ccSchwabManager

A cross-platform SwiftUI application for managing Charles Schwab trading accounts and positions. Supports both macOS and iOS platforms.

Platform Support

• macOS 15.2+: Full desktop experience with native file system access
• iOS 18.2+: Mobile interface optimized for iPhone and iPad
• visionOS 2.2+: Compatible with Apple Vision Pro

Quick Build

# Build for macOS
make build

# Build for iOS Simulator  
make build-ios

# Build for iOS Device
make build-ios-device

For detailed build instructions and iOS compilation fixes, see IOS_BUILD_FIXES.md.

Features

User Interface

The application provides a clean, focused interface with two main tabs:

• Holdings: View and manage your Schwab account positions with detailed analysis and order recommendations
• Credentials: Manage your Schwab API credentials and authentication settings

Orders Tab Layout

The Orders tab features a redesigned, user-friendly interface with three distinct sections:

• Current Orders: Displays active working orders with a clean, compact design that automatically adjusts height based on content
• Recommended Orders: Shows intelligent order recommendations with radio button selection and enhanced visual organization (supports both single orders and OCO orders)
• Buy Sequence Orders: Strategic position building orders with nested order structures and dynamic trailing stops

Key Layout Improvements:

• Clear Visual Separation: Each section has distinct headers with color-coded themes (blue, green, orange)
• Proper Scrolling: All content is accessible through smooth scrolling regardless of window size
• Responsive Design: Sections automatically adjust height and spacing for optimal viewing
• Enhanced UX: Better visual hierarchy and intuitive navigation between order types

Enhanced Sell Order Logic

The application now includes sophisticated sell order logic with multiple order types and proper cost basis calculations:

• Multiple Sell Order Types: The system now generates up to four different sell order types:

  • Minimum Break-Even: Sells minimum shares needed to achieve 1% gain at target price
  • Min ATR: Sells shares to maintain 5% profit on remaining position with consistent trailing stop logic
  • +0.5ATR: Additional sell order with trailing stop = min break-even + 0.5 × ATR%
  • +1.0ATR: Additional sell order with trailing stop = min break-even + 1.0 × ATR%
  • +1.5ATR: Additional sell order with trailing stop = min break-even + 1.5 × ATR%

• Consistent Logic Across All Sell Orders: All sell orders now use the same calculation methodology:

  • Trailing Stop: Uses atrValue for Min ATR (minimum shares for 5% gain), atrValue / 5.0 for Min Break Even, with incremental additions for additional orders
  • Target Price: Calculated dynamically based on trailing stop and entry price using entry / (1.0 + trailingStop / 100.0)
  • Entry Price: Uses consistent calculation currentPrice * (1.0 - adjustedATR / 100.0)
  • Exit Price: All orders use the same exit price calculation logic

• Smart Tax Lot Integration: Additional sell orders iterate through available tax lots to find suitable shares for each order type, ensuring optimal share allocation

• Accurate Cost Basis Calculation: All sell orders now use weighted average cost basis across multiple tax lots, providing accurate profit/loss calculations

• Intelligent Share Allocation: The system continues through tax lots until all four recommendations are met or until it runs out of tax lots

• Share Validation: All sell orders ensure they have at least 1 share and don't exceed available shares (except Top-100 orders which require 100+ shares)

Sell Order Example

For a position with multiple tax lots:

• Min BE Order: Sells 7 shares with 0.38% trailing stop
• Min ATR Order: Sells minimum shares needed for 5% gain using ATR as trailing stop
• +0.5ATR Order: Sells 12 shares with 1.32% trailing stop (includes shares from multiple tax lots)
• +1.0ATR Order: Sells 10 shares with 2.27% trailing stop (continues through tax lots)
• +1.5ATR Order: May sell additional shares with even higher trailing stops

Dynamic Section Sizing

The Orders tab now features intelligent space allocation between Current Orders and Recommended Orders sections:

