Hi, About Limit If Touched (LIT) orders and the Paper Trader. Anyone with experience with these orders (yes I have read the manual), could you please tell me if the following is correct. I place a buy with the limit price as $1.20 and the Aux price as $1.20. IF the price opens at $1 and rises and touches $1.20 then my limit order will be entered at $1.20. This order may or may not get filled but is limit set at $1.20. Is this correct please? The reason I ask is because I have entered trades after the close on one day and using GAT for the following day (at 10am) plaing LIT orders. The trades have been bought at 10:15am with prices no where near the $1.20 (as in the above example). I've only recently joined IB hoping to use these orders and either I'm not understanding how they work or maybe there's a problem with the PaperTrader or the way I am placing them? I've also placed a ticket and attached the audit but no replies after a week. TIA.
You are using this order type incorrectly. For an If-Touched order, you would enter an If Touched Price UNDER the current market for a BUY, or ABOVE the current market for a SELL. The idea is if the market drops down and touches a certain price, then I want to Buy at my Limit, or if the market rises up and touches a certain price, then I want to Sell at my Limit. The way you entered the order ( market at $1, Buy If-Touched at $1.20 ) the If-Touched was basically immediately triggered since price was already < $1.20. If you want to Buy when price touches a level OVER the current market, then use a BUY STOP order. If you want to Buy when price touches a level UNDER the current market, then use If-Touched.
Wow - thanks fframe38, much appreciated. Thought I was going crazy, guess I misunderstood the description here: http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/orders/lit.php About Stop Orders, Is it possible to place a limit rather than at market with them. Doesn't mention that here: http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/orders/stop.php The main reason is because of a set position size $$ I'd like to use. My system is to buy at a certain price if it rises above the open. If not fully filled will complete at/near the close. Thanks again. Regards Sabia.
The bad thing about LIT orders is there must be a trade at the trigger price for the order to go active. Trading through the trigger price will not trigger the order. This has happened to me many times. I think IB should change the trigger method for LIT so the order will go active if the trade price trades at or through the trigger price (buy if the trade price drops down to < or = the trigger price and sell if the trade price goes up to > or= the trigger price). Because of this problem, I usually use the conditional orders to buy if the price drops down to what I want to pay or sell if the price goes up to the price at which I want to sell. The bad problem with using conditional orders is each order takes way to long to setup prior to entering the order.
Nevermind, I found it... http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/orders/stopLimit.php Now to the Paper Trader!
"Trading through the trigger price will not trigger the order" How smart IB is. Traders using LIT are going to get slaughtered at times. Does it want to fix it?
Thanks for the help above. One other noob question! If I place a BUY STOP LIMIT (STP LMT) order and the following day the stock opens above my BUY STOP LIMIT price - what happens? I guess it will not trigger at the open price but if the price drops back through my BUY STOP LIMIT price that may trigger the buy? I have read here http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/orders/stopLimit.php and here http://www.interactivebrokers.com/p...aking_Trades/Create_Order_Types/stopLimit.htm but it's not really clear to an utter novice! Maybe if for each order type there was a chart diagram showing what happen, that would help. Cheers, Sabia.
IB very explicitly requires experience. You cannot even get an approved application for an IB account without the experience. I think it will be better if you go through the basic order types from non-IB resources first. Otherwise, you apparently are deliberately trying to walk on a mine field.
Thanks GTC, About experience, yes that is definately covered but not with these stops. Been running a system for 4 years. I only need to "precisely" understand one order type to buy and testing using the PaperTrader before laying 1c on the line Not interested in all the other order types. Could you help please with the question above? Cheers, Sabia. Edit: My "utter novice" comment above was meant for this order type, not "other" trading experience.
Nevermind GTC this noob has worked it out via papertrader. My question is a simple "yes". Could have saved yourself all those words