This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

I downloaded a trial version of Button Trader, installed it, read the manuals, and today was my first day using it, (in simulation mode) but you can still use it to trigger entries for real trades, which is what I did. I went 3 for 3 on the SPY and DIA using the signals from Button Trader.

Button Trader (www.buttontrader.com) is a front end to Interactive Brokers that allows you to invoke trades with button clicks through Interactive Brokers, though the features are much more rich than that. I’ll explain further, but this is just a small fraction of what it can do.

 One common problem I have is getting an alert from Trade Ideas, where a resistance level or support level has been penetrated, but the stock has not moved enough to know how to trade it. The volume is usually below normal, and this might be tradeable, but I don’t know.

 With Button Trader, I can set an entry above and below with 2 mouse clicks, with a time out, and forget it. If the price level is hit, Button Trader will initiate the position with IB. It then will use a set strategy for managing the trade, like a break even stop and profit trail. With a click I can also move my profit stop and move my loss stop up or down to make my potential loss as low as possible, or take profit early.

 On a breakout or breakdown, I’m in the move when it happened. My loss stop and profit stop are automatically set. I usually have a problem triggering into fast moving breakouts, This handles that problem for me. This also makes managing mutiple positions much easier.

 I’m running this as a trial, and obviously just new with it. I was looking for a software solution to improve my trade execution and management once I decided I had a tradeable signal. So far, it lools pretty good. Below is a screen shot:

- TraderD

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com