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HalifaxOnline Platform and Account Setup Guide
CONTENTS
BASIC INFORMATION AND INSTALLATION
PLATFORM INFORMATION ………………………………………………………………………………… 2
PAPER TRADING ACCOUNT ……………………………………………………………………………….. 3
INSTALLATION AND SETUP ……………………………………………………………………………….. 4
USING THE PLATFORM
SETTING UP THE WORKSPACE ………………………………………………………………………………… 11
DEFAULT WORKSPACE
ENABLE TRADING
ADDING INSTRUMENTS TO WORKSPACE ………………………………………………………………… 13
PLACING TRADES …………………………………………………………………………………………… 17
OPENING A POSITION/PLACING RELATED ORDERS (VIA TRADE TICKET)
CLOSING A POSITION (VIA TRADE TICKET)
CLOSING A POSITION/PLACE RELATED ORDERS (VIA ACCOUNT SUMMARY)
FEATURES ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 26
VIEWING OPEN ORDERS
CHARTS
VIEWING ACCOUNT
REPORTS
MARKET DATA SUBSCRIPTIONS
TRADING CONDITIONS
FAQS ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 35
2
BASIC INFORMATION AND INSTALLATION
PLATFORM INFORMATION
HalifaxOnline is an easy-to-use, fully customizable trading platform that integrates all of the trading, analysis, price
monitoring and research functions into one interface.
It is possible to log into either the live or demo platform on the same computer, although not without changing the
connection settings, so this is usually not recommended for most clients.
In the login box, click on “Switch to Simulation” to change to the demo server or “Switch to Live” to switch to the
live server.
The platform allows you to trade multiple products including:
• Futures
• Stocks
• CFDs
• Foreign Exchange
• Foreign Exchange Options
• Bonds
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PAPER TRADING ACCOUNT
For a simulated account you can register at
our website www.halifax.com.au/ho and
click on Fast Track Demo in the right hand
menu.
A new window will appear on your screen
for a free trial, and all that is required is for
you to fill in your details and click on Try it
out now and complete the free trial section.
You will be given a username and password,
and the download link for the platform.
These details will also be emailed to you.
This demo will be available for 20 days, after
which time you will have to apply for
another one if needed.
The demo platform has the same
functionality as the live platform with the
live data being unavailable (data is delayed
by 10-20 minutes).
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INSTALLATION AND SETUP
DOWNLOAD
Click below to download and install the Halifaxonline live system:
http://mitsweb.iitech.dk/downloads/live/Installations/Halifax/en/Halifax_webdeploy.exe
If the above link does not work, please use the link below.
http://mitsweb.iitech.dk/downloads/live/Installations/Halifax/en/Halifax.msi
Please note the above link requires Microsoft .NET 3.5 to be installed first before proceeding. For .NET 3.5 please
download it from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=25150
INSTALLATION
After the installation file has been downloaded, run the file to install Halifaxonline.
Click Next to begin.
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Enter in your name and organisation (if applicable). Click Next.
By default, HalifaxOnline selects the folder it will save into. If you want, you can change the folder by clicking
browse and selecting the new folder. Click Next when done.
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Click Next when it asks you whether you are ready to install.
Click Finish when installation is complete.
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LOGIN
Click the HalifaxOnline icon and use the ID and password sent to you to log in.
When logging in to the platform for the first time, the platform will request that you generate or import a security
key. The Key Management window should appear. Most of the buttons should be greyed out, as they are
unavailable at this stage.
If you are logging in for the first time, you can click on the Generate Key button. If you have previously logged in
from a separate computer before and want to reuse the same key, please load backup key.
HOW TO GENERATE A NEW KEY
When you log in to Halifax Online for the first time, you will be asked to generate a new key.
1. Click OK and the Key management window will pop up.
2. Click Generate new key and OK.
3. You will get message: "You are about to generate a new key. Do you wish to continue?” Click Yes
4. You will be informed that the key has been generated successfully. You will now need to contact Halifax
by calling 1300 363 505 or +61 2 9373 4300 to have your key activated.
HOW TO LOAD BACKUP KEY
In order to load backup key, please do the following:
1. Log in to the platform using your login ID and the password
2. When you first log in, a dialogue will be displayed instructing you to generate a key or load a backup key.
Click OK to acknowledge this dialogue.
3. The Key Management dialogue will open, allowing you to set up the security key for your trading system.
4. Click Load backup key.
5. Enter the location (drive and folder) where the backup copy of your security key is located. To do this,
click Browse and select a drive and folder accessible from your PC.
6. Enter the password you used to protect your key and click Next.
7. A dialogue will be displayed to inform you that the key was successfully copied to this computer. Click OK
to acknowledge this dialogue.
