Price-based precision

Hello,
I am trying to operate on Milan Stock Exchange market, which has a price precision depending on each stock price I'm operating.

The rules are simple, you usually have 4 significative digits of precision, but if the price is between 5*10^n and 10*10^n you get an increment of 5 points on the last significative digit (e.g. TIT can have 0.9075 or 0.971 or 0.9715, but not 0.9014), while if the price is between 2 and 5 euros you have a minimum step of 0.002 (so 2.972, 2.974, ...).

Is there any way I can configure Multicharts to get the right precision without setting it manually? Otherwise it's completely useless for stocks oscillating around the precision turning points...

Thanks!

Hello riccardo,

You will have to configure Price Scale and Minimum Movement settings for each symbol in QuoteManager. Please note that in current version of MC the number of decimals for prices on chart is static and cannot be dynamically changed according to a logic. Here is the list of all available price scales.

Thank you for your reply, but does this mean that if a stock price is oscillating between the boundaries I cannot use Multicharts in any way for automated trading?

Riccardo,

• If stock A prices can be: X.XXX0, X.XXX1, X.XXX2, X.XXX3, X.XXX4, X.XXX5, X.XXX6, X.XXX7, X.XXX8, X.XXX9; then the Price Scale should be 1/10000 and the Min. Move should 1.
• If stock B prices can be: X.XXX0, X.XXX5; then the Price Scale should be 1/10000 and the Min. Move should 5.
• If stock C prices can be: X.XX0, X.XX1, X.XX2, X.XX3, X.XX4, X.XX5, X.XX6, X.XX7, X.XX8, X.XX9; then the Price Scale should be 1/1000 and the Min. Move should 1.
• If stock D prices can be: X.XX0, X.XX5; then the Price Scale should be 1/1000 and the Min. Move should 5.

With such settings auto trading should work just fine. If you have any other case and i misunderstand something, please describe it in details.

This is clear, but the situation changes when stock prices are near boundaries (and this situation is infamously frequent).

Suppose we have a stock priced 0.9985; there market rules impose the precision to be of the form 0.XXX or 0.XXX5. However, in three ticks up the stock will reach the value of 1, where other rules apply and you loose the last digit of precision.

To give a concrete example, the following tick sequence is perfectly valid, and covers every possible price variation without holes:

* 0.9985
* 0.999
* 0.9995
* 1
* 1.001
* 1.002
* 1.003

and for example 1.0015 would be rejected by the broker as an invalid price.

Thus neither 1/10000 with minimum move 5 would work, and same goes for 1/1000 with minimum move 1.

Is it more clear now?

Riccardo, could you name the data provider/broker and a specific symbol or couple of symbols?

WeBank, symbol EGPW (ENEL Green Power - FTSE MIB)

book now: 1.997, 1.998, 1.999, 2, 2.002, 2.004...

Riccardo,

Unfortunately MC doesn't support any dynamic price scales. The only way for you to trade this symbol in all cases is to set price scale to "1/1000" and minimum movement to "1", so the prices will be 1.997, 1.998, 1.999, 2.000, 2.001, 2.002, ...
Only with such configuration you will be able to place order that will not be rejected by broker, though such prices as 1.9975, 1.9985, 1.9995, ... will be not available for you.

not really, since 2.001 is an invalid price, so either i trade at prices x.xx (losing 10 ticks, effectively ruining all the indicators) or i can't do anything else...

I see. Sorry, but there is no other solution at the moment. Please leave us such feature request.

not really, since 2.001 is an invalid price, so either i trade at prices x.xx (losing 10 ticks, effectively ruining all the indicators) or i can't do anything else...

What you have to do is to build in a logic in your strategy to automatically increment the order tick size when the price is above certain level.