Simple Situation - Confusing Options

[bgothard 10]

Thank you in advance for any help. As a long time forum user, I know I am supposed to search/read old posts first, and I will, but until I know the right keywords, searches are unproductive and I really need a quick answer. Google searches for "automated/automatic stock trading software" get me expensive results; way beyond my current needs.

 

I own a handful of stocks in a single company currently managed through a major brand name online brokerage account. I simply want to sell this single stock if it hits $XX and then buy it again if it hits $YY, and keep doing that indefinitely.

 

I set a Sell Order with a Limit of $XX.

 

I tried to set a Buy Order with a Limit of $YY and it will not let me unless the cash is in the account, which will not happen unless the Sell Order executes.

 

I do not want to add money. I do not expect my transactions to exceed two or three per month based on my limits, and the profits after transaction fees will be less than the monthly subscriptions I have found so far.

 

Am I being naive thinking that this should be easy to set up somewhere? What do I need to accomplish this seemingly simple goal?

[SIUYA 11]

as you own the stock already - you should be able to transfer the stock across to the broker to enable the sale to be entered. This was it would not be considered a short sale.

 

(Any short sales would require the right conditions depending on the market to be allowed (egl borrowed stock) but more importantly would require margin in the account to be able to just sell stock.....so much the same as a long)

 

As for placing a buy order - without placing extra money in the account why would anyone let you buy a stock without paying for it. You will have to sell the stock first, and use that cash to buy the stock back - leaving the proceeds from the sale with the broker.

It is just a matter of order precedent - Think about what would happen if you own X shares, and the buy order is hit first - you will then own 2xX shares, and a broker is might allow you to leverage the original shares on margin, but this is dangerous and you will still need extra cash to cover losses.

[bgothard 10]

Thanks SIUYA, but I think you misunderstand. I understand that I can do it manually, which is what I have done for several years.

 

I want to know if there is software or a web site that will let me set up a cycle of Buy at $XX, Sell at $YY, Buy at $XX, Sell at $YY... When it sells, wait until the price goes back to $XX and buy again. Hold until it hits $YY and sell it, then repeat. If there is no money in the account, I don't want to buy more, even if the price drops. Just recycle the same money.

 

I am not naive. In my opinion, I am gambling this money. I just want a free or cheap tool to automate these two repeating transactions.

[SIUYA 11]

apologies - i thought it a strange question - but nothing on the internet is that strange....

 

i would think your best bet if you dont need a charting package or anything would be to talk directly to a broker that might offer this service via their one cancels another order service. (OCO)

I dont know of any that specifically has this but i use interactive brokers which are very good for a low cost if you dont require much trading.

You might be able to use a OCO order whereby you will still have to put the order in every 2nd time- eg; a sell followed by a buy. Each cycle it gets reset.

Otherwise - a charting package that is cheap might offer something whereby it checks what the open position is at the broker.

If long, sell to buy, if square/flat then buy to sell.

The package i use is inexpensive and you might be able to easily set up such a system on that - Sierra Charts.

[MightyMouse 12]

Tradestattion, I am pretty sure, will let you code your strategy. It would simple to do if you started with no position. The code would be pretty simple. There are many people here on this forum and on the Tradestation forums who can whip that up in no time.

 

You can code it to buy at price x only when you do not have a position and sell at price y only when you have a position. You can do almost anything you can dream up.

[bobcollett 10]

Hi bg

Did you make money while you were trading this system manually?

regards

bobc

[s2prasad 10]

Think or swim / TD ameritrade is another brokerage company where you can have the OCO orders. First you put the order to sell when it executes the second order to buy at the price you specified.

[M.A 10]

Thanks SIUYA, but I think you misunderstand. I understand that I can do it manually, which is what I have done for several years.

 

I want to know if there is software or a web site that will let me set up a cycle of Buy at $XX, Sell at $YY, Buy at $XX, Sell at $YY... When it sells, wait until the price goes back to $XX and buy again. Hold until it hits $YY and sell it, then repeat. If there is no money in the account, I don't want to buy more, even if the price drops. Just recycle the same money.

 

I am not naive. In my opinion, I am gambling this money. I just want a free or cheap tool to automate these two repeating transactions.

 

Actually u need some coded software to work on ur platform. Mightymouse is right. Tradestation will let u make this very simple code. Even if u hire a coder, it wont cost u big bucks coz it is just a looping code of a few lines, I guess.