Hedging
As of version 1.1, we have added the ability to hedge a strategy through hedging actions. The idea is that a user can now place an order based on their strategy's long/short exposure, which essentially grants the ability to hedge a strategy with some asset.

Before reading ahead, make sure you have read the Stock Signals tutorial.

Hedging Actions
The two hedging actions are Hedge With Exposure(HWE) and Hedge Against Exposure(HAE), which each act as their name suggests.

Hedging Unit Types
These hedging actions can only be used with some specific hedging unit types, that each behave slightly differently.

Percent of Long Exposure (%LONGEXP)

• Open a position based on only the long exposure of your strategy (i.e. sum of the exposure of all your long stocks)
  
• Note that in this case, HWE means you will be going long, and HAE means you will be going short
  

• Open a position based on only the short exposure of your strategy (i.e. sum of the exposure of all your short stocks)
  
• Note that in this case, HWE means you will be going short, and HAE means you will be going long
  

• Open a position based on the net exposure of your strategy (i.e. long exposure - short exposure)
  
• Note that in this case, HWE and HAE don't necessarily mean you will go long or short (see below for examples)
  

• Open a position based on only the long exposure of all your strategies (i.e. sum of the exposure of all your long stocks)
  
• Note that in this case, HWE means you will be going long, and HAE means you will be going short
  

• Open a position based on only the short exposure of all your strategies (i.e. sum of the exposure of all your short stocks)
  
• Note that in this case, HWE means you will be going short, and HAE means you will be going long
  

• Open a position based on the net exposure of all your strategies (i.e. long exposure - short exposure)
  
• Note that in this case, HWE and HAE don't necessarily mean you will go long or short (see below for examples)
  

File Formats
The different file formats give you freedom in how you want to create/store signals, and can be set using the File Type field under the Local File, File Screener, Google Drive File and Google Drive Screener signal provider types.
There are three types of file formats: text, json, csv with the following file type extensions: .txt, .json, .csv

Note that all signal files should still have the .sig extension either by itself or followed buy the file type extension. ( i.e. oldstrat.sig, newstrat.sig.txt, newerstrat.sig.csv, lateststrat.sig.json are all valid files names while a file named strat.txt will not be processed).
We recommend using .sig.txt, .sig.csv and .sig.json extensions as they can be identified and thus (pre)viewed easier on mobile devices.

*IMPORTANT*
All files are processed OLDEST to NEWEST by the last modified time. When your strategy requires you to process files in a specific order, make sure the last modified time is set appropriately.

TEXT
The text format is described in the Stock Signals and Stock Screeners threads.
Make sure you have read these threads first in order to understand what makes up a stock signal/screener.

CSV
The csv file is for table formatted signals (comma separated values).
You can specify which columns you want to include (in any order) out of TICKER, ACTION, QUANTITY, UNIT, ORDERTYPE, LIMIT, STOP, TIF, TIFDATE, ID, EXITTARGET, EXITSTOP, REFPRICE, AFTERDATE, ALGO
The only mandatory fields, as with the text format, are TICKER and ACTION. Fields do not need to be capitalized.
You can also include column names that are not one of the above, these columns will simply be ignored.

Notes:

• TIFDATE refers to the date specified for the GTD time in force.
  
• AFTERDATE refers to the trigger time for delayed signals.
  

Troubleshooting and Known Issues
This thread will contain a list of known issues regarding APM and the softwares it is integrated with.
Some issues will have easy fixes if you come across them.

APM

• After restating your computer or APM, it is possible that APM may tell you that an account is already open, when it is not. Close APM, check your task manager, and close any instances of APM. If that doesn't work, delete the lock.txt file in your account folder.
  

• Market on Close and Limit on Close orders cannot be placed outside of market hours on paper trading accounts.
  • Live accounts will work perfectly fine.
    
  • For paper trading accounts, you should either trade during market hours or use Market/Limit orders instead.
    
• IB usually must be restarted each weekend. There is no known fix, but it is as simple as reopening it and logging back in.
  

Account Settings
The account settings page is where you will manage your broker settings and other account related settings.
Details about setting up your broker are in the startup guide.



Licenses
Refer to the startup guide for details about licenses. When you obtain a license for a real account, you will have to input your license token into the Token field.

Tickers
This section lets you manage the tickers that APM uses at the account level.

Ignore Tickers
You can use this text box to prevent APM from trading a ticker across all strategies. This will allow you to manually trade the ticker yourself without worrying about it affecting your APM strategies.