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BACKUP KEY
To load the platform on a second computer, you must first create a backup key, which is a copy of the original
security key, and then load the backup key onto the second computer.
In order to make a back up key for your trading account, please do the following:
1. Log in to the platform using your login ID and password.
2. Under File, go to Options > Options > Key Management.
3. Click Backup key button.
4. You will be asked to provide a password to protect your security key (you choose the password yourself) .
5. Click Browse and select a drive and a folder where you want to save your security key.
6. Click OK.
7. A dialogue will be displayed to inform you that the key was successfully saved.
If you saved the key to a portable USB drive, you will only need to select the drive, rather than the files, when you
reload the key.
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The key is composed of three small files with each of them having your ID as a part of its name. These files are
‘hidden’, so if you need to transport the files in something other than a USB drive, you will need to change the file
settings on the computer so that it shows hidden files.
If you want to use the platform on another computer, it is required that you load the backup key.
DECRYPT SESSION KEY
Error message: Could not decrypt session key or your local security key does not match the key stored on the
trade server.
The message means that your current key is corrupted or you have generated a key on another pc. You will need
to delete the current key and generate a new key.
1. Click OK to the message and the key management window will open.
2. Click Delete Current Key and then OK.
3. In order to log in again, you will be asked to generate a new key or load a backup key. Please refer to the
HOW TO GENERATE A NEW KEY and HOW TO LOAD BACKUP KEY sections above for more details.
CHANGE PASSWORD
If this is the first time you have logged into HalifaxOnline, you will be asked to change your password immediately.
Please follow the steps on the screen to change the password.
The user can change their password at anytime, by going to File > Options and clicking Change Password.
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USING THE PLATFORM
PLATFORM SETUP
When you first log into the HalifaxOnline platform, you will be given the option to select a workspace from a list of
default workspaces that we have created. Generally, we advise the clients to use the Multi Product workspace but
it is up to you which one you select.
Once loaded, you will get a list of product tabs for you to select, and within each tab are commonly used trading
tools which Halifax has included in there by default. The following are a list of most commonly used trading tools.
All of the below will be discussed in more detail in later sections.
• Prices and Trade is the main window to see the prices of the contracts you wish to view. You will need to
go to Trading >> Prices and Trade>> Prices and Trade to add the prices and trades tab.
• Account Summary is the main page for checking the account, any open positions and setting attached
orders. You will need to go to Account >> Account Summary.
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• To check your Open Orders, go to Trading >> Open Orders.
• To bring up charts, please go to Trading >> New Chart.
• For live streaming news, please go to News and Research >> News.
Once the panels have been added or if it has already been added, you can then rearrange it to the way that you
want. To do so, there are several ways to do it. If your current page is a tab, as shown below, you can make it a
panel by right clicking on it, and check panel.
Once this is done, your window should now look similar to the below.
Click and hold on the blue top section and drag it about the screen to customise the look of your workspace.
You can also do the same if you want to make it a tab, just do the reverse by right click on the blue top section and
select panel.
ENABLE TRADING
Before you can place any trades, you will need to Enable Trading, otherwise you will not be able to place the trade.
To do so, click on “Enable Trading” under Trading, and if you see it as “Disable Trading” it means you are enabled
(the button is showing what it is you want to do, not what mode it already is).
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ADDING INSTRUMENTS TO WORKSPACE
Once you have the Prices and Trade window up, you can now add instruments into the list to view prices. There
are two ways you can add instruments into the list – via the “Add Instrument” window or the “Add Instrument”
header.
Add Instrument Window
1. In the area directly below the column headers, right click in the white space. A new set of options will
appear. Please select Add Instrument.
2. A new window will appear as per below. From here, you can either manually collapse the icons of each
category and select the product that you wish to trade, or you can type into the “Look for” field the
contract you want to trade. For example, if you wish to trade SPI 200, you can type into the field “SPI”.
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3. Double click on the contract that you want to trade, and the instrument will be added to your prices and
trade list.
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Add Instrument Header
1. By default, you show have a header appear on your prices and trade screen, similar to the below. This is
where you will enter in the contract that you want to see. If the header panel is not there, right click on
where it says “Prices and Trade”, and a set of new options will appear. Highlight Settings and select Show
Header Panel.
2. In the header panel, there should be a field called Add Instrument. Enter in the contract name or code
into this section, and the system will automatically filter out the relevant contracts. Select the contract as
required by left clicking on the contract.
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3. Alternatively, you can click on the icon on the right hand side of the Add Instrument field as shown below.
This will bring up the Add instrument window as described previously, and you can add instruments that
way too.
