Notice
Support Questions
What is an open position?
What about the SEC Day-trading rules? Suppose my account isn’t big enough?
When trading live, CoolTrade™ will reflect this limit on the left side of its main window under the field Day Trades Left.
Why can’t I connect to the Interactive Brokers’s Workstation?
What about Daylight Savings? My state doesn’t change.
Click Preferences and Strategy Preferences, then adjust the start and end times for trading one hour earlier at the start of DST (since your location is effectively shifting to an earlier time), and one hour later again in the fall.
Why do my open positions seem to show the wrong prices?
What this means is, on the day a position is opened, those figures will be accurate. On subsequent days, to find out how a particular open position is doing just click on its symbol in the Active Trades window, and you will see the Net P/L value displayed for that position.
Can I use CoolTrade™ with my Interactive Brokers IRA account?
You will have to configure the Strategy Wizard yourself to effectively trade limited accounts like IRAs in accordance with any applicable federal regulations, but it can be done! Several of our clients have done so successfully, and most of them are happy to tell you how they do it if you just ask them on the CoolTrade™ discussion boards.
What’s the difference between the Exceptions and Blocked lists?
The Exceptions list is for those securities which were on a watch list, but for which CoolTrade™ is currently unable to locate any trading data. Usually this results from a stock changing its ticker symbol. If you see a stock on the Exceptions list, you might go to your favorite financial website and look up that symbol to find out what the new symbol is. It may very well be back on your watch list already under its new name!
The Blocked list is a bit different. This is where you list securities you do NOT want CoolTrade™ to manage. Interactive Brokers allows trading of many securities through its Trader Workstation, some of which (like futures or options) CoolTrade™ is not designed to deal with. If you trade in any of these securities (or you just never want to deal with the stock your cousin recommended) simply place their symbols on the blocked list and CoolTrade™ will cheerfully ignore those stocks and any trade orders associated with them.
CoolTrade says "Data Feed Offline." What’s Up?
The CoolTrade™ developers are currently looking at using different ports in future versions of the program to avoid this conflict, but for now either send us an email asking for the port number so you can put it on your software/firewall’s approved list, or turn off the offending program.
Why does CoolTrade™ recommend a broadband connection?
Some customers have been successful with satellite internet links, but the delicate nature of wireless connections makes this a less-than-ideal choice for time-sensitive programs like CoolTrade™. Dialup connections, even the so-called ‘high-speed’ dialups, are simply too slow to permit CoolTrade™ to work effectively.
CoolTrade™ is not a valid Win32 application?
Simply go the website and download the most recent version of the software. Don’t forget to uninstall the old version first before you install the newer one, too!
Why are others getting different results with the same strategy?
Where can I get information on basic trading terminology and strategy?
1. The Motley Fool, always a popular choice: http://www.fool.com
2. StockCharts has both a glossary of trading terms and a feature called ‘Chart School’ which details how to read a chart in fabulous detail: http://www.stockcharts.com
3. Overview of how stocks are traded. Very basic: http://stocks.about.com/od/tradingbasics/
4. Comprehensive glossary of investing terms: http://www.investorwords.com/
Why can’t I add a rule in the strategy wizard?
If the indicator you need for such a comparison isn’t listed, please drop us a line on the CoolTrade™ discussion boards or send us an email requesting the indicator. If you use a specific indicator, the odds are other CoolTrade™ users might find it useful as well!
How do I set up the Interactive Brokers workstation for CoolTrade™?
Here are the steps to enable live automated trading between CoolTrade™ and the broker (InteractiveBrokers.com ).
1. Install the InteractiveBrokers Trader Workstation (TWS). http://www.interactivebrokers.com/cgi-bin/windows_standalone_tws.pl
2. Log in to IB.
3. Resize the TWS screen (in half, leaving it as tall as the CoolTrade™ screen) so that it only takes up the right half of your monitor. That way, both applications will be side by side when you run the CoolTrade Automated Trader.
4. From the IB Menu, Select Configure & API and place a check mark next to Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients.
5. From the IB Menu, Select Configure & API & Socket Port and enter 7496
6. From the IB Menu, Select File and click on Save Settings.
The first time you run the CoolTrade Automated Trader in "Live" mode, CoolTrade will prompt for your IB username and password. CoolTrade™ will then AUTOMATICALLY START IB AND TYPE IN YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD FOR YOU. You must allow CoolTrade to type your username and password into the IB login screen. This is necessary so that the CoolTrade application can automatically log into IB every time it starts in the future.
If IB is already running when you start CoolTrade, CoolTrade will stop IB and restart it again. This is necessary so that both applications can be in sync at startup.
If you have any trouble getting the Interactive Brokers Workstation to run with CoolTrade™, email or call us and we’ll do our best to get you running and making money!
Does CoolTrade™ allow for backtesting strategies?
All backtesting can do is tell you how a strategy would have performed in the past, not how it will do in the future, when you really need it to deliver. Ever seen that disclaimer on investment ads or prospectuses, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results”? It’s there for a reason, and it’s absolutely true. Backtesting is largely useless. Yesterday’s market is not today’s market.
CoolTrade™ doesn’t do backtesting. Instead, it allows you to ‘forward test’ your strategies using real, live market data, and shows you how much money your strategy would have made that day (or week or month) if you’d had real money in it. To us at CoolTrade™, that sounds much more realistic (and more exciting) than backtesting.
How can I force CoolTrade™ to ignore my manual orders?
To prevent CoolTrade™ from cancelling or modifying these orders, just place the symbol(s) you want to trade on CoolTrade’s™ Blocked list (before you place the order!), and CoolTrade™ won’t track, report on, or modify orders relating to these symbols.