Hi Cone,

I'm managing to make some progress here... partly because I've tweaked my code around to avoid overnight stops. But I had something else break on me this morning.

I hadn't worked with shorts in auto-trade until this morning. I had a short position in my account, and then used CoverAtMarket(bar+1, LastPosition). The orders bar shows 10:30 AM, Cover Market. However, Fidelity returned an error:

QUOTE:
The security specified in your order was not found in the account selected. This could be caused by selecting the wrong account where the security is held short.

There was no existing order that could conflict. I was able to go into ATP and place a buy to cover at market order immediately, without making any other change.

What could I be missing? It's possible I didn't actually buy these specific short shares through Wealth Lab... I might've done it by hand. But I don't see how that could be an issue.

1. How many Fidelity accounts do you have?
2. If more than one...
a. Which is your default account?
b. Which account was the script assigned to? Look in the Account column in the Strategy Explorer.

Cone,

I have two accounts, but only use one for auto-trading. The script is assigned to the right account.

By the way, in subsequent runs I've been able to successfully put in an order for CoverAtStop(bar+1, LastPosition)... I really didn't change anything. But maybe the problem has gone away. I'll update once I see a successful CoverAtMarket.

CoverAtStop is still not working for me.

I just had a CoverAtStop order (priced at 14.85) for HIG, come back as "security not found in the security you specified". The short shares are sitting in the account specified by the strategy.

We'll take a look and make sure it isn's a problem for 5.3.

Cone,

So, I tried this morning using just the trade ticket (rather than my strategy), and zero luck getting ANY cover order placed. Using ATP put in the same order immediately.

I just spoke to Fidelity's tech support rep about the issue, who was about 1000% unhelpful, and very much tempting me to throw Fidelity to the curb. He told me "it is a bug", and that's all he would say.

So, pay attention anyone out there considering auto-trading with Wealth Lab, don't do it if you need to short.

I do have a theory on CoverAtStop, and maybe someone else out there with 5.1 (rather than 5.3 which we can't get to) can think about whether it makes sense... in this case, I'm trying to place a cover order on securities I originally sold short outside of Wealth Lab (through ATP). Is it possible that for whatever reason, those securities are coded differently in my account... and WL can't get to it for a cover order?

I guess I'll test it myself with a trade ticket.

Nope, no such luck.

I just tried this using the trade ticket in Wealth Lab pro:

- short 1000 shares XYZ at market. Status: filled.
- cover 1000 shares XYZ at limit. Status: Error, the security specified was not found in the account selected.

There are a total of four transaction types, and I'm a little baffled that one of the four would fail so completely.

I appreciate you bringing this to our attention, and the Fidelity QA guys are going to hammer it out for 5.3. If it doesn't work for 5.1, there's really no solution except to wait a few weeks for 5.3. Sincere apologies for the inconvenience.

Cone,

Well, I guess $hit happens. Although there are numerous very serious bugs... so far I've been able to do reasonably well trading 6-digit sums across 20-25 symbols. I just wish I didn't have to baby-sit this thing throughout the day. Things are working well enough at this point to keep me from trying to learn TradeStation... even though, quite honestly, I've been tempted.

I hope the "a few weeks" estimate for 5.3 is accurate. It would make me very happy if I could get a working version of 5.3 before the next options cycle starts, on Nov 22nd.