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BTST Positional Trading

Introducing POSITIONAL/BTST ALGO on AlgoTest​

We're excited to introduce our most requested feature on our platform--- POSITIONAL ALGO and Buy Today, Sell Tomorrow (BTST)! Now, you can set up your trading strategy in BTST/Positional Algo, and our algo will automatically take care of your trades.

Whether you want to buy today and sell tomorrow or hold onto your trades for several days or weeks, this feature makes it easy. POSITIONAL AND BTST algo will follow your strategy logic and do it all for you, giving you more control and convenience.

:For any queries reach out to us!

What is BTST and Positional Trading?​

Before diving into the specifics of this feature, let's explain the basics:

BTST (Buy Today, Sell Tomorrow)​

This is a trading strategy where you buy a contract today and sell it the next day before the market closes. It allows you to take advantage of short-term price movements without waiting for a settlement period.

Positional Trading​

This is a longer-term approach where you hold a position for several days or weeks. You enter a trade based on your strategy logic and  wait until your exit condition is satisfied.

Our new feature lets you automate these types of trades. Instead of manually watching the market and placing orders, the system will automatically place buy and sell orders based on your strategy. This saves you time and ensures that trades happen exactly when they need to.

Accessing BTST/POSITIONAL on AlgoTest​

Step 1​

  • Login to AlgoTest.in and go to the Algo Trade button as shown in the image below.

Step 2​

  • Click on the Positional/BTST Algo Trade button to access Positional/BTST Algos page as shown in the image below.

Step 3​

This will show your BTST/ Positional algos here, from here you can also search your algo from the search bar as shown in the image below.

Step 4​

Click on the strategy you wish to activate: you can click on the activate button on the strategy you want to activate as shown in  the image below

Step 5​

Setup Entry Time and Exit time: Here you can set the entry time and exit time as shown in the  image below.

Step 6​

Click on the Activate button once you have setup the entry time and exit time, as shown below

This will activate the strategy and strategy will start as per the entry time you have set.

warning

Please make sure to read the following rules carefully before taking BTST or Positional Trade. You can also reach out to us on our :Telegram Channel for assitance.

Key Rules and Timings for Trade Execution​

1. When does the system start monitoring trades?​

  • The system starts monitoring your strategy at 09:15:05 AM every day if restarted before the market.

  • If you restart a strategy (for example, after the market opens), the system will still begin monitoring at this same time. For example you restarted your strategy at 09:45:05 AM then algo  will still begin monitoring at this same time.

  • If you don't restart the strategy, then algo will not monitor anything, it will start monitoring once you restart the strategy.

  • If you don't restart your strategy and the contract expires on that day and then you try to restart the strategy the next day, then the strategy will not restart and the will be enter into error state.

  • If the exit time in the strategy is 9:20 and you restart the algo at 9:30 then the strategy will exit all the positions immediately.

2. What happens if a contract expires on the same day?​

  • If you're trading a contract that expires today, the system will automatically exit the position at 3:29:30 PM.

3. How does the system handle new orders or re-entries late in the day?​

  • No new orders or re-entries will be placed after 3:29:55 PM.

  • However, if the system has already selected a trade leg (an instruction to buy/sell based on your strategy) before this time, it will try to place the order until 3:29:59 PM. After this time, no further orders will be placed for the day.

4. Does the system roll over expired contracts?​

  • No, contracts are not rolled over to the next day/expiry. The system will exit all expiring positions, and no rollover is followed.

For example, if you are running a weekly positional strategy then algo will exit all the positions at 15:29:30.
No roll over for the weekly expiry will be followed.

5. Carrying Over Momentum from Previous Day​

  • If your strategy uses momentum conditions (trading based on the speed of price changes), the momentum conditions from the previous day will be carried over to the next trading day.
note

If the market was moving fast in one direction yesterday, the system will remember that today when executing your strategy.

