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Trades
Trades can be broadly classified into two types:
- LONG trades in which an instrument (a share, warrant, forex pair,
futures contract) is bought and then later sold. If the price rises between the
time of buying and the time of selling then a profit is made. Long trades are made
when one expects the price of the instrument to rise.
- SHORT trades in which an instrument (a share, warrant, forex pair,
futures contract) is first sold (which implies the promise of a later delivery)
and then later bought (at which point of course one is able to deliver on the earlier
promise of delivery). If the price falls between the time of selling and the time
of buying then a profit is made. Short trades are made when one expects the price
of the instrument to fall.
Trades are presented in Sentient Trader with the following details (which details are presented depends upon the context):
- Confirm: This is a box presented in the scan trading report window which allows you to
tell Sentient Trader whether you would like to confirm the trade (in which case
it will be added to the chart which generated it as an open trade if it was the result of an entry
order, or it will be closed if it was the result of an exit order).
- ID: Every trade generated by Sentient Trader is identified by a number. This ID
number allows you (and Sentient Trader) to keep track of a particular trade and avoid
confusion when it comes to generating orders which relate to that
trade.
- Chart: This is the chart that the trade belongs to. Chart names
can be changed in the chart's trading settings, but by default the chart name is
the symbol name of the instrument (as provided by the data provider). You can change
this to give your charts more meaningful names if you like..
- Number: The number of shares/contracts/lots
that have been bought (for a long trade) or sold (for a short trade).
- Long/Short: Indicates whether this is a long or short trade.
- Entry/Exit: Indicates whether the action being taken in the case
of a pending trade is the entry of a trade (initiation, or opening of a position),
or the exit of a trade (ending, or closing of a position).
- Entry Bar: The bar number (from the chart) on which the trade was
entered. Note that if your data provider changes the start of their data then this
number will change over time.
- Entry Date/Time: The date and time at which the trade was entered.
- Entry Price: The price level at which
the trade was entered.
- Exit Bar: The bar number (from the chart) on which the trade was
exited (or closed). Note that if your data provider changes the start of their data
then this number will change over time.
- Exit Date/Time: The date and time at which the trade was exited
or closed.
- Entry Price: The price level at which the trade was exited or closed.
- Last Date/Time: The date and time of the last bar of data in the
case of an open trade.
- Last Price: The price level of the last bar of data in the case
of an open trade.
- Stoploss: This is the level at which the stoploss has been placed. Note that additional exit orders might have been placed which are not the stoploss
level.
- Target: This is the target for
the trade, the price level to which Sentient Trader expects the trade to extend
to. Unlike the stoploss, this is not always placed as an actual order, but
is provided as an indication of where the trade is expected to culminate.
- Profit/Loss: This is the amount of profit or loss that has been
made on the trade.
- Date: This is the date (and time
if intraday) of the last available bar of data at the time that Sentient Trader
generated the trade order.
- Margin: If this is a margined intsrument then the amount of margin
will be given here, if it was provided at the time of trade confirmation.
- S.U.T.: This is the Short Underlying
Trend of the trade.
- Wave: If you
are using the sentient trading methodology then the wave number (one, two, three
or four) of the trade will be given here.
- Previous wave: If you are using
the sentient trading methodology then the previous wave can influence the trading
decisions, depending upon the trading matrix that is applied.
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