How To Place A Buy Order From A WatchList

A buy order ticket can be generated from any Symbol in a WatchList. These steps demonstrate how to place the order which uses the standard order ticket.

1. Right-click on the symbol in the WatchList for which an order will be placed

2. Select Buy from the drop down menu

This opens a standard Order Ticket pre-filled based on the user-defined default buy ticket. If no changes are desired, simply click Buy {Sym} and confirm to place the order.

3. Make Edits to the Order ticket

The order ticket contains these fields which can be edited on the fly:

  1. Qty
  2. Order Type
  3. Order (limit) basis
  4. Duration (GTC)
  5. More
  6. Buy button
  7. Estimated cost of trade
  8. Limit price
  9. OCA
  10. Toggle to large order ticket
  11. OTA dropdown arrow
  12. Set order ticket defaults

4. Set Quantity

Click the Qty button to choose the desired quantity for the order. Quantity can be set on any one of these four basis:

  • Number of shares--the actual number of shares desired
  • Dollar Value--a dollar amount (the program will select the closest number of shares to that dollar value)
  • Percent of Buying Power--some percent of the available buying power in the account
  • Percent of Cash--some percent of the available cash in the account

The typing fields for Shares or Dollars allow user-defined values not shown on the tables.

5. Select order type

Select the type of order desired.

6. Choose the Limit basis (where applicable)

Using the various fields in the menu, the Limit basis can be set on:

  1. The Ask (or an offset above/below the Ask);
  2. The Midpoint between the Bid & Ask;
  3. The Bid (or an offset above/below the Bid);
  4. A specific price
  5. "Step-to" order values

Note: the offset spinner is used to set the offset values above or below the Bid/Ask.

The limit basis can be set on either Dollar value or Percentage.

7. Set the Duration

The time-in-force field is used to choose the duration --GTC (good-til-cancelled by user); Day (good for the current trading session only); Immediate or Cancel (fill any quantity of the order immediately or cancel it); Fill or Kill (fill the full quantity of the order immediately or cancel it);

8. Add the order to an existing OCA (one-cancels-all) or create a new OCA group with any outstanding order.

By clicking the OCA button and selecting any order from the list, an OCA group is created. (This step is optional and only used if an order dependency is desired.)

9. Attach a stop or target to the order (optional)

Attach to the order a Stop/Trailing Stop/Profit Target (or bracket of two of these)

10. Click the Buy {Sym} button

11. Confirm to place order

The trading tools work on either a LIVE brokerage account or a PAPER (simulated) trading account. Live market trading requires an account with TC2000 Brokerage. Click Here for more.