Video summary

XTremeAutoTrader Start Trading 1 Symbol 2015 10 02 15 49 45

Main summary

Key takeaways

Technology

Summary of the demo (Extreme AutoTrader – single symbol trading)

Product being demonstrated

  • Extreme AutoTrader trading console, using a strategy chart workflow to trade one symbol.

Initial console setup (example symbols)

  • The top trading console shows three loaded symbols (e.g., Citigroup, GE, IBM).

Bar interval and locked settings

  • Bar interval: 10 seconds
  • The demo notes that trading/settings are locked for all symbols at this stage, so they can’t be changed yet.

Real-time price information

  • The UI displays “Last close” on the right side.
  • “Last close” updates every couple seconds to reflect the current close price.

Creating a strategy chart

  • The user clicks the “start/stop” cells to create a strategy chart for a selected symbol.
  • Clicking a cell triggers chart creation and effectively prepares the strategy to be started.

Reliability recommendation (important workflow step)

Recommended: go offline from TradeStation before chart creation

The presenter recommends disconnecting TradeStation from both:

  • the data server
  • the order server

Goal: improve reliability when generating the strategy chart.

What the platform shows during offline mode

  • The trading mode indicator turns red (offline for data and orders).
  • The console column “data connected” turns yellow/diagnostic offline (for the diagnostic symbol and possibly others).

Starting and synchronizing strategy vs. actual position

Reconnect after chart creation

Once the strategy chart exists, the user brings TradeStation back online by entering:

  • username
  • password

A headline indicator reflects the strategy state (e.g., chart created / strategy started / stopped).

Strategy position updates on a timer

  • The demo shows the strategy’s target position changing every 10 seconds (to keep trading activity moving).

Start trading and align positions

  • Clicking Start begins live/sim trading.
  • This aligns the actual position with the strategy position.

Measured alignment latency

The presenter highlights timing differences between the strategy’s target and actual execution, including examples like:

  • ~135 ms delay to align to a new position
  • ~100 ms delay for subsequent alignment

As the strategy switches between:

  • short (e.g., -10 shares) and
  • long (e.g., +10 shares, then +20 shares long)

…the actual position catches up after small delays.

Stopping, freezing, and killing trades

Stop (freeze current position)

  • Clicking Stop stops trading.
  • The current position remains intact (described as “frozen”).
  • The strategy target may continue updating.
  • Clicking Start again re-aligns the actual position to the strategy position.

Kill trade (close immediately)

  • Clicking Kill trade immediately shuts down the position (closes the trade).
  • After killing, the button returns to Start.
  • The demo shows the resulting current strategy position state (e.g., 10 shares long).

Main speaker/source

  • Dave Cohn — Emerald Trading Technologies

Original video