• Adaptive Layout: Current Orders section shrinks to minimum height when empty, giving more space to Recommended Orders
• Minimum Height Guarantee: Current Orders maintains minimum height (80 points) to accommodate header and cancel button
• Responsive Design: Uses GeometryReader and preference keys to measure content and allocate space dynamically
• Better User Experience: Reduces scrolling in Recommended Orders section when Current Orders doesn't need much space

Race Condition Fixes

The application has been enhanced with comprehensive fixes for race conditions that were preventing proper order generation:

• Tax Lot Calculation Synchronization: Fixed a critical race condition where order calculations were running before tax lot data was fully loaded
• Guarded Function Execution: All order calculation functions now check for tax lot data availability before proceeding
• Smart Waiting Logic: The system now waits for background tax lot calculations to complete before attempting order generation
• Enhanced Error Handling: Clear logging and graceful fallbacks when required data is not available
• Improved Data Flow: Tax lot data is properly cleared and reloaded when symbols change, preventing stale data issues

Key Improvements:

• No More Zero Tax Lot Counts: Order calculations now wait for complete tax lot data before proceeding
• Proper Sell Order Generation: Sell orders are now generated with full access to all available tax lots
• Better User Experience: Orders are only calculated when all required data is ready
• Robust Error Handling: Clear error messages when data is not available

Enhanced Buy Order Logic

The application now includes sophisticated buy order logic for positions that are below target gain:

• Smart Target Price Calculation: When a position is below the target gain (33% for most positions), the system calculates a target price that is 33% above the current price
• Intelligent Entry Pricing: Buy orders are set to enter at 1 ATR% below the target price, ensuring we don't buy until the position is sufficiently profitable
• Precise Trailing Stops: Trailing stop percentages are calculated based on the target price vs current price, ensuring accurate stop placement
• Price Rounding: All prices and percentages are rounded to the penny (2 decimal places) for precise order execution
• Flexible Order Submission: The system now supports both single orders and OCO orders:
  • Single Orders: Submit individual buy or sell orders independently
  • OCO Orders: Submit both buy and sell orders together as a One-Cancels-Other order
  • Smart Submit Button: Submit button is enabled when either a buy OR sell order is selected (not requiring both)

Buy Order Example

For a position with:

• Current price: $40.14
• Average cost: $43.77 (8% under)
• ATR: 4.76%
• Target gain: 33% (5 × ATR)

The system will:

• Set target price to $53.51 (33% above current price)
• Set entry price to $50.97 (1 ATR% below target)
• Set trailing stop to 33.31% (target vs current price)
• Round all values to the penny for precise execution

Buy Sequence Orders

The application now supports sophisticated Buy Sequence Orders for strategic position building:

• Nested Order Structure: Each order in the sequence includes the next order as a child, creating a chain where the lowest-priced order is the outermost trigger
• Dynamic Trailing Stop Calculation: Trailing stop percentage adapts based on distance to minimum strike price:
  • Standard: 5% trailing stop when minimum strike is ≤25% above current price
  • Conservative: 1/4 of percent difference (less 4%) when minimum strike is >25% above current price
• Smart Order Filtering: Orders are only created if their entry price is above the current market price
• Maximum Cost Control: Each order is limited to $1400 maximum cost, with shares calculated as min(5 shares, maxCostPerOrder / targetPrice)
• 6% Price Intervals: Each subsequent order targets a price 6% below the previous order's target
• Minimum Strike Integration: The highest-priced order targets the minimum strike price of existing contracts for the underlying symbol
• Options Data Integration: Orders are generated based on actual options contracts found in positions, using proper strike price and expiration date extraction

Buy Sequence Example

For a position with:

• Current price: $181.56
• Minimum strike: $235.00 (from existing call contracts)
• ATR: 3.58%

The system creates:

• Order 1: Target = $235.00 (minimum strike), Entry = $226.59, Shares = 5 (limited by cost)
• Order 2: Target = $220.90 (6% below previous), Entry = $212.85, Shares = 5
• Order 3: Target = $207.65 (6% below previous), Entry = $200.22, Shares = 5
• Order 4: Target = $195.19 (6% below previous), Entry = $188.15, Shares = 5

All orders would be entered since their entry prices are above the current market price.

