Ensign: Accounts

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The trading accounts window consists of a button bar, and several account rows that display account information.  Use the vertical scroll bar on the right edge of the window to scroll up and down through the accounts.  Click the Close button to close the trading accounts window.  The Accounts menu item will appear on the main menu whenever the trading accounts window is open and active.  Up to 500 accounts can be entered.  To change the color of the trading accounts window select Window | Set Window Color from the menu.  To change the font and font size of the trading accounts window text select Window | Set Window Font from the menu.

Entering a New Account
To enter a new trading account select an account row with the mouse, and then click New from the trading accounts button bar.  New accounts can also be entered by double-clicking on a blank row, or selecting Accounts | New Account from the menu.  If a row is selected that already contains account information, a confirmation prompt window will appear.  Answering Yes will overwrite the previous account and delete all trades associated with the previous account.  After clicking New, an account information entry window will appear.  Enter an account name, account number, and phone number. Click OK to accept the entries, or Cancel to abort the account.

Opening the Trade Window for an Account
Click Open from the trading accounts button bar or select Accounts | Open Account from the menu to open the trade window for the selected account.  Double-clicking on an account row will also open the trade window.  The trade window is used to enter and manage all aspects of trades, deposits, withdrawals, and account adjustments.

When an account is selected and opened, the individual trading account window will appear. Individual windows for several different accounts can be open at the same time.  Up to 500 trades, deposits, or withdrawals can be entered in each account.  The trades can also be sorted by symbol, entry date, exit date, balance, market value, position, market group, quantity, or notes. 

The window title bar will display the account file number, account name, account number, and telephone number.  The account balance, market value of open positions, total number of trades, average trade value, number and percentage of profitable and losing trades, and the current day's dollar change are also displayed at the top of the window.  These values quickly summarize all of the account activity.  The prices for each entry update every five seconds.

The button bar is used to enter a new trade, edit a trade, delete a trade, select columns to display, hide the button bar, and close the window.  Trade rows can be moved to another row position by dragging them with the mouse if desired.  The Trades menu item will appear when a trade window is active. Select Trades | Copy All to Clipboard from the menu to transfer an image of all trades to the Windows clipboard. The trades can then be pasted into a spreadsheet or another Windows application.  Select Trades | Trade to Clipboard and Trades | Trade from Clipboard to manually copy and paste individual trades.

Entering Trades
To enter a new trade select Trades | New Trade from the menu or click the New button. A new trade can also be entered by double-clicking on a blank row.  A trade entry window will be displayed.  After entering the trade information click OK to confirm the entries and close the window, or click Cancel to abort the trade entries.  Click the Default button to enter the same trade information as the previous trade.  This is helpful for traders that trade the same market a lot.  New trades will always be placed on the last row of the trade window.  The following entry boxes appear on the trade entry window.

TransactionType - Specifies a Long or Short position, or a Deposit or Withdrawal.
Market Group - Indicates the Market Group for the symbol. After selecting a market group, the symbols for that group will be displayed in the list box.
Symbol - Select a symbol from the Market Group list box or manually type the symbol into the Symbol entry box.
Quantity - Enter the exit date, balance, market value, position, quantity, or group. Quantity of shares or contracts traded. Click on the up/down arrows, or type in the Quantity.
Entry Date - Double-click on the entry date box to enter today's date, or manually enter the trade starting date.
Entry Price - Double-click the entry price box to retrieve the current price of the symbol. The current price of the symbol will be displayed (in the proper format). Manually enter the price that the trade was initiated at.
Exit Date - Entering an exit date causes the exit price to freeze and maintain the closed position value.
Exit Price - Enter the exit price for a closed-out trade. If a trade is only partially closed-out, a new trade will have to be entered that reflects the round turn of entering and exiting the partial position. Edit the original trade to reflect the number of shares or contracts remaining after exiting a partial position.
Commission - Enter the total commission for the trade.
Notes - Optionally enter some notes or comments.
Dollar Multiplier - The Dollar Multiplier is used to convert a trade into a dollar amount. This number represents the dollar value per point for the symbol, and will usually default to the correct value. Adjust the multiplier if necessary to correct any errors in the balance calculations.

Entering Deposits and Withdrawals
Deposits and Withdrawals are used to add or delete cash amounts from an account.  Also, account adjustments, dividends or distributions to a trading account can be accounted for.  To make a deposit or withdrawal to a trading account, click New from the button bar as if entering a new trade.  The trade entry window will be displayed.  Select Deposit+ or Withdrawal- from the Transaction Type entry box. Enter the date of the transaction and the transaction dollar amount.  An optional note can also be entered.  Deposits will be added, and withdrawals subtracted from the account balance.  Click OK to save the entry.

Editing and Deleting Trades
To edit a trade, click on the trade row and then click Edit from the button bar. Trades can also be edited by double-clicking on a trade row or selecting Trades | Edit Trade from the menu. The trade entry window will be displayed. Make any changes or additions to the trade and then click OK to save the changes. Click Cancel to abort the changes.

To delete a trade, click on the trade row and then click Delete from the button bar. Trades can also be deleted by selecting Trades | Delete Trade from the menu. A window will appear to confirm the deletion. Click Yes to delete the trade. Click No to abort the deletion. When a trade is deleted, the trade information will be removed and all other trades will move up one row.

Splitting Trades
Select Trades | Split Trade to split a current trade entry into 2 trade entries.  You will be prompted to enter the number of shares to move to the new entry.  This feature is helpful when an order gets filled at several different prices.  The new trade entry will be inserted on the line below the selected row, and the entries for symbol, position, prices and dates will be duplicated. 

Sorting Trades
After several trades have been entered on a page, they can be sorted by symbol, entry date, exit date, balance, market value, position, quantity, or market group. To sort the trades select Trades | Sort from the menu. The trades will sort according to the selection.

Selecting Displayed Trade Columns
Trade information is displayed in columns on the trading account screen.  Click Columns from the button bar or select Trades | Select Columns from the menu to view the columns selection window. Select the trade columns to display on the trading account screen and then click OK to confirm the selections. Click Cancel to exit the screen and abort any changes.

Available display columns include Symbol, Position, Quantity, Entry Date, Exit Date, Entry Price, Exit Price, Commission, Profit/Loss, Balance, Market Value (for stocks and mutual funds), Notes, Market Group, and Dollar Multiplier. 

Adjusting Trade Column Widths
The width of a column can be increased or decreased by dragging the column separator at the top of a column. Column widths are automatically adjusted if the font size is changed.

Displaying Charts from the Trade Window
Select Trades | Chart from the menu to display a chart for the selected trade row. Once a chart is displayed you can use the Home and End keys on the keyboard to scroll one chart ahead or back. This allows you to quickly browse through charts for all the entered trades. You can also use the Scroll Next and Scroll Previous chart buttons on the top row to browse through the charts.

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