The trade ladder - one trade on one price rail

One trade, one rail

Press LADDER, and one resizable window opens. The trade ladder shows one trade as a price rail: where you got in, where the stop and target sit, and what each level is worth. Beside it are the order size and trading buttons, so you can act on what you see.

Reading the rail

The entry is the white line across the centre. The rail is green where the trade makes money, and red where it loses. A price column runs down the left, and a chip on the right shows the live profit or loss, in dollars and percent.

The information rows

Above the rail: the stock, the side, the shares and the entry, with the live price. PLAN: the shares, the cost, the dollars at risk to the stop, and the dollar target. LIVE: the open result, what the stop would realise if it filled there, and how far the target is. TRAIL says whether a trailing stop is off, waiting or running.

Warnings, in words

Under them, anything to know about this trade, such as paper mode: fills come off the live tape, and no order reaches the broker. If exits are switched off for that side, the ladder says so, in red: nothing will fire. After a trade closes, a CLOSED row shows how it closed, and the result including commission.

Plan preview

With no position open, the ladder shows a plan preview: what the next BUY or SHORT would send, at your current size and exit settings. So you can see your stop and target before you are even in.

Which trade it follows

The ladder follows the armed stock's position on the main desk. Fleet positions are not followed; the OPEN window lists those. Press LADDER again, and the same window comes to the front.