Would you like to automate your trade entries and exits on Thinkorswim? How about having those orders executed based on conditions from your favorite chart studies? Learn how to build conditional orders which cover both the trade entry and trade exit. After viewing “Thinkorswim Automated Round Trip Trades” you will be able to build orders using the “1st triggers All”order type and have your trades execute based on study conditions you specify.
Taking It To The Next Level
After laying the groundwork, this video then shows you how to string together a series of round trip trades using the “1st triggers sequence” order type. You will also learn how to save these order groups as a saved order template which you can reuse over and over again. This is a very complex topic so I have prepared a list of prerequisite videos which need to view first. The following videos fully prepare you to make use of the new methods and techniques demonstrated in “Thinkorswim Automated Round Trip Trades”.
- Thinkorswim Condition Wizard
- Convert Scans to Strategies
- Thinkorswim Strategy Guide
- TOS Strategy Analysis
- Thinkorswim AutoTrade Almost
Mastering The Process
“Thinkorswim Automated Round Trip Trades” shows you how to put all the pieces together. Once you have mastered these skills you will be fully prepared to build your own study conditions for fully automated round trip trades. While at the same learning how to convert those conditions to function as a chart strategy. Which allows you to view the P/L curve and optimize your conditions. Enabling you to find profitable trading opportunities which fit your own risk tolerance.
We also discuss some advanced topics such as:
- Custom scripts for order conditions
- “Trading Bots” (TD Ameritrade’s API)
- Server Side automated trading versus Client Side
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL ADVISOR AND NOTHING IN THIS VIDEO OR TEXT IS AN ADVERTISEMENT OR RECOMMENDATION TO BUY OR SELL ANY FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT. NOR IS THIS VIDEO OR TEXT INTENDED TO INSTRUCT YOU ON HOW TO MAKE BUY OR SELL DECISIONS USING ANY OF THESE INDICATORS.
*Thinkorswim is a chart analysis platform offered by TD Ameritrade: www.tdameritrade.com
TD Ameritrade provides financial services including the trading of Stocks, Futures, Options and Forex.
Thank you so much for your excellent article and video. I have a question. I would like to implement conditional round trip orders as your video demonstrates but my strategy is based on daily bars. The crossover condition that triggers the buy order would get triggered when the bar closes, which is 4 pm and the market is closed so the order will not get executed.
I don’t want the order to be executed the morning of the next day when the market opens again.
What I would like to do is submit the order at 3:59 pm if the condition is still happening at that time (arrow is showing) just before the market closes and just before the bar closes. Any ideas on how this could be done?
The only way I can think of to do what you described is to set the order type to “MOC” (Market On Close). If the conditions are true at some point during the trading session it should trigger the order. And if the order type is “MOC” then it may process that order at the close of the market.
The problem with this approach is that the order conditions may trigger earlier in the session, trigger the order to be sent to the exchange, and then your conditions may end up being invalidated before the session closes. In which case you would need to manually cancel the order before it is executed.
I want to create an automatic purchase of one option and I already have the strategy that must be fulfilled.
I would like the system to always buy the ask price (at the money position) and not another
would that be possible. I mean. If my call strategy is met, then buy a contract at the price that is at the money at that moment.
as long as it does not exceed X dollar.
thank you!!
Its surprising how often I receive requests like this. This a completely impossible to do using the current version of Thinkorswim. Not even close to being feasible. Not to the least degree.
Could I setup a template to Buy Long on a condition, then Sell Long on a condition, and immediately Buy Short on that same condition, then subsequently, Sell Short on the condition to Buy Long again? And, cycle this some number of times?
Only way to know for sure is to test out and see. I haven’t thought to try it myself so I don’t know. Sounds like you are wanting to stay in a position and rotate from long to short and back to long again. I suspect you are asking a bit much from a platform like Thinkorswim. But you don’t know until you try it.
Here is another issue on another conditional trade using 10 min chart:
Entered buy order of 100 shares of Microsoft;
Trigger condition: close from 1 bars ago is greater than MovAvgExponential(“length” = 10).”AvgExp” and MACDHistogram().”Diff” is greater than 0
Issue: trade executed when price was well above 10 MA and MACD histogram was well above zero (both conditions were met 5 bars ago but trade was not executed on time)
Make sure you are charts are set correctly. When using intraday time frames, you must turn off the chart setting named “Start Aggregation At Market Open”. If you leave this setting on, the charts will never match the results you get from any of the other tools on the platform. This includes Conditional Orders, Study Alerts, Custom watchlist columns and custom scans.
“Start Aggregation At Market Open” was turned off when I placed order for MSFT – I watched your video on chart setting yesterday. Thanks.
You need to work out these issues using the Study Alert tool before you start trading in a live market. You have much to learn and you are not prepared to use this tool for Conditional Orders yet. Start with the exact same examples I provided in the video. And apply them to the Study Alert tool. Once you get that working, move over to the PaperMoney side of Thinkorswim and start using the Conditional Order tool. The only reason things are not working as you expected is because you are missing important details. So you must take time to learn and practice before creating your own conditions.
Thanks for your advice again. Will go back and watch your videos. All your videos are excellent and helpful!
I entered condition orders for a round trip. Trades were executed while conditions were not met.
I use 10 min chart on 100 shares of CRM. Here are the conditions and trades:
Buy 100 shares: close from 1 bars ago is greater than DailyOpen() and close is greater than close from 1 bars ago and close is greater than DailyOpen()
Issue 1: Order filled at 09:40:07 at $140.16 (close of this bar is less than previous bar – opposite from the condition above )
Issue 2: Condition specifies trade be executed ONLY when previous bar and current bar are greater than open price. However, both bars/prices were less than daily open price (stock opened at $140.62)
Any opinion/advice would be highly appreciated!
You cannot use the DailyOpen() in the Conditional Order tool because it references a secondary aggregation period. The Conditional Order tool does not support secondary aggregation periods.