FACTSim Help : Closing a Position : Placing the Close Order
The next screen allows us to manage the close orders for a position. It should be noted that there can be more than one close order on any position. We will explain this further in a moment. For now, let's look at the components of the page. The first thing we see at the top of the page is a list of existing close orders for this position.


The existing close orders table.

Let's take a closer look at this table:

• Close Order Type - The type of close order entered into the system.
• Quantity - The number of contracts being closed by this close order.
• Target Price - The price at which to close the position (used only by certain order types).
• Target Time - The time at which to close the position (used only by Fill or Kill orders).
• Date Ordered - The date and time at which this order was entered into the system.
• Edit Order - Make changes to this close order.
• Delete Order - Delete the close order.

After the list of existing close orders, we see a Contract Information table, which provides basic information about the position's contract.


Contract Information for this position.

The fields in this table explained:

• Contract - The FACTSim exchange symbol for this contract.
• Quantity - The number of contracts in this position.
• Position - Denotes whether this is a long or short position.
• Open Price - The ticker price the position was opened at.
• Current Price - The current ticker price for this contract.
• Maintenance Margin - The amount of money being held as a Maintenance Margin for this position.
• Profit to Date - The profit based on current price, open price, and trade fees.

To the right of the Contract Information table are the Pre- and Post-Transaction tables. These tables give an idea of how closing this position at market value would affect your account.


Pre- and Post-Transaction account information.

While this table will give you a good idea of what would happen to your account if the contract were to be closed at current market value, it is not 100% reliable for all close order types. This is for two reasons. First, the price of the contract may very well change between the time you load this page and the time you decide to close the position. Second, most close order types are triggered on some event in the future (i.e. the next day's open price). Thus, these numbers should only be used as an estimate to guide your decision. We'll describe what information is shown to you:

• Cash - The amount of cash in your account.
• Margin Costs - The amount of money tied up in margin costs for all open positions.
• Available Capital - The amount of capital available to open new positions.

Now that we have a basic idea of the information being shown to us, we can decide what kind of close order we'd like. FACTSim offers six different types of close orders.


Close order types.

The figure above shows all the order types. The choices below will change to accommodate your selection in this field. We'll give a brief description on each order type:

• Market Order - If the order is placed during the contract's trading hours, the position will be closed at the current market price. If the order is placed outside the contract's trading hours, a Close at Open Order is entered into the system (see below).
• Price Limit Order - A Limit Order (or Price Limit Order) will be established if the market reaches the Target Price specified by the trader. For long positions (buying), a position will be closed if the market price is at or above the target price. For short positions (selling), a position will be closed if the market price is at or below the target price.
• Stop Loss Order - This order is used to stem losses from positions. This order also uses a Target Price, but will close an established position when the market becomes unfavorable compared to the Target Price. For a long position (buying), the position will be closed if the market is at or below the target price. For a short position (selling), the position will closed when the market is at or above the target price.
• Trade at Open - The position will be closed at the open price on the next active trading day.
• Trade at Close - The position will be closed at the next available settle price. If the order is entered before the contract's close time, the position will be closed on the current day. Otherwise it will be closed on the next active trading day.
• Fill or Kill Order - A Fill or Kill Order is essentially a Price Limit Order with a time constraint. If the Target Price is not reached by the Target Time, the order is cancelled. If the Price Limit is met during before the Target Time, the position is closed.

There's only one step left in entering a close order. We must fill out the values for the type of close order we have chosen.


Add a close order.

Whether or not you can use the next three fields will depend on what type of close order you have chosen.

• Quantity - The number of contracts in the current transaction to which you would like this close order to apply.
• Target Close Price - For close order types such as Price Limits, Stop Orders, and Fill or Kill orders, this field specifies the price point at which you would like the order performed.
• Target Close Time - The time at which a Fill or Kill order is cancelled if it has not yet been executed. This field is active only for Fill or Kill orders.

From here, you are ready to click on the Close button to submit the close order.

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