Orphaned Tickers
This text box will tell you if there are non-ignored tickers that you own (or have orders for) in your portfolio that do not belong to a strategy.
If you want to trade these tickers manually yourself, then you should add them to Ignored Tickers because otherwise any manual orders for them will be automatically cancelled by APM.
If you want to assign some of these tickers to a specific strategy, then simply highlight the ones you want with your mouse and use the buttons above the orphaned tickers text box to transfer them.
If you don't care about what happens to these tickers, then you can leave them and a strategy will be able to take the ticker over and place orders for it.
Note that the orphan tickers text box will only have tickers in it once you connect to your broker.

Email
You have the option to email yourself account information on a schedule that you input.
We suggest you create a new email account that will be used to send the outgoing mail (preferably Gmail). The password you use will be encrypted and stored locally on your computer. The reason we do not use an Alera email to send your data is because we want to preserve the privacy of your data by keeping it off of our own servers.
Once you input this information and set a schedule (refer to the cron guide), you should save the strategy and click the 'play' button beside your schedule to send a test email. If you there is an error with the information you inputted, there will be a message displayed on APM.

Some email services, like Gmail, will not accept automated email messages by default. APM may not be able to detect this issue on its end, so you will have to make sure you modify the settings on your email service to allow this (if you didn't receive the test email). For Gmail, you can find out how to do this here.

Start and Strategies
The Start button will initiate a connection to your broker. If it is successful, the status bar on the bottom of your screen will turn blue.
The Strategies button allows you to view your strategies.

Strategies
You can configure the strategies you want to run in the strategy settings, which is the default page that opens once you've created an account.
Your strategies are listed as tabs at the top of the window, and each individual strategy has 3 tabs: settings, logs and portfolio.
This guide will go over the various sections of the settings tab and then explain what the portfolio and log tabs do.
Before you get started, remember that every time you change a setting, you should click Save, otherwise your settings won't be updated.
Also note that most of the information in this guide can be found directly on APM by hovering over the text boxes.



Strategy
This section is used to configure the where your strategy will get its signals from. Choose a signal provider type from the ones listed and fill out the fields.
There are guides to using the individual signals and screeners that explain the fields in detail.

Strategy Type
This field lets you select the type of asset you will be trading (stocks, crypto, fx) as well as the country and currency the assets are in. Note that you cannot trade assets of two different types in the same strategy, e.g. you cannot trade stocks and fx, nor can you trade UK stocks and USD stocks in the same strategy.

Strategy Priority
Strategy priority allows a strategy to trade tickers from other strategies with lower priority. For example, suppose strategy A has priority 2, strategy B has priority 1, and strategy B is trading AAPL. If strategy A receives a signal for AAPL, then it can "take" AAPL from B and trade it. However, if strategy B then receives a signal for AAPL, it will not be able to trade it since strategy A has higher priority. If two strategies have the same priority, then neither one can trade tickers from the other. Also note that in the account settings there is an Orphan Ticker Priority text box, which lets you set the priority value for orphan tickers. This allow you to manage which strategies can process orphan tickers -- by default orphan ticker priority is 0, so all strategies can process orphan tickers.

To add accommodate different use cases for strategy priority, the signal types CLOSE, BTC, STC will not be able to "take" positions from other strategies and close them. Instead, if you'd like to force this behaviour, you can use signal of the form LONG X 0 SHARES, where X is the ticker name.

Max Number of Positions - non-screener strategies only
This field determines the max number of positions your strategy can hold. There are three ways to cap your positions.

Hard Cap
This option ensures that you cannot place orders if the number of positions + orders is larger than the cap. For example, if your cap is 5 positions, and you have 3 positions in AAPL, IBM, SPY and 2 orders for TLT, GOOG, then you CANNOT place anymore orders in this strategy (unless they are for those 5 tickers)

Hard Cap+
This option functions similar to Hard Cap, except now we don't count CLOSE market orders (MKT/MOC/MOO) towards the number of positions you own. This allows you to "replace" positions by first placing sell market orders and then placing buy orders. Note that by cancelling a CLOSING market orders, the number of positions may go over the cap. In this case, APM will automatically cancel any remaining limit orders.

Hard Cap++
This is the same as Hard Cap+, but we don't count any CLOSE towards the number of positions you own. So, a closing limit order, would be considered to be closing your position even if it may not execute. This feature is mainly intended for crypto traders who may avoid market orders.

