Although I use MultiCharts, I have an associate who has a strategy written in EasyLanguage that he is trying to automate in TradeStation. He's asked me for some help, and since I'm not a TradeStation expert, I wanted to pass this question along to the group:

Here it is:

Let's say that you write a simple piece of code that says:

If Condition1 = TRUE Then Buy Next Bar At 100 LIMIT;

It is my understanding that at the end of each bar, Condition1 will be evaluated and if it's true, an order to buy the next bar at a limit price of 100 will be entered in the market.

In the case of Multicharts, if you placed this limit order on the most recent bar, and it's not filled at the end of that bar and that bar doesn't fulfill the conditions of "Condition1", then the limit order is cancelled.

That doesn't seem to be how TradeStation does it. It appears as though the limit order stays in forever, even though the condition that prompted it to be entered no longer prevail.

Is that right? How, then, do you cancel that limit order now that Condition1 is no longer true?

Thanks for any insights you can provide!

I am not sure how TradeStation does it. But I know there is talk on the forums of how MC does it, which is bar-by-bar as you said, and it effectively cancels orders and re-submits if the condition is true.

Now I've never had time to test this theory, but if it really is cancelling and then re-submitting, then that is really quite bad. Not just in terms of efficiency but mainly in terms of how negatively it can effect your trading (position queue).

I am thinking that hopefully isn't the case, and in fact it will evaluate whether or not the same order should just be left untouched as-is, preserving your position in the queue at the exchange for limit orders.

If you find an answer for TradeStation please let us know.

Mike