It is hard enough to develop a profitable stategy, but then when the platform/broker fails to do their part, it becomes impossilbe to make money. I have been trading an automated strategy at Tradestation for about one month. I am very pround of my ES daytrading strategy which trades on a 10 tick bar. I use limit orders for entry and exit and it only trades 1 to 4 times a day based on my setup. I take a profit of 1.5 to 1.75 points per trade with 84% accuracy. Anyway, yesterday Tradestation failed to execute my limit exit and I ended up losing about $2,400 on an account size of $23,000. So this is a big deal to me! Tradestation claims the problem was that in their system my stop had to be cancelled for the limit exit order to fire off, and that for some reason the exchange rejected the cancellation of my stop. I received no notice of any rejection of orders. I can't tell from my computer why the order to exit at a profit did not happen. I have complained to a number of people at TS asking for them to refund my money, but they just say that failure to execute an order is just part of the risk of trading and it is too bad. Is it true that I have no recourse against TS for failure to execute my order, even though prices went several points beyond my limit order to exit?
TS or any electronic broker is responsible for nothing, it is all in the agreements you signed. The best you can hope for is a clear explanation of what went wrong so you can avoid that problem in the future. It is your responsibility to keep your eye on your automated trading system to assure that it executes the orders it is supposed to execute. Trading platforms don't work properly 100% of the time, let alone automated trading systems using those platforms.
im sorry for what happend to you but if you are losing $2,400 on a $23,000 account thanks to one single trade you are betting to high. 1-2% of NAV is common; sounds like you are playing a "all or nothing"game
Yes, I see your point, but perhaps I did not make myself clear. If my exit at a profit order had been executed I would have made a profit, and the price went right through and beyond my target, but Tradestation did not execute it. If my protective stop had been executed I would have lost $300 but Tradestation did not execute that either. I guess I should just consider myself lucky they did not take the full $20,000 in my account, right?
why is there no "oh shit order" programmed in place, incase somthing like this occurs, where it just markets you out asap if anything goes wrong.
Most traders watch their "automated" strategies, and the markets. What were you doing when TradeStation did not execute your exit/stop loss order(s)? I am sorry to say there is nobody to blame but "you know who" mate. Chalk this up to a fairly inexpensive learning experience, and watch your positions, automated or not. el surdo
I was working my regular full time job, mate when Tradestation failed to execute their service. I don't know why anyone would want to automate trading if they are going to sit in front of the computer the whole time. Sounds kind of stupid to me. Sort of defeats the whole point of automation. Since Tradestation markets themselves as THE autometed trading solution, I think the only real blame lies in one place, and it isn't with me, mate.
Let me see if I understand this right.....you have a limit exit and the market traded through it, did not execute, then the market came back and traded through your stop and did not execute that either? Oh and a 2,400 loss on a 23,000 account in the futures market is nothing. I've had MUCH worse days than that. It sounds as though you never should have lost that much but to the other guy who said you had too much risk on......no you didn't.
Part of the reason people automate is to take themselves out of the equation. There is no reason you need to sit there and watch it. In fact, if you did you'd probably hit the kill button and screw it up. Just messing with ya.
Whomever coded the automated strategy is obviously responsible. You are not going to get any sympathy from anybody on this site. Try taking TradeStation to arbitration if you actually believe they are to blame. I have news for you, when you signed the "new account" form, you exonerated them of any liability for your inability to code EL. Move on mate, it's not worth the energy. Get a wireless laptop for watching the market from work. el surdo