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tradeMONSTER is one of a few brokerage firms that allows prospective customers to sign
up and test out their platform using a "Paper Trading" account. The paper trading software
operates the same as it does with a full account, except of course that you're not using real
money and a few colors are slightly different. We'll be using a paper trading account for
this demonstration, and we encourage anyone considering tradeMONSTER to open a virtual
trading account so you can test-drive the software yourself.
Before we jump into the demonstration, we have a few high-level observations about the
tradeMONSTER trading software that could impact your use of it. The tradeMONSTER software
uses Adobe's Flash Player. This allows tradeMONSTER to provide features which are more typical
of a desktop application than a web browser. The use of the Adobe Flash Player means that
data can be updated without having to refresh the entire browser page. The software should
run on older computers and browsers as long as a current version of the Adobe Flash Player
is installed, but it will run proportionally slower on a slower computer.
Most people already have the Adobe Flash Player installed, but Adobe Flash cannot be installed
on older smartphones or any Apple iPhone or iPad. For the iPhone or iPad, tradeMONSTER
has developed a separate iPhone app. If your work computer or a friend's computer doesn't
already have Adobe Flash installed and you don't have permissions to install it, then
you may not be able to run the tradeMONSTER software.
OK, let's jump in and use the software. We believe one of the first things brokerage
firm software should do is quickly get you to the place you want to be. For example,
some vendors let you select a starting page when you login. tradeMONSTER does not provide
that option, but they still do a good job by automatically selecting and displaying
the last account you viewed, the last page you were viewing, and the last ticker you
were viewing.
For this demonstration, we're going to start on the "Quote" screen. Here we see tradeMONSTER's
default layout with two thin columns on either side of the main view in the center. This
allow tradeMONSTER to show a tremendous amount of information that can at first be confusing
but you should quickly come to appreciate.
Each of the individual displays in the side columns can be collapsed or expanded by clicking
on the plus or minus sign next to it's label , and they can be re-arranged by simply dragging
and dropping from one location to another.
tradeMONSTER also provides a graphical drop-down selection to quickly show or hide either of
the side columns.
Since you don't even have to go to another screen of preferences to change the display,
you really shouldn't hesitate to change the layout even if for just a few moments to see
more information in the main view. tradeMONSTER really did a great job making the layout flexible
while still being incredibly quick & easy to use.
We like that TradeMonster puts a small list of positions and orders into the left column
by default.
By doing this, it becomes less important for users to start on one of the main "Account"
pages which tends to be the default starting point for a lot of other brokerage firm software.
If you do want to see a larger display of account information such as positions, there
is a "Menu" button which will let you switch to see the positions in the main view. We
also want to point out that this menu button has a selection to display the positions in
a "New Window". It's definitely nice to be able to take advantage of larger monitors
and move pieces like this off to the side so you can see them even when the trading
software isn't your main focus.
Alternatively you can use the main navigation at the top, first hovering your mouse over
the "Account" menu at the top and then selecting "Positions" from the secondary navigation
items. Note that all the sub-menu selections such as orders, positions and messages become
the next row of navigation after we select positions.
The only minor thing we don't like about the various account pages is that we lose the
field to quickly type a symbol, but it's easy enough to go back to the quote page by making
the "Quote" selection from below the "Trade" menu.
Once back on any of the trading pages we can type a ticker into the field immediately below
"Trading" to change the display. Unfortunately we can ONLY type a ticker here. Typing in
a company name results in a message that says, "Symbol could not be found". That's a little
disappointing that we can't simply search for a company name from here.
If you want to actually search for a security by name, you need to click on the small white
triangle on the right side of the ticker field which will drop down a list of your recently
viewed symbols with a lookup button on the top row. We think the list of most recently
viewed symbols is a really nice touch, but we're here to search for a security by name
so we're going to click on the "lookup" button.
Unfortunately the symbol lookup window initially appears completely blank, even though we already
typed in a company name in the ticker field.