Real-Time Price Synchronization

The application now ensures consistent real-time pricing across all displays:

• Position Summary: Shows current "Last" price from real-time quote data
• Tax Lot Table: Displays current price in the "Price" column using the same real-time source
• Order Calculations: All buy and sell order calculations use consistent real-time pricing
• Price Source Hierarchy: Both displays use the same priority: quote data → extended quote → regular market price → price history fallback

This ensures that the position summary and tax lot table always show the same current price, eliminating discrepancies between different parts of the interface.

Correct targets when navigating between symbols

• The Orders tab now guards against stale data during rapid navigation. Buy/sell recommendations only compute when the loaded quoteData.symbol matches the current position’s symbol.
• The engine clears previously computed recommendations on symbol change and recomputes once fresh data arrives, preventing cases where a high-priced stock’s target appeared under a low-priced one.

Performance Optimizations

The application includes several performance optimizations to ensure smooth user experience:

• Order Calculation Caching: Recommended orders are cached and only recalculated when underlying data changes (symbol, quote data, tax lot data), not when selecting items in the UI
• Efficient State Management: Checkbox selections in the recommended orders list no longer trigger expensive recalculations
• Smart Data Updates: Orders are only recalculated when the actual data that affects calculations changes, not on UI interactions
• Responsive UI: The interface remains responsive even when working with large datasets or complex calculations

This ensures that selecting orders for submission is fast and responsive, while still maintaining accurate calculations when market data changes.

CSV Export Functionality

The application now supports exporting transaction history, tax lot data, and holdings data to CSV files:

• Transaction History Export: Click the export button (📤) in the Date column header of the transaction history table to export all transactions for a specific symbol
• Tax Lots Export: Click the export button (📤) in the Open Date column header of the sales calc table to export all tax lot data for a specific symbol
• Holdings Export: Click the export button (📤) to the right of the Symbol column header in the Holdings tab to export comprehensive holdings data

Export File Naming Convention

Files are automatically named using the following format:

• Transactions_<Symbol>_<Date>.csv for transaction history exports
• TaxLots_<Symbol>_<Date>.csv for tax lot exports
• Holdings_<Date>.csv for holdings exports

Where:

• <Symbol> is the stock/security symbol (e.g., AAPL, MSFT)
• <Date> is the export date in YYYYMMDD format (e.g., 20250713)

Default Export Location

Files are saved to the user's Downloads folder by default, with a file dialog allowing users to choose a different location if desired.

CSV Format

Transaction History CSV includes:

• Date (formatted as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
• Type (Buy/Sell)
• Quantity
• Price
• Net Amount

Tax Lots CSV includes:

• Open Date
• Quantity
• Price
• Cost/Share
• Market Value
• Cost Basis
• Gain/Loss $
• Gain/Loss %

Holdings CSV includes:

• Symbol
• Quantity
• Market Value
• Cost Basis
• Gain/Loss $
• Gain/Loss %
• Account
• Trade Date
• Order Status

Enhanced Recommended Orders

The application now provides enhanced order recommendations with improved UI and additional sell order types, supporting both single orders and OCO (One-Cancels-Other) orders:

• Additional Sell Order Types: Beyond the standard sell orders, the system now generates:

  • 1% Higher Trailing Stop Orders: Sell orders with trailing stops 1% higher than the minimum break-even order
  • Maximum Shares Orders: Sell orders using all available shares with appropriately adjusted trailing stops
  • Configurable Limits: Up to 7 additional sell orders (configurable via maxAdditionalSellOrders constant)

• Improved Order Selection Interface:

  • Radio Button Selection: Replaced checkboxes with radio buttons for better single-selection behavior
  • Separate Selection Groups: Independent radio button groups for sell and buy orders
  • Deselection Support: Tap selected radio buttons again to deselect them
  • Visual Feedback: Clear indication of selected orders with filled circle icons

• Enhanced Layout and UX:

