Trading operations

Placing a different type of orders, modifying and canceling them using Quantower API

A key part of each strategy is a trading algorithm it implements. In most cases it requires possibilities of placing a different type of orders, modifying and canceling them. In this topic, we will show you how to get access to this operations via Quantower API.

Placing orders

As we wrote in the previous topic, Core class is the main entry point for all major functions and placing orders (as well as all other trading operations) are not the exception. The most flexible way of placing orders is using the PlaceOrder method, that accepts PlaceOrderRequestParameters object as input parameter. This object provides you with more than 15 parameters and using them you can customize your order request according to your needs. It is not necessary to fill all, usually, you will need only main, such as:

Parameter	Description
Account	An account for order
Symbol	A symbol for order
Side	Side of order: Buy or Sell
Price	Price for Limit or Stop Limit order
TriggerPrice	Trigger price for Stop or Stop Limit Order
Quantity	Amount of the order (in lots)
StopLoss	An instance of SlTpHolder object, where you can specify price or offset for Stop Loss order
TakeProfit	An instance of SlTpHolder object, where you can specify price or offset for Take Profit order
OrderTypeID	An ID of required order type. For most cases you will need only basic types, so you can use predefined constants: OrderType.Limit, OrderType.Stop, OrderType.Market and OrderType.StopLimit

And code example of using this method:

// Full form, allows you to specify all parameters
Core.Instance.PlaceOrder(new PlaceOrderRequestParameters()
{
    Account = this.account,
    Symbol = this.symbol,
    Side = Side.Buy,
    Price = this.symbol.Bid - this.symbol.TickSize * 10,
    TimeInForce = TimeInForce.Day,
    Quantity = 2,
    StopLoss = SlTpHolder.CreateSL(20, PriceMeasurement.Offset),
    TakeProfit = SlTpHolder.CreateSL(10, PriceMeasurement.Offset),                   
    OrderTypeId = OrderType.Limit
});

Another option to send order request is using the overloaded PlaceOrder method, which accepts only basic order parameters. The shortest form will send Short or Long 1 lot position using a specified symbol and account:

Core.Instance.PlaceOrder(this.symbol, this.account, Side.Buy);

You can also add other parameters, for example if you want to place a Limit order just need to specify Price:

Core.Instance.PlaceOrder(this.symbol, this.account, Side.Buy, price: this.symbol.Bid - this.symbol.TickSize * 5)

Or Trigger price for Stop order:

Core.Instance.PlaceOrder(this.symbol, this.account, Side.Buy, triggerPrice: this.symbol.Bid - 5 * this.symbol.TickSize);

Modifying orders

Once you created your order you can modify its parameters - use ModifyOrder function in Core class for this. You can specify only parameter you want to change, for example, if you want to change Quantity of order:

Core.Instance.ModifyOrder(orderToModify, quantity: 5);

If you need to change the price of the order:

Core.Instance.ModifyOrder(orderToModify, price: this.symbol.Bid - 10 * this.symbol.TickSize);

Or, if you want, you can request changing all parameters simultaneously: quantity, time in force, price:

Core.Instance.ModifyOrder(orderToModify, quantity: 5, timeInForce: TimeInForce.GTC, price: this.symbol.Bid - 10*this.symbol.TickSize);

Cancelling orders

As expected there is a function for canceling Order - CancelOrder. All you need to specify is Order object:

Core.Instance.CancelOrder(orderToCancel);

You can use also Cancel method of Order class as an alternative way:

orderToCancel.Cancel();

Closing positions

The closing of positions is very similar to canceling orders. Use ClosePosition method from Core:

Core.Instance.ClosePosition(positionToClose);

Or method Close from Position class:

positionToClose.Close();

If allowed by your current connection, you can request partial closing of position. Both ways of closing positions accept CloseQuantity parameter, which determines an amount that should be closed.

Result of trading operations

All trading operations return special object TradingOperationResult which contains information about the result of the processing request:

Parameter	Description
Status	Success if a request was sent to server or Failure if some problems occurred
Message	Text with detail information in case of errors

Using these set of trading functions you can simply create any algorithm for your trading strategy. In our further articles, we will cover more specific and practical cases, such as specifying parameters for advanced order types and creating universal trading logic, for different connections.