Pair trade take profit in TWS

A

arman555

Hello Everyone,

I am fairly new to the Interactive brokers TWS. I see that people say alot of good things about it but I find that some of the basic functions are missing (or i dont know yet).

I am trying to Pair trade the futures (aka calender spread). Suppose I open a Buy at 2, i see that Bid/ASK doesnt even move but the pnl fluctuate like crazy. So why not capture those?

Question:Is there any way to send the market closing order on the combo when the Profit and loss hit a certain level?
 
ET180 said:
How does the P/L fluctuate like crazy without the bid-ask moving?
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Thats a million dollar question. I just spent 2 hours on the phone with them. Getting transfered from person to person. One of the "experts" explaination was.... "spreads dont move much but the underlying assets do that's why you see this." I dont know how to explain to him that spread is consist of underlying assets. And what to expect from that "expert".

But on the portfolio window the calculation adds up. So i will take a $8 risk and try and close the position as market.. see what happnes
 
arman555 said:
Hello Everyone,

I am fairly new to the Interactive brokers TWS. I see that people say alot of good things about it but I find that some of the basic functions are missing (or i dont know yet).

I am trying to Pair trade the futures (aka calender spread). Suppose I open a Buy at 2, i see that Bid/ASK doesnt even move but the pnl fluctuate like crazy. So why not capture those?

Question:Is there any way to send the market closing order on the combo when the Profit and loss hit a certain level?
More...
Not sure how your PNL can be moving if the bid/ask is static. What market are you trading?
Yes, you can enter a profit-take limit or a stop loss on the calendar spread's price.
 
R1234 said:
Not sure how your PNL can be moving if the bid/ask is static. What market are you trading?
Yes, you can enter a profit-take limit or a stop loss on the calendar spread's price.
More...
I mean even on the chart i see the static price but bars keep changing.. i dont know which one to trust.
Oh man... please give me some advice how to go about doing that in the platform. I saw someone suggesting use excel and route the orders with macro. Is there any other way?
 
arman555 said:
I mean even on the chart i see the static price but bars keep changing.. i dont know which one to trust.
Oh man... please give me some advice how to go about doing that in the platform. I saw someone suggesting use excel and route the orders with macro. Is there any other way?
More...
i do most of my spread trading in thinkorswim. But I used to do it in TWS a couple years back so my advice is going from memory and could be off...on the Portfolio window right click on the spread position (not either of the legs) and there should be an option to close the position. Then in the order window that pops up enter your desired price (the spread price).
 
R1234 said:
i do most of my spread trading in thinkorswim. But I used to do it in TWS a couple years back so my advice is going from memory and could be off...on the Portfolio window right click on the spread position (not either of the legs) and there should be an option to close the position. Then in the order window that pops up enter your desired price (the spread price).
More...

Thanks but that i know. That's the price of combo. I want to close it on Dollar pNL since i dont even see price movement properly.

Question: whats the fees for futures in tos? Hows the execution? Also can you trade any calender and any duration? (When i tried to search it, i think it was showing me the nearest one only
 
arman555 said:
Thanks but that i know. That's the price of combo. I want to close it on Dollar pNL since i dont even see price movement properly.

Question: whats the fees for futures in tos? Hows the execution? Also can you trade any calender and any duration? (When i tried to search it, i think it was showing me the nearest one only
More...
ok my bad.
TOS is a bit pricier than IB for futures $2.25 per side. They have all the months and you can do any month offered by the exchange. For example one of my positions is GEZ20-GEZ21 calendar.
 
R1234 said:
ok my bad.
TOS is a bit pricier than IB for futures $2.25 per side. They have all the months and you can do any month offered by the exchange. For example one of my positions is GEZ20-GEZ21 calendar.
More...
2.25 per side is per order or per contract?
 
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