Quote Manager [vs QM in WL4]
Author: Sammy_G
Creation Date: 8/30/2010 9:58 AM
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Sammy_G

#1
I just wanted to create this post before WLP4 is completely decommissioned and all its features are forgotten.
This is really not a comparison of the Quote Manager tool in WL5 (or WL6) vs that in WL4. Instead, I am just highlighting the features I found useful in WL4 Quote Manager but are missing in WL5/6 QM. Hopefully, they will resurface in future versions of QM. These missing features are:

1. Ability to Save quotes to a (text) file. Currently, you can copy them to Clipboard, open Excel or Notepad etc, and then save; it should be really be a one-step process. Related to this is the even more important missing feature -
2. Load quotes from (a previously saved) file. Reason: Without this option, you are left with the option of populating the QM via the Strategy Monitor, and then deleting those you think have already triggered. If you have to take a break or shut down WLab for whatever reason, it is far easier to save the quotes to a file and then load them from there than to load everything afresh from SM and manually delete.
3. Time is displayed in the Alerts window in HHmm format, should be HHmmss.
4. Trigger price is not shown in Alerts window, just the Alert price. That's important to compare the quality of your trade fills.
5. In the Quotes window, the Threshold is capped at 100; it should go beyond. Even better, it would be nice to have a column showing how much the price has deviated (as %) from the alert price after the alert is triggered. This is useful if you missed or avoided taking some trades e.g. a plethora of triggers for dip-buying scripts, and then want to take some later but want to buy only those that have fallen the most, etc.
6. Deleting quotes in the Quotes window using the Delete key, not just via the right-click menu.

This is constructive criticism.
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Eugene

#2
Thank you for the input. Just wanted to comment #6 - don't you think the Del key isn't foolproof enough?
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Sammy_G

#3
>>don't you think the Del key isn't foolproof enough?<<
Not sure what you meant, Eugene. What I meant by #6 was it would make deleting a quote a one-step process vs two. Besides, using keyboard in this case would be quicker than using the mouse.
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Eugene

#4
Yep. One step process isn't fool proof if the Del key was hit accidentally.
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Sammy_G

#5
Oh, now I see what you meant.
In that case, ignore #6 (it was a minor point, anyway).
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Cone

#6
I like using the Del key to remove items from lists too. For my part, I've copied your suggestions and when Fidelity starts looking for more to do again, I'll pass it to them.
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Sammy_G

#7
Thank you, Cone.

I realize how understaffed and overworked you two are and *really* appreciate how much you guys do for us. :)
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Sammy_G

#8
While using the QM in WLP6 (32-bit) today, noticed that if I put in value > 100 in the Trigger Threshold box (e.g. 100.5) then alerts don't trigger even when the price excursion is well beyond 100%. It appears that the Threshold cap of 100 is working at cross purposes with the Trigger Threshold value.
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Cone

#9
This looks like primarily a documentation error to me but the Threshold should be limited to 100% too. The idea of the Threshold setting was to get a stop or limit order working in the market just before it's likely to be marketable.

By setting a threshold above 100%, you're saying you want the stop/limit order to execute AT MARKET because price has already exceeded the trigger. Well, this is not allowed by Fidelity's backend orders subsystem, and if you placed a stop or limit order in that situation it would get kicked back as an order entry error.

Thanks for calling attention to this, and we'll see what we can do to clean it up.
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Sammy_G

#10
My intent in playing with the Trigger Threshold value was to see if I could get the alerts to trigger if I added in some slippage...
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Cone

#11
It won't work - the order will error out because Fidelity won't let you enter a Stop or Limit order that executes at market. You should add that "slippage" in your Stop/Limit price. In other words, either you want your price, or you should optimize for a different price. Otherwise, it's just second guessing - sometimes it will work, sometimes you'll miss the trade; maybe a very profitable one.
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Sammy_G

#12
I would be happy to modify my alert prices by some slippage amount in a text file, but since QM can't import alerts from a text file currently, its a non-starter. {I would rather not modify the alert price inside a script.]
*/

On a different note, do Fidelity's servers get to see the name of your script?
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Cone

#13
I don't know for sure, but it seems like it would be a waste of time to send the server a bunch of text that would never be used for anything.
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Sammy_G

#14
The recent upgrade to v6.1 includes an extra column in the Quotes subwindow showing the Open price of a security - Nice! It would be doubly nice if the Open price can be "carried down" to the Alerts subwindow after an alert is triggered as, with Auto-Remove on, the item gets deleted from the Quotes window. For Market orders, and also for some Limit/Stop orders, the Open price would actually be the trigger price, allowing easy comparison with one's trade fills.
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