For as much as we thought tradeMONSTER did a great job letting users quickly change the
entire layout without leaving the main window, we think they missed the boat with this symbol
lookup. To lookup a company by name we have to first click on the white triangle to show
the drop-down list, then we have to click the "Lookup" button, and finally anything
we typed before is thrown out. Even now, tradeMONSTER doesn't show search results as we type each
character. Instead we have to press the "Search" button or type a return character. When you
compare this to a site that simply lets you type any ticker or company into the first
field and shows results as you type each character, this symbol lookup is really innefficient.
It is nice that the "Search by" selection defaults to "description" but it's also disappointing
that we can't search for the symbol or the description at the same time.
The next selection lets us pick whether we want to restrict our search to instruments
such as only stocks or indices or mutual funds. It surprising that tradeMONSTER restricts
the list of instruments to only show the first 5 instruments without scrolling since there
are only a total of 8 entries in the list and this dialog could easily be a little taller,
as we'll see in a few moments. By scrolling down to see the bottom 3 instrument selections,
we see the last entry lets you search across "Any Instrument" which makes us wonder why
we can't have a similar selection for the "search by" field to let us search by the
description or symbol at the same time.
On a more positive note, we love that tradeMONSTER lets you view 10, 20, or 40 results. It's
really helpful when searching for something in the description that is a more generic
word.
tradeMONSTER nicely takes this one step further by taking the window of results and automatically
making it taller when you have a longer list of results, and they add a scrollbar to let
you see even more in the list. This may not sound like a big deal, but a lot of other
brokerage firm software only shows the top few items.
Clicking on any of the results in the list selects that security to display in the main
view. For our demonstration, we're going to trade IWM. tradeMONSTER provides multiple
ways to initiate the purchase of our buy-write, but we're going to start by selecting the
"Options" view.
The default display shows a typical chain with calls and puts. The display shows as
many columns of information as possible, depending on how big your display is, and there are
horizontal scrollbars at the bottom to allow you to see more columns of information for
the calls and the puts.
There is also a "Menu" button to let you select which columns to display so you might not
need to scroll as much.
Immediately above the option chain is a row of selections for the expiration series to
display. This row also has a horizontal scrollbar which you can use to see more expirations
than can be displayed on the screen at once, but it is really nice to only have to click
once to select one of the expiration series that are displayed on the screen.
There is a control for the number of strikes to display on the screen.
Many brokers allow you to filter the option chain to those which are at the money or close
to being at the money. tradeMONSTER takes that concept and makes it more flexible by
letting you center the option chain around any particular strike. This defaults to the
current security price, but can be changed. This is really nice & helpful for trading
options that are well in or out of the money.
Immediately below the ticker symbol and above the name of the security, note the graphic
which is currently showing calls and puts.
Clicking on that allows us to select from a grid of spread types which will change the
option chain display. For our buy-write, we're going to select "Covereds".
Selecting that spread type will then display "Covered Calls" and "Protective Puts" with
the bid & ask price for the combination of the stock and the option.
Clicking on the plus sign next to one of the options displays a more complete quote along
with a nice risk profile chart and risk metrics which by default shows some of the option
greeks.
Starting on the right-side of the display, there is a selection to change the risk metrics
display of the greeks to "English".
Changing from "greeks" to "English" results in a very nice interpretation for newer option
traders who aren't immediately familiar with the meaning of all the option greeks.
If you hover your mouse above the risk profile chart in the middle, a very nice call-out
appears which shows you the theoretical price as well as profit & loss for the point on
the chart where you're currently pointing your mouse.
When you've found the particular covered call that you want to trade, click on the bid or
ask price for that particular covered call in the option chain.
That will cause a small dialog to appear in the center of your screen.
This dialog then lets you choose to buy or sell this covered call, or to select from
a number of other options. All things considered, this seems like an unnecessary extra step
before getting to the order ticket. For example, the other selections on the right side allow
you to see the quote, chart, or strategy page for the current security, but those pages
are also accessible using the main navigation at the top. Otherwise it seems that the only
purpose is to let you now select whether you want to buy or sell this covered call with
the nice big green & red buttons. Clicking on one of them finally takes you to the order
ticket.
tradeMONSTER certainly has one of the nicest order tickets. For starters, their use of
the bright green & red backgrounds makes it very clear whether we are buying or selling
this covered call, which leg is being bought, and which leg is being sold. There is also
a small risk profile chart to visually help us make sure we're doing what we intended
to do. Clicking on the "Buy Action" will change to selling the spread.