Soft Cap
This option only counts your current positions + market (MKT/MOC/MOO) + limit auction (LOO/LOC) orders towards the cap. Then when your cap is full, all remaining orders are automatically cancelled. For example, suppose your cap is 5 and you have 3 positions in AAPL, IBM, SPY, a MKT order to open TLT, three LMT orders to open GOOG, AMZN, V, and a close MKT order for AAPL. Then you are considered to currently have 3 positions in your cap: IBM, SPY, and TLT. We do not count AAPL since there is a market (MKT/MOO/MOC) order closing AAPL. If the LMT orders for GOOG and AMZN are executed, then we will count 5 total positions towards the cap, so the remaining LMT order for V will be cancelled.

• If you want to replace existing positions by placing CLOSE market orders for those positions and placing some LMT orders to open new positions, you will have to place the market orders FIRST before you place your new orders in order (otherwise APM won’t think there are free positions available)
  
• Limit Auction (LOO/LOC) orders are counted towards the cap since they cannot be cancelled at certain times of day (e.g. near market close or open). However, using a CLOSE LOO/LOC order will not free up a position like a market (MKT/MOC/MOO) order since these limit auction orders are not guaranteed to execute.
  

• Choose how much to money to allocate to this strategy, either as total dollar value or a percent of your portfolio
  
• If you are connected to your broker, then the dollar value associated with your strategy will appear to the left of the text box
  

• None
  • Use the position size provided by the signal provider if it is provided. Otherwise use the Custom Lot Size
    
• Custom
  • Override the position provided by the signal provider and use the Custom Lot Size instead
    
  • We only override if the Unit type is DOLLARS or SHARES because the other types do not need to be overridden
    
• Scaling
  • Scale the position size from the signal provider by a given factor that you specify in the Scaling Factor field.
    
  • We only scale if the Unit type is DOLLARS or SHARES
    

• Buy orders will have a limit price equal to the current bid price PLUS the Protection Offset (as a percent)
  
• Sell orders will have a limit price equal to the current ask price MINUS the Protection Offset (as a percent)
  

• A trailing stop loss order will trail by the Stop Loss Percent
  
• An update of the percentage amount will trigger an order update as soon as you save the strategy
  

• A regular stop loss order will be placed away from the current price by the Stop Loss Percent
  
• An update of the Stop Loss Percent will not trigger any update on existing orders. It will be used only for all newly placed orders.
  

Automating your Self-Contained System
This guide explains the steps to completely automate data download, signal creation, and signal processing.

The following guides may be helpful:

• Stock Signals
  
• Stock Screeners
  
• Strategies
  
• Cron Scheduling
  

• You have software that can create signals (and download the necessary data) at your disposal
  
• Enough computer/programming skills to tell your software how to format the signals and where to place them on your computer
  

1. Create a 'dummy' strategy that does nothing except run your second program on a schedule.
   
2. Create a batch file that will run all your programs. This is the more advanced option, so beware of problems such as not waiting for other processes to finish.
   

Cron Scheduling
Scheduling your strategies, email notifications, and external programs in APM can be done using the cron (also crontab) syntax.
Please refer to this guide for another explanation (and some more advanced uses) of the cron syntax used in APM.
You can also find a useful cron converter here.

The cron syntax that APM is slightly different than the classic Unix cron syntax:

• The year is optional and does not have to be included
  
• The week starts on Sunday
  
• You cannot put a day of the week and a day of the month. Put a ? for one of the options.
  
• This format includes the second to run at, which is a mandatory field
  

Installation
The Alera Portfolio Manager (APM) can be downloaded (Windows only) from one of the following links.
Also be sure to check out our YouTube Channel

Version 3.3

• PLEASE UNINSTALL AND REINSTALL ALERA IF UPGRADING FROM VERSION 3.3.12 OR LOWER
  
• version 3.3.30 - Update Yahoo pricing queries
  
• version 3.3.29 - Fixed minor issue in 3.3.28
  
• version 3.3.28 - Fixed issue with identifying NASDAQ tickers in IB. This issue was recently introduced by IB.
  
• version 3.3.26 - Fixed an issue with missing orders introduced in 3.3.25
  
• version 3.3.25 - Added ability to get margin requirements for symbols in IB through the Alera API
  
• version 3.3.24 - Yahoo improvements. Signal ID reset requires ID=1 now. Other minor fixes.
  
• version 3.3.23 - Temporary fix for Yahoo.
  
• version 3.3.22 - Fixed yahoo price fetching errors. Made application height adjustable.
  
• version 3.3.21 - Improved system for handling prices, especially when data providers are down. Added option to specify a reference price for market orders using keyword REF_PRICE. See documentation on signals here.
  
• version 3.3.20 - Also allow CLOSE MKT orders without getting price from Yahoo.
  
• version 3.3.19 - Fix for historical data in PnL plot. New Gmail integration -- If you are currently using the email feature in APM then you will automatically be prompted to connect your Gmail account upon opening APM.
  
