ThinkorSwim Tutorial - Good till Cancelled (GTC) Conditional Stocks and Options Buy and Sell Orders

This tutorial explains how to submit “Conditional Orders” in the Think or Swim Trading Platform. By the end of this article, you will be able to easily place buy and sell Orders related to Stocks or Options even if you are not at your computer. If you find this tutorial interesting read also:

• Placing Buy and Sell orders in the ThinkorSwim Trading Platform (Tutorial)
• ThinkorSwim Tutorial - How to place OCO and SEQ Orders.

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How to place the most rewarding options strategies from scratch? Visit my website at www.FromZeroToOptions.com to get tutorials, instructions, articles and much more stocks and options related.

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The main reason for using Conditional Orders and the “Order Rules Menu” in ThinkorSwim is to set the time of an order. You may wish to send or cancel an order at a specified date and time or even submit a Stock Options order based on stock’s price or technical indicator. Conditional Orders allow you to do so.

There may be endless reasons why you decided to place a Conditional Order:

• Anticipating news announcements. For example, you may would like to send an order when such announcements are made, but you are not going to be in front of your computer.
• Avoid the chaos in the first hour of trading (opening bell), but once again you are not going to be at your computer in the following hours.
• Use as a Risk Manager Tool. You may choose to sell your shares or offset your position at a future time and date or if some conditions are respected (you can even set technical indicators). For example, you might need to sell your shares the last day of the year for tax purposes and again you will not be at your computer to do so.

Free Tutorials - Stocks, Options and ThinkorSwim. Click Here.

You can find the Order Rules Menu to set order conditions when you are trading any Stock or Option on the Order Entry Box in the Trade Tab (all product section).

Let us assume to buy 100 shares of AAPL. If you are not familiar with placing buy and sell orders go to the trading tutorials:

• ThinkorSwim Tutorial - How to place buy and sell orders.
• ThinkorSwim Tutorial - How to place "Advanced" Buy and Sell Orders.

On the Trade Tab, all products section, type in the AAPL ticker and click on the asking price. You will generate an order entry line down on the Order Entry Tools. The Order Rules Menu is located on the right of your order line. It is a little icon that looks like a car wheel with a plus on it. You will find it for any kind of order you will place in ThinkorSwim. If you click on that icon, the Order Rules Dialogue brings up.

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Do not forget to visit my website at www.FromZeroToOptions.com to get tutorials, instructions, articles and much more stocks and options related.

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The Order Rules Menu in ThinkorSwim is made up of three main sections:

1. Order Conditions - middle section.
2. Create Order - top section.
3. Order Description- bottom section.

Order Conditions - Middle Section

The middle section represents the main reason why you should use the Order Rules Menu because it allows you to set specific order conditions. Here you can:

• Submit Orders at specified moment. Click the box “Submit Order at” and you can choose a specific time and date at which your order will be sent to the market. You can select any time and any date you like. Just keep in mind that the time is the one indicated in the ThinkorSwim Platform and not on your PC.
• Cancel Orders at specified moment. Click the box “Cancel Order at” and pick a date and a time at which you wish to cancel an order. You can even check both boxes and have your order submitted at a particular date and cancelled at a certain following date. This cancel features is a very nice tool for those who use Good-till-Cancelled (GTC) Orders. In fact, ThinkorSwim is one of the few brokerage firms that allow GTC Orders to remain open indefinitely and you can literally customize them however you like. Therefore, you can choose to have your GTC Order only open for as many days as you want. You have just to select a GTC Order on the top right of the Order Rules Menu and then select the date and time on the middle.

• Submit Orders at specified Market Conditions. To activate this feature you need to click on the Symbol box down there. Here you can choose up to three market conditions. Your order will be submitted when at least one of the above-mentioned conditions is met. You can even have your order submitted when a certain technical indicator is reached. Under Method, select study on the bottom and you can pick up any technical indicator you want by clicking on Edit. For example, imagine you would like to place an order to buy Apple (AAPL) when it raises above the 50 days Moving Average. You can do so the instant that price occurs. This is a very important feature for Options traders who want to submit a buy or sell order based on the level of the underlying.

Create Order - Top Section

This section is nothing more than a fast way to make changes to your existing order, without having to close up this box. For example, you can straight change here the order direction, the quantity, the order type (Limit, Market, Stop, StopLimit, TrailStop, TrailStopLimit, Moc, Loc) and the limit price. For further information about Advanced buy and sell orders visit either: ThinkorSwim Tutorial - How to place "Advanced" Buy and Sell Orders.

Order Description - Bottom Section

This is simply the written explanation of the order you are setting. This is a very helpful tool if you decide to use complex orders.

Free Tutorials - Stocks, Options and ThinkorSwim. Click Here.

In the next GroWithYou Trading Tutorial:

• Mechanics of Stops and a “warning”
• Stop Limit Order (LMT)
• Stop Order at the Market (MKT)
• Placing Stop Orders in the Think or Swim Platform - Use of the “Trade” Tab

Keep learning about ThinkorSwim and Stock Options by going to:ThinkorSwim Tutorial - Placing Stop Orders & Stop Limit Orders.

Here you can find a mini “free video tutorial” prepared by the professional traders of the "Options A to Z" company that can help you in understanding all the concepts discussed in this article. For further information visit the website at www.optionsAtoZ.com.

Watch the following "Free Video Tutorial”

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