  • Right-Aligned Submit Button: Submit button positioned to the right of the orders for better visual balance
  • Proper Spacing: Enhanced spacing and visual separation between sell and buy order sections
  • Copy Functionality: Copy order descriptions to clipboard with visual feedback
  • Responsive Design: Layout adapts to content and screen size

• Smart Order Logic:

  • Full Share Availability: All sell orders can use the full available shares (not assuming previous orders consume shares)
  • Proper Gap Structure: Target prices are calculated midway between stop price and cost per share for better risk management
  • Profitability Validation: Orders are only created when they meet profitability requirements

• Flexible Order Submission:

  • Single Order Support: Users can now submit individual buy or sell orders without requiring both
  • OCO Order Support: Traditional OCO functionality still available when both buy and sell orders are selected
  • Smart Submit Button: Submit button automatically enables when any order is selected (buy OR sell)
  • Dynamic Order Creation: System automatically creates single orders or OCO orders based on selection
  • Improved User Experience: No more requirement to select both order types - submit what you need when you need it

Project Structure

• Sources/: Contains the source code of the project.
• Tests/: Contains the unit tests for the project.

Prerequisites

• Swift (Ensure you have the latest version installed)
• Xcode (Recommended for Mac users)
• Schwab Developer Account (Needed for the AppId and AppKey for your account)
• An investment account at Schwab.

Building the Project

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/creacominc/ccSchwabManager.git
   cd ccSchwabManager

2. Open the project in Xcode (if using Xcode):

   open ccSchwabManager.xcodeproj

3. Build the project:

   • In Xcode: Click on the Build button (or press Cmd+B).
   • From the command line:

     swift build

Running the Tests

1. Open the project in Xcode (if using Xcode):

   open ccSchwabManager.xcodeproj

2. Run the tests:

   • In Xcode: Click on the Test button (or press Cmd+U).
   • From the command line:

     swift test

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repository and submit a pull request for review.

License

This project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. See the LICENSE file for more details.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a detailed history of changes and improvements made to the project.

Description

@Swift @SwiftUI @Swift Testing @Apple Design Tips @Xcode @GitHub Actions

I want to create an application that can run on both IOS and MacOS called ccSchwabMzanger. This app will be used to view current holdings in multiple accounts at Schwab and suggest a buy and a sell order for each security as it is selected from a list.

You may use the existing classes as a guide or as they are.

The app should first load a Secrets object from the keychain using the readSecrets moethod in the KeychainManager. This object, when stored in the keychain, is in JSON format and may contain the appId, appSecret, redirectUrl, code, session, accessToken, refreshToken, and a list of accountNumberHash objects. Any of these values may be nil.

If the secrets object is not found in the keychain or it does not have the appId or appSecret or redirectUrl, a dialog should prompt the user for the appId, appSecret, and redirectUrl. Once those are entered, the secrets object should be stored in the keychain and the user should be presented with a button which will launch authentication through a link object which goes to the Schwab api login web page. The authorization URL can be retrieved from getAuthorizationUrl.

There should be a text field in which the user can paste the results of the authentication. When they do, the app should extract the 'code' from the pasted URL and save it in the secrets object as seen in handleAuthorization.

With the code saved in the secrets object and to the keychain, the app should fetch the account numbers as seen in fetchAccountNumbers then the account listings should be fetched as seen in fetchAccounts.

The fetchAccounts method provides a list of symbols in the accounts which should be presented to the user in a table with the following fields taken from the Account, Position, and Instrument classes if they are available: accountNumber, averagePrice, longQuantity, agedQuantity, marketValue, longOpenProfitLoss, assetType, symbol, description, closingPrice.

The table should be able to be filtered sorted on any of these columns.

There should be a way for the user to reset the secrets object partially (clearing all but the appId, appSecret, and callbackUrl) or fully.

In structuring the app, please use ccSchwabManager/ccSchwabManagerApp.swift as the main, ccSchwabManager/Views for all views including ccSchwabManager/Views/ContentView.swift, ccSchwabManager/DataTypes for all JSON data objects, ccSchwabManager/DataTypes/Enums for enums, ccSchwabManager/DataTypes/MarketData for MarketData request objects, ccSchwabManager/DataTypes/TraderAPI for account request objects, and ccSchwabManager/Utilities/Secrets for the secrets data type.