6. Customising Your Strategy's Timings​

When you start or activate a strategy, you can change the time when trades will start, but not the date. You can fine-tune your entry, exit, and re-entry times within the following limits:

  1. Entry Time:

  • Earliest time: 09:15:15 AM

  • Latest time: 03:29:00 PM

  1. Exit Time:

  • Earliest time: 09:15:05 AM

  • Latest time: 03:29:30 PM

  1. Re-entry Time:

  • Earliest time: 09:15:15 AM

  • Latest time: 03:29:00 PM

These timings give you flexibility to choose when your strategy should start and stop placing trades within the trading day.

 7. What Happens if the Market Closes Before All Trades are Executed?​

  • If you've placed a trade (either to enter or exit a position) but the market closes before it's executed, the system will automatically handle it on the next trading day. After the strategy restarts, the trade will be completed once the market opens again.

8. Do I need to restart the previous day's activated BTST or Positional strategy?​

  • Yes, for everyday you need to restart the previous day's activated BTST or positional strategy. This means that if you had activated a strategy the previous day, it will not automatically continue the next day.
    You must manually restart the strategy the next day to ensure it runs.

9. Please select the NRML order type in execution settings​

  • It's essential to select the NRML (Normal) order type.
    NRML orders allow you to carry forward positions overnight without the need for additional margin, unlike MIS (Margin Intraday Square-off) orders, which are specifically for intraday trading and get auto-squared off before market close.

10. Activate Timings / Entry exit timings possible scenarios​

  • Let's assume the expiry for this month is on October 30. In your positional strategy, you've set the entry conditions to be 3 days before the expiry and the exit conditions to be 1 day before the expiry.

Case 1​

If you try to activate the strategy 5 days before expiry i.e. On 23 Oct then you will get a notification on your activation settings popup notifying you that in your strategy,

warning

According to your Strategy logic your entry was supposed to happen 5 days from today. But we will take the entry today anyway.

If you activate it then accordingly your entry date will change to 8 days before expiry.

Case 2​

You try to take entry on 28 oct, i.e. two days before expiry. However, in your strategy settings you have entered entry settings as 3 days before expiry and exit settings as 1 day before the expiry date. So you will get notification as

warning

According to your Strategy logic your entry was supposed to happen 1 day before today. But we will take the entry today anyway.

If you activate it then accordingly your entry date will change to 2 days before expiry.

Case 3​

If your exit date is over as per strategy, and you try to activate strategy after that, then your strategy will not get activated as the exit date is already passed, you need to change exit date in strategy, only then it will be activated.

11. Leg selection for BTST(Buy Today Sell Tomorrow)  Strategies​

For non-expiry days: If you are running a BTST strategy on non-expiry days, you need to select the weekly expiry in the Expiry dropdown.

For expiry days: If you are running a BTST strategy on expiry day, you need to select the 'Next Weekly' expiry in the Expiry dropdown as the current week expiry will expire today. You need to select the next weekly expiry so it will be carry forwarded for BTST.

12. If your strategy contains multiple expiry legs i.e current week and next week expiries​

note

Entry date will always be considered from current week expiry or current monthly expiry in strategy accordingly. Exit date can be changed while activating the expiry.

  • For example, let's assume have created a strategy with two expiries legs i.e. current week and next week. Lets understand it by taking an example, current week expiry is on 24th oct and next weekly expiry is on 31 oct (considering today's date  is 23rd oct and we are trading in nifty) and exit date is in nov.

Scenario 1:​

  • For the above mentioned example, Current week expiry legs i.e. that are expiring on 24th Oct will be exited on 24 oct at 15:29:30 and on 25th october if there is any reentry like overall reentry on stoploss, target etc. then all the strikes will be recalculated as per strategy by algo for current week and next weekly expiries. This will be applicable on all the renetries, except reentry at cost. Now according to 25th your current week will be 31st oct and next weekly expiry will be 7 Nov. This process will be followed till strategy exit date and time is reached.

  • Further if there is any overall reentry due to 7 Nov expiry leg, then the current week expiry will be 7th Nov and Next weekly expiry will be 14th Nov. and so on till the strategy exit date

Scenario 2: ​

  • Current week expiry legs i.e. that are expiring on 24th Oct will be exited on 24 oct at 15:29:30 and on 25th october if there is any reentry like legwise reentry(momentum and re-asap) on stoploss, target etc. then all reentry will be on 31st expiry leg as this will be current expiry leg.