• version 3.3.18 - Minor Fixes for portfolio view of non-US stocks.
  
• version 3.3.17 - Binance API Connection Update
  
• version 3.3.16 - PnL tab improvements/fixes
  
• version 3.3.15 - Minor improvements: more rounding options, override Time in Force option, save queued conditional orders from being lost upon Broker disconnect.
  
• version 3.3.14 - Renamed Soft Cap to Soft Cap+ and added new Soft Cap behaviour more similar to Hard Cap
  
• version 3.3.13 - FIX FOR INTERACTIVE BROKERS. The data source (Yahoo) for plotting PnL broke for March 4, 2022 and caused an error. This is now fixed.
  
• version 3.3.12 - FIX FOR BINANCE. Binance's API changed and APM was unable to connect anymore. It is fixed in this new version.
  
• version 3.3.11 - Added ability to specify an IB algo with orders (see documentation). Can now start/stop the account connection through the API
  
• version 3.3.10 - Added Soft Cap++ and Hard Cap++ for crypto traders (see documentation). Added ability to reload the next valid order ID for every order in IB.
  
• version 3.3.9- Various minor improvements to API (basic account stats), Binance GTD orders, and APM reconnections. Added ability to close all positions in a strategy.
  
• version 3.3.8 - Added ability to programmatically start APM and connect to your broker. See documentation.
  
• version 3.3.7 - Added support for Coinbase Pro
  
• version 3.3.6 - Minor Improvements, mainly for Binance.
  
• version 3.3.5 - Upgraded Binance library version.
  
• version 3.3.4 - Added Delayed Orders. These can be set to trigger after a certain time. See documentation.
  
• version 3.3.3 - Added ability cancel Custom Stop/Target orders through signals (see documentation). Added BNB as base currency to Binance. Various other minor improvements.
  
• version 3.3.2 - Fixed issue with handling contract details for invalid tickers in IB (such as corporate actions).
  
• version 3.3.1 - Added ability to specify to a list of tickers to preload contract details for. See documentation.
  
• version 3.3.0 - Added Custom Stop/Target orders (see documentation). Various backend improvements.
  

• version 3.2.8 - Increased allowed precision for trail stop % orders
  
• version 3.2.7 - Improved rounding for non-margin crypto accounts to improve probability of execution. Other minor improvements.
  
• version 3.2.6  - APM tries a few more times to reconnect to the broker overnight upon disconnect. Fixed bug with RSN orders being automatically cancelled when no TIF specified
  
• version 3.2.5 - Removed "simulated trading" warning from Binance test licenses -- very minor change
  
• version 3.2.4 - Added free Binance licenses since Binance does not offer paper trading. Just select "Free Test License" in your account settings -- note these use REAL money.
  
• version 3.2.3 - Added ability to place orders outside of Regular Trading Hours in IB. Affects both regular orders and automated STP/TGT orders.
  
• version 3.2.2 - Added BUSD and USDC as base currencies for Binance. Added support for more LSE tickers in IB.
  
• version 3.2.1 - Added account level unit types (%ACCTCASH, %ACCTLONGEXP, %ACCTSHORTEXP, %ACCTNETEXP)
  
• version 3.2.0 - Added support for CFDs (Contracts for Difference). Available for Interactive Brokers users outside of the US and Canada. See APM docs and IB docs
  

• version 3.1.11 - Fixed display issue in Order Preview for conditional orders
  
• version 3.1.10 - Fixed issue with Order Preview not correctly processing orders when Hard Cap+ option is used. Slightly adjusted UI layout.
  
• version 3.1.9 - Added Hard Cap+ option to limit max positions and improved OTL/OTS functionality
  
• version 3.1.8 - Added OTL/OTS conditional orders and a new column in portfolio tab to display the days in the market for each position.
  
• version 3.1.7 - Automated Stop/Target orders in IB use the position "cost" provided by IB as the base price now -- this provides more consistent behaviour
  
• version 3.1.6 - Upgraded IB API backend
  
• version 3.1.5 - Reworked support for licenses (no noticeable changes on the user end)
  
• version 3.1.4 - Fixed issue with manually closing positions
  
• version 3.1.3 - Improved backwards compatibility
  
• version 3.1.2 - Added ability to view charts for tickers in Trading View
  
• version 3.1.1 - Added total exposure column to the P&L table
  
• version 3.1.0 - Added P&L tracking and strategy priority. Documentation coming soon.
  

• version 3.0.1 - Added default time in force for IBFX and improved logging
  
• version 3.0.0 - Added FX and Crypto trading for IB and Binance/BinanceUS (see this guide).
  