Unit test should use Swift Testing and be placed in the ccSchwabManagerTests folder with the other unit tests.

Some sample data appears in json files in the tests folders.

Workflows

This app has a few workflows. Not all are completed yet but I will document the outline and what has been done so far.

Account Workflow

Before anything else can be done, we need the account(s) and positions held.

If the user has authorized the app, we will have the authorization key and refresh key and we will be able to update the refresh key and fetch the account numbers through the web api. If that update or the account fetch fails, we need to get the user to authorize the app to access thier Schwab account(s). This is done by prsenting a view with a button that launches a web browser for the Schwab authorization. When they authorize, they are shown a page which indicates a failure. This is because we do not yet have the app acting as a web server so that we can provide a valid redirect-url to get the access information directly into the app. For now, the user needs to copy the URL provided from the web browser, paste it into the provided line in the view, and press the submit button. This extracts a Code from the URL and uses this to get the access and refresh tokens and starts a thread to keep refreshing the access token.

Research Workflow

This workflow involves collecting the position summary, price history, transaction history, and the tax lots.

Unfortunately, I do not see a way to get tax lots from Schwab so I attempt to compute them from the transaction history. To this we first attempt to find a point in time when we had zero shares by taking the current share count, adding the number of shares sold and subtracting the number of shares bought with each prior transaction until we run out of data or find a number close to zero. Splits do not impact the finding of zero because the number of shares received in a stock split are added. Once we find zero, we move forward through the transactions adding buys and, when we have a sale of N shares, we remove the N highest cost-per-share shares. This only works if the account is set up to sell from the highest cost and will not work well for FIFO or any other tax strategy. It will behave particulary badly if the strategy changes during the holding period for a position.

Once the price history, transaction history, and tax lots are known, the tax lots are split adjusted by looking for share receive-and-distribute with a zero cost-per-share. Once found, the number of shares held at that time is calculated and used to determine the split multiple which is then applied to all the prior share counts and cost-per-share values.

Mergers and Renamed securities. If the oldest transaction found looks like a split (being a receive-and-deliver type), it is likely a rename or a merger of ticker. In this case, the cost will show as 0.00 and needs to be adjusted. Since it is the oldest transaction, if it matches the currentShareCount, we can compute and assign the cost-per-share based on the currentShareCount and the difference between the costs for the later tax lots and the overall cost. If the oldest transaction (the last one we are processing in computeTaxLots) is of type RECEIVE_AND_DELIVER, the cost-per-share should be updated from 0.00 as follows: received_cost_per_share = ((AveragePrice * Quantity) - Sum_of_later_tax_lots_costs) / currentShareCount

Tax lot information is used in the calculation of the number of shares avialable to sell.

Order Workflow

To avoid needing to monitor the market and to avoid missing opportunities, the decisions for buying or selling are made ahead of time and submitted as 'trailing stop limit orders' with conditions so that they execute unsupervised. Orders can have an entry and/or cancellation date/time as well as market conditions such as Bid Above and/or Ask Below.

A trailing stop limit order is computed to cause a sale at a certain target price and is made up of a few components:

• adjusted ATR (the AATR is the ATR limited - if needed - to the range of 1 to 7. that is, if it is less than 1, it should be 1. if it is more than 7 it should be 7.)
• the number of shares (Quantity)
• limit offset (% above or below the limit at which the order is entered, usually +/- 0.05%)
• stop offset (% above or below the last price at which the buy or sell should be submitted, usually 1 AATR)
• time in force (usually GTC or Good Til Cancelled)
• stop type (ask for sells, bid for buys)
• submit at (usually the next trading day at 09:40)
• cancel at (optional - used when the trade is related to a contract and matches the contract maturity)
• submit condition (market condition to be met for submition - could be ask below, bid above, or a study)
• cancel condition (same as submit condition but cancels the order)

Sell Order Workflow

For all orders other than the top 100, the entry must be below the last price, the target must be below the entry, and the exit must be below the target.

