Sterling Trader® Manager Guide

Monitoring Risk

In the Main Menu window you will find the list of each individual account under your firm. There are over 40 columns of data to choose from for monitoring account status and risk. You can also disable traders from this window or re-enable previously disabled traders. Please note, values that are dependent on the market (such as Max Loss) will be affected by quotes on Sterling Trader® Manager.

The following are examples of effective ways to utilize the Manager platform during the trading day.

In the screenshot above you will see some basic data.

• There are six equity accounts and one futures account.
• They are divided up into two groups, JETEST and JEFUT.
• You can see Current Net Liquidity, Net Quantity of shares owned, Realized P/L, Unrealized P/L, Total P/L, Total Exposure, and operating status of each account. One account is disabled, meaning no trading is allowed, two are set to Close and Cxl Only, meaning only closing transactions and cancelling of current live orders is allowed.

Additional columns can be added or current columns hidden by going to the View menu, selecting Settings, and selecting the General link under the Manager folder.

The status of each account can be quickly changed by right-clicking on an account and selecting “Account status”, then Enabled, Disabled, or Close/Cancel Only.

Other right-click features are:

• Adjust Net Liquidity – Change the maximum margin an account can take on intraday.

If an order would cause the account to exceed the 250K Net Liquidity, the trader will get a reject message (assuming the trader has set up the notifications for rejected orders). Keep in mind that in this example the Net Liq. Is 250K, but that number can be modified by the buying power controls.

• Adjust Max Loss – Change the maximum loss an account can generate intraday.

An account can be set to automatically switch to a status of Close and Cancel Only if Max Loss is exceeded.

• Position Summary – Open a Position Summary window for the highlighted account. A manager can manage an accounts positions from this window (buy and sell just like the Position Summary window in Sterling Trader® Pro). A Manager could also allocate trades from this window if they don’t allow the trader to allocate.
• Trading, Futures, and Options Monitor – Open Trading Monitors for the highlighted account.
• Trader List – Opens a window to view all traders and adjust permissions for those traders..
• Account List – Opens the Account List window, allowing editing of risk settings for accounts.

These features enable managers to effectively monitor their accounts and make quick decisions by providing, in real-time, the margin, P/L, and exposure information necessary to make those decisions, and the tools to execute. Here is an example.

Manager A manages account JETEST6. The account is set up with margin capabilities based on Buying Power Control. The account balances are:

• Liquidating Equity - $25,000.00
• Day Buying Power - $100,000.00
• Night Buying Power - $50,000.00
• Positions – Zero, the account is flat

In the Sterling Trader® Manager main menu, the Manager has selected the following information:

The Manager has enabled P/L Control in the Edit Account screen, but sees there is currently no Max Loss amount set. The Manager right clicks on the account, selects “Adjust Max Loss” and sets it to $1,500.00. Please note, unless Max Loss settings are enabled in the Account List, adjusting Max Loss in this window will have no effect on the account.

The trader proceeds to place several opening orders intraday, which can be seen in the Trading Monitor. These are all buys to open long stock positions for this example.

Sterling Trader® Manager is updated accordingly.

Let’s say the market goes against this trader. Sterling Trader® Manager reflects this in the Total P/L column (and the Realized and Unrealized P/L columns if selected). Total P/L has exceeded Max Loss, so the account switches to a status of Close, Cxl Only.

The trader receives the following notification:

If a trader found themselves in a risk situation where positions needed to be covered immediately, regardless of the account status, a manager could double click on the account in Sterling Trader® Manager to bring up the Position Summary for that account and close out the positions if necessary, either one by one or using the right click menu to close them all.