade in Tools -> Settings -> Account connections. Here you can find further information on multi-broker settings.

• You are not connected to your broker account. -> Please connect to your broker via Main -> Connections -> Connecting.

• Trading hours or trading breaks were adjusted. -> Please check in InstrumentEditor as well as in Global Configuration your settings of trading hours and trading breaks. Here you can find important information on Market Place Escort.

• Over-the-counter trading hours are activated. -> Please check, whether you changed Over-the-counter trading hours and activated in chart via Toolbar-button , and if so, deactivate it.

Transmission of order doesn´t work

Problem:

Order is not sent to broker.

Reasons and possible solutions:

• Mappings were not (or not fully) imported or are wrong. You get this error message:

-> Please re-import mappings. If mappingfor the instrument in question is still incorrect or missing, you can request correct mapping in InstrumentEditor with "Submit correct mapping"-button.

• Ticksize in instrument is not set correct. You get this error message:

-> Please adjust ticksize according to your broker. You can find this information on broker´s website or in broker´s platform.

• Account size is too small for order size. -> Please book some money to your broker account or reduce order size.

• Margin requirements not fulfilled. -> Please book some money to your broker account or close some open positions.