For background, I have about 10 years experience trading futures and options but I'm just now getting into automated systems via TT's ADL.
I'm developing an algorithm to trade a particular futures and futures options strategy I have designed. I've been trading it manually or a few months and now want to automate it. Problem is, there is a particular order logic that I execute manually that I am having a hell of a time ensuring happens automatically. It seems like a common issue so I am just not seeing the trees from the forest.
Suppose S&P is at 2400. I want to be LONG X contracts above 2400 and SHORT X contracts below 2400. That is the entire goal. This also applies to any other futures market. When trading manually I use a combo of OCO orders, buy/sell stops and alerts to manage the position. However, my fear is that automatically I will end up in a situation where the market moves one way or the other and I will not get filled on all X of my contracts, but the market will continue to move. Yes, I can use if/then logic at particular market levels to do a "check" and make sure my position quanitity is indeed X number of contracts (and not something less than X), but that seems like something I should be doing as a backup rather than the primary means of ensuring I am getting filled.