Arm buttons and the status strip - 1m volume, LULD and slippage
At the top of the trading panel are AUTO - LONG and SHORT. They arm and disarm the automatic long and short engines, each on its own. Green means armed. Red means that side will not open a position by itself.
In this video
The 30-second version
The same topic in thirty seconds, made for a phone screen.
Both videos use the desk in paper mode with made-up symbols and prices.
Read the transcript
The arm buttons
At the top of the trading panel are AUTO - LONG and SHORT. They arm and disarm the automatic long and short engines, each on its own. Green means armed. Red means that side will not open a position by itself. The number in brackets is how many positions that side has open.
Arming asks, disarming never
Turning a side on checks the risk limits first, and then asks you. Turning one off never asks, and never touches open positions: their stops, targets and trailing carry on, because disarming is about new entries only.
The armed stock
Under them, the big line shows the armed stock and what just happened to it, such as a fill. The badge beside the price is the country the company files from. 1m vol is the volume so far in the current one-minute candle, coloured green or red with the candle.
LULD and halts
Next comes the limit-up, limit-down band, when one applies, in market hours. It says so when the price is close to the band, and it switches to the halt view when the stock is halted. On a halted stock the desk refuses new entries, manual and automatic alike. Open positions on it can still be closed.
SLIPPAGE: the live spread
SLIPPAGE is the live spread: the ask minus the bid, in dollars and as a percentage, with the bid and ask beside it. It turns amber when the spread is one percent or more, which is exactly when a market-crossing order costs you the most.
Everything before you click
Read together, the strip answers the questions you have before you click: what is it, is it moving, is it near a band, and what will it cost me to cross the spread?