Automated Trading Using CQG 7.4 (Trend Line Cross)
Traders using CQG can set up automated trading based on CQG’s alerts. A CQG alert can send a market order, a cancel order or a liquidate positions order to a futures exchange through CQG’s gateway.
Why use alerts? Today’s global markets offer traders many opportunities and alerts can be one way to continuously stay on top of multiple markets.
Originally, alerts were used as the name implies: a defined market event occurred and the trader was notified. For example, the market event could be that a price level had been hit. Once the alert was triggered, a variety of notification choices were available: 1. An Alert Trigger Dialog Window and an order window could open; 2. A chart and Time & Sales screen could display; 3. An audible alarm could trigger; 4. An email could be sent.
Version 7.3 added order routing to the list of actions available following a triggered alert. Version 7.4 includes new order routing features for traders using alerts.
There are five types of alerts available that include order routing: Price Alerts, Time Alerts, Price X Line Alerts, Study Alerts, and Condition Alerts.
Each of the Alerts, Price, Time, etc., has Action windows. In general, the action windows consist of four sets of actions shown in this display. First, is to place an order, second is to set the audible alert, third is to decide to display a chart, a time & sales window and order window, and finally, an email can be sent.
In this post, we will look at Price Cross (X) Line alerts, which can be used for triggering notifications and sending orders if a trend line is crossed. The trend lines can be placed by using the chart trend tool. Click on the Trend toolbar button. The alert will automatically track the price action relative to the trend line. To place an alert on a trend line, simply right-click on the line and select “Add Price X Line Alert on trend”, and the initial information is already logged into the Price X Cross menu. Next, decide what actions to take and set up the Above or Below Actions menu.
This chart is an example of a down trend line placed on a constant volume chart set to 5,000 contracts. The trend line was penetrated at a price of 1330.00. The order to buy 5 contracts was filled, and the DOMTrader window opened with a TradeFlow chart attached. At that point, OCO orders were placed to take profits and manage the risks. The orders are shown in the DOMTrader price ladder.
In future postings, we will look at other types of Alerts and their application in CQG.