Using Price Alerts for Automated Trading in CQG 7.4
In a previous posting, Automated Trading Using CQG 7.4 (Trend Line Cross), I explained CQG’s Alert functionality for tracking when the price action crosses a trendline. Discussed were steps on its use for triggering notification and sending orders to the exchange when a trend line was crossed. Here, we will look at the basic Price Alert; one example is for a breakout situation (above the market) and one for buying a support point below the market.
CQG Alerts offer a number of actions. An Alert can open an Alert Trigger Dialog window, open one of CQG’s order windows; display a chart, open a time & sales window, trigger an audible alarm, send out an email. In addition, Version 7.3 added order routing to the actions available through Alerts. All of these actions are set in the Above Actions and Below Actions in the Price Alerts menu.
The simplest step to creating a price alert is to work directly from the chart. Right click on the price bar and select “Add Price Alert on bar” and the price alert menu opens with the pertinent information filled in such as issue symbol and the preferences are set to that bar interval.
To keep things concise, the first example displays a breakout Price Alert setup with an order to go long if the e-mini S&P 500 price traded above 1309.50 on the TradeFlow chart. We can see the Price Alert menu used to setup the Alert, the Price Alert notification from when the price was hit, and the Fill report.
This next example is a Price Alert to buy 5 E-mini S&P 500 contracts at the market if the market traded down to 1331.75. In this situation, the alert is the same as a “market if touched” order. In this case, “Below” and “Below Actions” preferences are used, as the support level would be lower than the last price.
Consider a situation where a trader identified a support level below the last price; the alert can buy when the market trades down to a level that is just above support, and then hold the position as long as the support level is not broken.
The image shows the price trigger was hit. The Alert Trigger Dialog opened, a market order to buy was sent, and the Fill report opened (the trade was filled at 1332.00).
The Alert also opened the Order Ticket. In this example, an OCO order was manually placed to sell 5 at 1331.25 STP and 1333.75 limit. The time & sales tape and a chart opened up. In addition, an email was sent stating the following:
Alert EMail Action. 15-12:19 - PRICE[1] “PAlert_1″ - EPZ6 Last:133150, Below:133150 Silent.
The first example detailed an Alert based on a breakout, and the second was an example of buying at support. In a future posting, I will explain more details for using CQG Alerts. For more information on CQG Alerts, please visit the Articles page at the CQG Web site.