The quantity selection lets you change the quantity three ways. You can directly type
a quantity, you can use the small up & down arrows on the left edge to increment to decrement
the quantity, or you can use the drop-down selection to pick from common quantities like
1, 5, 10, 20, and 50.
The determination of whether this is a limit order, market order, or stop loss order is
made with the drop-down selection which here defaults to "Limit".
The order price can be entered in three ways, much like the quantity, either by typing a
price directly, using the up & down arrows on the left edge to adjust the price in small
increments, or by using the drop-down selection on the right edge to select from a list of
prices.
tradeMONSTER also provides a very nice graphic which shows the current order price in relation
to the market bid and the offer for the order. In this image, the limit price is just above
the market offer so a small red indicator is shown off the right edge of the graphic.
We have one very small enhancement that we'd like to see to the graphic which is the label
the mid-market price. tradeMONSTER does have a tick mark in the middle so we can see where
we are relative to the mid-market price, but it would be nice to see it explicitly labeled.
Particularly when the spreads are wide, it would save time to explicitly see the mid-market
price in order to determine what price to set on the order.
tradeMONSTER's time in force selection is extraordinarily nice in that it allows you
to specify a "good 'til canceled" order with a specific date. This is a unique and valuable
feature to let you specify that you want your order to remain open for an arbitrary period
of time such as 2 days, or until the end of the week, or until some time around expiration,
or any date that you choose. Many brokers don't even allow you to specify 'Good 'til
Canceled' orders for spreads like our buy-write, so tradeMONSTER not only provides that capability
but takes it one step further.
The order ticket also has a series of buttons along the bottom.
The first button says "Save" and pressing it presents a dialog with a summary of the
saved order. Additionally in the left column of order information we can see our newly
saved order. This is a great little feature that allows us to come back to our system
at a later time to send this saved order without having to do much more than check the current
market prices.
Getting back to the buttons on the bottom of the order ticket, the next button is to
"Analyze" the order.
Before we press it, we want to remind you that there is already a simple risk profile
image on the order ticket. Pressing the "Analyze" button presents a much more detailed chart
of the risk profile along with specific information about about the maximum profit, maximum loss,
our break-even point, and the probably of each event. This dialog also lists upcoming,
"Events to Watch Out For" which can be a life-saver. We wish tradeMONSTER would put that on the
order ticket itself, but we're glad to have it so conveniently accessible.
Clicking the "Create Order" button in this dialog takes us back to the order ticket.
Before sending this order, we want to show one more of those buttons at the bottom of
the order ticket. This time we're going to click on the "Edit Spread" button.
The dialog that appears will let us manually adjust the individual legs of the order. Here
we can change the relative quantities of the legs and even add or delete legs, effectively
making it something other than the buy-write we originally created. This dialog also presents
a nice risk profile chart to show us the impact of any changes. We really like that tradeMONSTER
consistently presents the risk profile charts since it's the most common way for new traders
to learn about options, and even for advanced traders it's a great sanity check to keep
you from moving so quickly that you make a simple mistake.
Clicking on the "Create Order" button at the bottom of this dialog takes us back to our
order ticket.
To finally send the order, we just click on the order button which will then present us
with the confirmation dialog.
tradeMONSTER's confirmation dialog is fine, but we're suprised how plain it is compared
to the order ticket and all the functionality around the order ticket. For example, we expected
the order confirmation to include at least a small diagram of the risk profile. Perhaps
that's not here so that it doesn't distract you from reading the numbers and to make sure
you paid attention to the risk profile on the order ticket itself.
We do like the strong use of green and red to show whether the order and the legs are
being bought or sold, so at this point we'll simply hit the send button to place the order.