• version 2.1.15 - Google drive files are now processed in order of modified time (oldest to newest). Note that Google Drive only stores write time up to the second so your files must be created at least a second apart.
  
• version 2.1.14 - Added optional expiration time for conditional (RSN/REL/RES) orders. Added STPMKT orders.
  
• version 2.1.13 - Added Good Until Date (GTD) and Limit if Touched (LIT) orders in IB. Reworked risk manager stop/target orders -- this will treat all your existing stop/target orders as regular orders once you do the update (it will work normally after). Improved soft cap functionality. Added changes to address potential (new) problems with IB API changes -- so we recommend upgrading to this new version of APM.
  
• version 2.1.12 - Improved Google Drive access speed
  
• version 2.1.11 - Added support for London Stock Exchange
  
• version 2.1.10 - Added hard and soft cap for max #stocks (documentation coming soon)
  
• version 2.1.9 - Added Stop Limit orders
  
• version 2.1.8 - UI Improvements for Order Preview and Portfolio view
  
• version 2.1.7 - Portfolio view improvements (added cancel order button) and fixed Google Drive max #positions problem
  
• version 2.1.6 - Further improvements to logging and formatting
  
• version 2.1.5 - Slight change to number display/format
  
• version 2.1.4 - Added ability to run strategies from the API
  
• version 2.1.3 - Improved Google Drive Support
  
• version 2.1.2 - Added Google Drive support
  
• version 2.1.1 - Improved logging
  
• version 2.1.0 - Added Alera API (see documentation)
  

• version 2.0.6 - Fixed valid licensing token bug
  
• version 2.0.5 - Minor pricing fix
  
• version 2.0.4 - Added re-entry orders
  
• version 2.0.3 - Added more info to summary emails
  
• version 2.0.2 - UI Improvements
  
• version 2.0.1 - Added Australian and Indian Markets
  

• version 1.1.4 - Scheduling improvements
  
• version 1.1.3 - Updated IEX Cloud pricing retrieval
  
• version 1.1.2 - Updated valid exchanges
  
• version 1.1.1 - Added Hedging Actions
  

• version 1.0.17 - Added csv file format support
  

Frequently Asked Questions
This thread will contain a list of frequently asked questions that will help users get an understanding of the Alera Portfolio Manager (APM).
Feel free to post other questions you have or think should be added to this list in the comments.

Where do I download the software from?
You can download APM from the installation page.

What Brokers does APM work with?
Currently, the software is only compatible with Interactive Brokers (IB), but we plan to add more brokers in the future.
You will have to open an account with IB in order to use the software.

How do I test APM before using it with real money?
When you open an account with IB, you are given a free paper trading (simulated trading) account that you can use to test APM.

Does it cost money?
The software is free to use for 3 months with a paper trading account (no sign-up required currently).
If you would like to use it with a real account, please email us at contact@aleratrading.com.

What do you do with my account information?
We understand that traders want to keep not only their strategies private, but also their account information. 
That is why we designed APM so that no information, other than your account ID (for licensing purposes), is sent to our servers.

What can I trade with APM?
APM currently handles only U.S. stocks. We plan to support options, futures, forex, and crypto.

Stock Screeners
Stock screeners provide a different approach to handling your portfolio. The idea is that you want to evaluate stocks based on certain criteria (ranking) and only hold X stocks in your portfolio based on their rank. To create a stock screener, simply select the File Screener, the Google Drive Screener or the Finviz Screener.

Note that the stock screener only places Market, Market on Close or Market on Open orders, so be aware of the potential issues with such orders. It is possible to prevent some of the issues with the Protect Market Orders field, which is explained in the Strategies Guide.

Number of Stocks
The Number of Stocks field allows you to select how many positions you would like to hold in your portfolio. APM will always try to maintain this number of stocks by taking in consideration the current positions, the sell orders and then filling the open spots. However, if the Number of Stocks is decreased, then APM will not automatically sell stocks at random, it will instead wait for them fall out of the screener (as per the selection mode below).

Selection Mode
The Selection Mode allows you to specify how you would like to process the screener.

Keep Only First

• This mode will only hold only the first X stocks in the screener and sell the rest (X is number of stocks you specified in the Number of Stocks field) 
  

• This mode will prioritize the top stocks in the screener. It will only sell stocks if they fall completely out of the screener, rather than out of the top X stocks like the Keep Only First mode.
  

• This mode allows users to provide a different set of criteria for entering and exiting positions (e.g. enter on an oversold condition and exit on overbought)  
  
• A stock will only be sold if the screener explicitly states it