stop order error

[mballagan]

I have the following code in a strat:

longentrylevel = High[1]+TickSize;
LongOrder = EnterLongStop(1,longentrylevel,"LongEntry1");

And it produced the error:

Buy or buy stop orders cant be placed below the market.
Affected Order: Buy 1 stop @9551

Would I get round this by making sure longentrylevel >= GetCurrentBid() ?

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

Correct. You can't submit that type of order with a price below the market.

[mballagan]

short stop order

For a short stop order:

ShortOrder = EnterShortStop(shortentrylevel,"ShortEntry1");

Would I be looking at shortentrylevel >= GetCurrentBid()

or would it be shortentrylevel >= GetCurrentAsk()?

On the basis that we buy at the bid and sell at the ask.

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

mballagan,

I believe for shorts you need to be > the ask.

[mballagan]

stop order

Further to my previous post I modified my code so that:

longentrylevel >= GetCurrentBid() on a buy stop order

However this still sometimes produces the error 'Buy stop or buy stop limit orders cant be placed below the market'

Is it possible that the market moves past the value longentrylevel by the time the order reaches the exchange?

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

Yes it is possible if you are working so close to the inner markets.

[mballagan]

stop error

I have put the code in a try/catch block but the error is still displayed and the strat crashes out, is there a way I can get round this problem?

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

try catch will not be able to catch this. At the time you place the order it is valid. By the time you receive a state back from the brokerage/exchange it is not. You simply should not be trying to trade so close to the inner markets.

[Eastbank]

Last night I received this message - this is from the trace file:
2009-10-12 17:41:55:031 ERROR: A Buy order placed at '1/2/2009 11:36:00 AM' has been ignored since the stop price is less than or equal to the close price of the current bar. This is an invalid order and subsequent orders may also be ignored. Please fix your strategy.
I am confused by the date, because I did not have and was not using NT back at the beginning of this year. Am I misunderstanding the error message?

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

Eastbank, this could also occur during a backtest you ran for this period.

[Eastbank]

Ah, that makes sense, thanks Bertrand