"Buy to Cover" triggering before Short Entry Order

[jg123]

Hello

I am testing out the feature to attach orders to indicators - specifically attaching them to horizontal lines.

I just attached a Short order to one horizontal line and a Buy to Cover to another horizontal line.

As you will see in the screenshot attached, the Buy to Cover order was submitted and filled before the Short Entry line.

Though I can understand that NT may only recognize orders, the idea of having a "Buy to Cover" seems somewhat misleading as it can't buy to cover when there is not short position to cover. Can you let me know if I could/should be doing something differently here? Or if this is an error?

[NinjaTrader_DaveI]

Hello

Buy to Cover specifically refers to an exit order for a short position, but setting up your Alert to submit a Buy to Cover order will not wait until a short position is present. In this context, selecting Buy to Cover will assist with execution-pairing for trades, and help to identify that this was an exit order as you analyze your performance. In other words, it is meant to be informational, but not restrictive.

That being said, if your Sell order action should have been triggered first, but was not, then there could be a different issue at play. Is that what you saw happening?

[jg123]

Thank you, Dave. This is a very good explanation.

Is there any chance that NT may make that restrictive in a future release?

[NinjaTrader_DaveI]

I can certainly log the suggestion in our system. That way, we can track demand from other users for adding a restriction in the future. I've logged the suggestion with Tracking ID # SFT-1080.

[junkone]

I can certainly log the suggestion in our system. That way, we can track demand from other users for adding a restriction in the future. I've logged the suggestion with Tracking ID # SFT-1080.

i have seen this before. but when you look at the broker's behaviour, a buy to cover is typically a limit or MIT order. so a stop order will get precedence over MIT or Limit order sent to the broker as it becomes a market order.