What Happens If You Manually Close a Trade Before Your Bot Sells?
If a trader manually closes a position before a bot-generated sell signal, TradersPost will either return an error (if sentiment tracking is enabled) or potentially enter a short position (if it’s not). Using “action=exit” ensures proper trade execution.
Understanding How TradersPost Handles Manual Exits
If you manually close a trade that was originally opened by a TradersPost bot, what happens when the bot later receives a sell signal depends on how the trade execution logic is set up.
1. If You Use the Default JSON with Sentiment Tracking
• TradersPost checks your current market position before executing an order.
• If the bot expects to sell to close, but the position is already closed, TradersPost will not execute the trade and will return an error.
• This prevents the bot from accidentally entering a short position when it was only supposed to exit a long trade.
2. If You Do Not Use Sentiment Tracking
• If your strategy is set to simply execute “Sell 1 contract”, then TradersPost will send the sell order regardless of your actual position.
• If you previously closed your position manually, this could open an unintended short position instead of closing a long position.
Preventing Unintended Trades
To avoid these issues, traders should:
• Use sentiment tracking to let TradersPost verify the broker’s current position before executing trades.
• Use “action=exit” instead of direct sell orders. This tells TradersPost to exit the existing position, whether long or short, without assuming a specific number of contracts.
Conclusion
If a trade is manually closed, TradersPost will return an error if sentiment tracking is enabled, preventing unintended trades. However, without sentiment tracking, a sell signal could accidentally result in a short position instead of exiting a trade. To ensure smooth execution, traders should use sentiment tracking and the “action=exit” command to avoid position mismatches.