Except for the Top-100 sell order, all sell orders are limited to the number of shares available to trade. This is defined as the shares held for over 30 days less the number of shares in contracts. For example, if we have two tax lots, one with 5 shares bought 29 days ago and one with 7 shares bought 32 days ago, only the 7 are available for trading (selling).

For the Top-100 sales, this rule should be used only to dictate how the sell order appears. Top-100 sell orders should appear for any position for which we have 100 or more shares but should clearly indicate if this sell is not possible due to insufficient shares available. The reason for this is that we can use this sell order as a guide for selling covered calls for which we need to know the cost-per-share of the top 100 shares.

Sell orders are entered for one or more of three reasons:

• Minimum ATR-based standing sells are meant to protect against loss and provide at least 5% gain by selling a number of shares if the price falls by a certain multiple of the ATR. The goal is to provide a large enough gap so that the sale does not happen too quickly allowing the stock may fall but rise again before hitting the limit. For these orders the : - Adjusted ATR: if then ATR < 1; then AATR = 1; else if ATR > 7; then AATR = 7; else AATR = ATR; - Submit condition: The ask price below the last price minus 1.5 * AATR. ie. ASK <= (last_price / (1 + (1.5 * AATR/100))) - Target Price: 3.25% above the breakeven (avg cost per share) to account for wash sale cost adjustments. target = avg_cost_per_share * 1.0325 - Exit Price: 0.9% below the Target. ASK <= (target * 0.991) - Quantity: the minimum number of shares it would take - when selling from the highest cost-per-share to lowest - to see at least a 5% return. The minimum quantity would be 1 share. The maximum would be the number of shares available to sell. Shares will be presented as whole numbers and caculations that result in a fraction will be rounded up to the next whole value. For a tax lot that results in more than a 5% gain, only the number of shares needed to achieve that 5% gain should be considered.
  - Limit Offset: 0.05% - Stop Offset: - Time in force: good until cancelled - Stop type: ASK - Submit at: the next trading day at 09:40 - Cancel at: not used - Cancel condition: not used To achive this, we can first ensure that the position is at least 6% and at least (3.5 * ATR) profitable. If it is not, selling all the shares would still not meet the conditions. The Adjusted ATR is computed as 1.5 * the ATR for the position. The entry price is below the current (last) price by 1.5 * AATR %. ASK <= last / (1 + (1.5*AATR/100)) The target price is 2.25% above the breakeven (avg cost per share). target = avg_cost_per_share * 1.0225 The exit price should be 0.9% below the target. ASK <= target * 0.991

  • Minimum break-even standing sells are meant to trim some shares, removing just enough to get rid of the shares that are not currently profitable and enough of the profitable shares so that altogether we see a 1% gain. It is the same as the Minimum ATR except that the gain target is 1%. To achive this, we can first ensure that the position is at least 1% profitable. If it is not, selling all the shares would still not meet the conditions. The Adjusted ATR is ATR/5 (one-fifth of the ATR). The entry price is below the current (last) price by 1 AATR%. Entry = Last - 1 AATR% The target price is below the entry price by 2 AATR%. Target = Entry - 2 AATR% The exit price should be below the target price by 2 AATR%. Cancel = Target - 2 AATR%

  • Top 100 sells are meant to provide the target price needed to profit from the sale of the top 100 shares. This information may be used to set the minimum price for the sale of a call option. The price may be above the last price. This sell order should show if there are at least 100 shares available. If the target price is higher than the 95% of the last price, the sell should be shown in red. Rather than computing the minimum shares, this sell order should be for the top 100. To achive this, we first need to compute the cost-per-share for the top 100 shares.
    The target price is 3.25% above the breakeven (cost-per-share) to account for wash sale cost adjustments. target = cost-per-share * 1.0325 The Adjusted ATR is computed as 1.5 * 0.25 or 0.375. The entry price is one AATR above the target price. target * (1 + (AATR/100)) The exit price should be 0.9% below the target. target * 0.991

