How to Set Up HOTKEYS for STERLING TRADER PRO

(Last Updated On: November 18, 2019)

I am currently trading with Trader Equity and using sterling trader pro as a platform. I am used to using hot keys, if there is no hotkey possibilities on platform, I not gonna use it.

Sterling Trader Pro is professional platform and when it comes to using hot keys, it’s powerful and easy to use.

So lets dig in. I will show you how I have set up the hotkeys.

I am using keyboard NUM pad for BUY orders and Numbers on top of letters for SHORT orders.

I have set up hotkeys so I can BUY on ask when I need to get in momentum and separate combination for buying on BID, when I got time to get in and want better price. The same goes for shorting – I can hit the BID if in rush or hit the ASK if I have more time to get filled.

This setup will work fine on HIGHER priced stocks cause orders have +0.05 on top of order so i dont miss the fill. If you are trading small caps, I would recommend to decrease this price to 0.02-0.03.

SET UP

First thing we will disable confirmation window so it dont show confirmation window before sending order to market. It can be very annoying as it will slow down your execution.

You can find it under the View menu – settings – messages

To setup hotkeys we go – view – settings

On the settings window we click on HOT Keys tab and we should get something like this.

Make sure you tick the box to enable hotkeys. And set the mode for Load and Go so the order gets executed instantly. Or you gonna get the order confirmation window, what is only slowing down everything.

Make sure you dont use NUM pad numbers to type something in LV2, montage window or it will execute hotkey you have set up for that number!!!

Ok, lets make some hot keys. Lets start with 100 share buy order on ASK. I gonna be using NUM pad’s “1” for execution.

Side is BUY
Quantity – write in 100, which is shares
Symbol – you current symbol on LV2 window
Price – we are buying on ask and then click on those small up and down arrows next to it to set +0.05 or your own chosen number, if any.
Account – your account
Destination – preferably ARCA but you can set up what you like
Tif – can stay on default
Currency – default
Display qty – default
Price type – this is where you can set up stop loss
Stop limit price – if the stop is set
Price inc – price for limit stop order
Preference – leave it blank
Mode – Load and Go, so or order is executed instantly
Name – your hot key name, mine is BUY 100 ASK
Hot key – your chosen hot key, what in my case is “1” on NUM pad

And we click OK. Window not gonna disappear anywhere so we can set up next hot key based on previous setup. Just change the QUANTITY, change the NAME and HOT KEY

I have set it up up to 600 shares or up to NUM 6, respectively:

NUM 1 – 100
NUM 2 – 200
NUM 3 – 300
NUM 4 – 400
NUM 5 – 500
NUM 6 – 600

If your trading small caps you can add NUM7,8,9 too as for example 1000, 2000 shares or so.

We have set up or buy side, now we gonna set up or sell side so we can get out of the trade.

Here I have two options – sell it all what is button “0” ins, (zero). And sell only half what is point “.”Del next to the zero on NUM pad.

Here is the set up for both

These are sell orders on BID – 0.05 to get out fast

Now Lets set up SHORT order hot keys.

Here we gonna move to Number buttons above all the letters on keyboard.

And again we gonna set up keys to get in and out fast and with guaranteed fill.

Here it gonna be the same as on buy orders just Side gonna be SSHRT and price gonna be BID -0.05. Hot key combinations gonna be from “1” to “8” and will be pressed together with CTRL button, so we still can type in some values in LV2 window without executing order.

Set up the rest of keys :

CTRL+1 – SHORT 100
CTRL+2 – SHORT 200
CTRL+3 – SHORT 300
CTRL+4 – SHORT 400
CTRL+5 – SHORT 500
CTRL+6 – SHORT 600

You can add some more shares on buttons “7 AND 8″

Now lets set up the COVER buttons as we need to get out of position too. I have set up these on CTRL+”0″(zero) to cover all and CTRL+”9” to cover half. Both of these are executed on ASK +0.05

Make sure the Side is BUY as you are buying back the shares.

Set Ups to BUY on BID and SELL short on ASK if you got time for better fill price.

Setups to get better price as buying on ASK and shorting on bid can be quite expensive due to spreads. So i set up BUYING on BID + 0.05 so it fills 5cents higher than current BID price

And SHORTING on ASK – 0.05 so it fills 5 cents lower than current ASK price.

Here are the sample setups. To execute these orders I add CTRL key for BUYING(CTRL+NUM pad Numbers)

To sell it gonna be sell all CTRL+”0″ins(NUM PAD) and to sell half CTRL+”.”Del(NUM PAD point). Best to use it if you are selling on momentum, while price is moving higher.