Sell Order Pricing Examples

Top 100 Sell Order Example:

• Current price: $29.42
• Cost per share for top 100 shares: $41.96
• Target price: $41.96 × 1.0325 = $43.32 (3.25% above breakeven, accounting for wash sale adjustments)
• Adjusted ATR: 1.5 × 0.25% = 0.375%
• Entry price: $43.32 × (1 + 0.375/100) = $43.48 (Target + ATR above target)
• Exit price: $43.32 × 0.991 = $42.93 (0.9% below target)

Min ATR Sell Order Example:

• Current price: $29.42
• Average cost per share: $24.66
• Target price: $24.66 × 1.0325 = $25.46 (3.25% above breakeven, accounting for wash sale adjustments)
• Adjusted ATR: 1.5 × ATR% (varies by stock)
• Entry price: $25.46 × (1 + ATR/100) (Target + ATR above target)
• Exit price: $25.46 × 0.991 = $25.23 (0.9% below target)

Min BE Sell Order Example:

• Current price: $19.75
• ATR: 3.4%
• Adjusted ATR: 3.4% ÷ 5 = 0.68%
• Entry price: $19.75 × (1 - 0.68/100) = $19.62 (Last - 1 AATR%)
• Target price: $19.62 × (1 - 2×0.68/100) = $19.35 (Entry - 2 AATR%)
• Exit price: $19.35 × (1 - 2×0.68/100) = $19.09 (Target - 2 AATR%)

Buy Order Workflow

The goal of the buy order workflow is to increase our holdings of positions that are profitable. All positions should have standing buy orders if they are not performing so badly that we just want to sell them. Orders should be structured so that they are submitted on or after a certain date and time and above (or in some cases below) a certain price. The increase in holdings should be done slowly so that we never invest more than $500 a week in a security or the price of 1 share if it the cost-per-share exceeds $500. The number of shares bought and the target buy price should be such that we can maintain at least a certain target percent gain.

The target percent gain depends on the ATR of the security. The ATR indicates the volatility and how quickly the price could rise or fall. The target precent gain should be the greater of 15% or 5 * ATR%. If a security has a 2% ATR, the traget would be 15%. If it has a 3% ATR, the target would be 21%. For the first example, we would want to always have at least 15% gain on our current holdings. For the second, 21%. If the current P/L% is less than the target gain, we should compute the price at which it would meet the target gain and use that (plus 1*ATR) for the order entry price.

The order submission date/time is when the order should be submitted. It should be at 09:40 local time at least 7 days since the last buy. If the last buy was more than 7 days ago, the order can be submitted without a submit time/date which will cause it to start right away. If the current local time is outside of trading hours, the order should be entered on the next trading day at least 10 minutes after market open (09:40).

The order entry price is the price at which a trailing stop limit order should be entered. After the submission date/time, the order will wait for order condition which will be that the BID is at or above 1*ATR% over the price that represents the target percent gain. If the cost-per-share is at $100 and the stock has a 1% ATR, the target gain would be 15% or $115. One more ATR% would be $116.15. The order entry condition would be that the BID >= $116.15.

The Trailing Stop for the order will be the ATR% of the security.

The target buy price will be the order entry price plus the trailing stop (1 ATR%). To continue the above example, if the entry was at $116.15 and the ATR was 1%, the order would be to buy shares submit at 09:40 when BID >= $116.15 Trailing Stop = 1%. Target buy price $117.31.

The number of shares to buy will be:

• the number of shares at the target buy price that would bring the P/L% down to the target percent gain.
• if the cost of that number of shares exceeds $500, the number of shares will be limited to the number of shares that can be bought for $500.
• if the share price is over $500, the number of shares will be set to 1.

The buy orders should be structured like the sell orders in the same table and with the same set of check boxes handled by the same submit button. It should be clear that they are buy orders through the use of a different colour either of the text or the background and possibly by providing a small separator between the sell and buy orders.

The description should be structured similar to the sell orders also. Similar to: Buy Submit - BID >= TS = <ATR%> Target =