4. You can also modify the columns in your Prices and Trade screen so you can view the relevant information
that meets you needs. In the area directly below the column headers, right click in the white space. A new
set of options will appear. Highlight Settings and select Choose Columns and Grouping.
This will bring up a new window as per below. Select or deselect the columns that you wish to view, and click OK
once done.
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PLACING TRADES
OPENING A POSITION OR CLOSING A POSITION (VIA TRADE TICKET)
There are several ways of placing opening trades and closing trades on the Halifax Online platform. In this guide,
we will only describe the trade ticket method. This method applies for any type of contract.
Note: there is another way to close out positions via Account Summary (explained later in this section). Both
methods are fine to use. Please read through both and see which is best for you.
Ensure that you are “Enabled” for trading.
1. You can either go to Trading >> Trade Modules and select Trade Ticket or if you want a specific contract to be
preloaded onto the ticket, right click on the contract you want to trade in Prices and Trade, and select Trade
Ticket.
2. A new popup should appear like below. Normally when this popup appears, there will be no contract selected,
so you will need to enter in the contract code in order to trade. Here we will use the Commonwealth Bank
shares as an example (CBA).
To enter the contract, either type in the code of the contract or the description into the Instrument field as
shown below. In this example, we typed in CBA into the Instrument field. (Note that if you had right clicked in
Prices and Trade, the contract should automatically load into the ticket).
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3. Once the contract code is entered, the details of the order will appear. From here, there are three ways you
can enter into the trade. Below will describe all three methods: Trade, Order and Level 2 (if applicable).
TRADE METHOD
Trade – Within this window, this is a simple market entry order whereby if you click on the Bid price, you will sell
and if you click on the Ask price, you will buy. You will also need to set the amount of contracts you want to
purchase or sell. In this instance, we are doing 100 shares.
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Confirmation window will come up after you click on the ask or bid price, accept if the details are correct by
clicking OK.
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ORDER METHOD
Order – Within this window, you can be more specific about your orders and how you want to place these orders.
In Order, you can select the type of order that you want (i.e. limit, stop) and the duration of the order (i.e. G.T.C,
Day Order).
Along with this, you can attach bracket orders (take profits or stop loss, or both) so that when your entry order is
filled, the bracket orders will automatically be entered into the exchange as a pending order.
Click on Place Order(s) when order details are confirmed and ready to be placed. Confirmation window will come
up, accept if the details are correct by clicking OK.
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LEVEL 2 METHOD
Level 2 – This is only applicable if you have subscribed to an exchange with Level 2 or market depth data. For
further information, please see the Market Data Subscriptions section.
Within this window, it should show you the market depth of that particular contract you are trading. In this
example, you should be able to see the 5 levels of CBA that is trading at that particular point in time. If you wish to,
you can click on the price in the market depth and it will automatically change the entry price to that price. In the
screenshot below, we select to buy at the current top level ask price of $69.29, and as you can see, the price
automatically changes to $69.29.
The rest of the parameters are similar to the Order method, where you can select the entry order type, duration as
well as setting bracket orders. You can set this up to what is required.
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Click on Place Order(s) when order details are confirmed and ready to be placed. Confirmation window will come
up, accept if the details are correct by clicking OK.
CLOSING A TRADE OR PLACING RELATED ORDERS VIA ACCOUNT SUMMARY
The best and easiest way to close a position is in Account Summary. As well, if you did not place a take profit or
stop loss order while entering the details of the opening trade, you can do this as well via Account Summary.
In Account Summary, as shown below, you should be able to see your open positions under the panel called Open
Positions. You will see that there is a “+” symbol on the left hand side. Click on this to expand it out.
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Once expanded out, a new line will appear below. On the right hand side, you will see 3 boxes. The left one which
has an X and in blue means close out at market, the green one with an arrow up is a limit take profit order, and the
red one with a down arrow is the stop order. Once you click on one of those a new popup will appear asking you to
select the parameters of this closing order/related order.
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This is the screenshot which shows the market
close out window.
This is the screenshot which shows the bracket orders
windows.
Click place order and the order will be placed. If it is a related order, you can check the status of it in Open Orders.
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FEATURES
OPEN ORDERS
You can check whether your orders are working or pending under the open orders panel. Go to Trading > Open
Orders and this should bring up a screen like below.
As you can see, it lists all the orders of your account. You have the ability to change any order or even cancel the
order. You should see these options at the bottom of the open orders panel as per below.
• Change Order – click on this to change a current working order. A new window will appear (below) and
you can change as required. Click on Place Order(s) once its ready to go.
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• Cancel Order – click on this to cancel an order. Click Start to begin the cancellation, and you will get a
confirmation of the cancellation when done.
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CHARTS
Charts can be brought up by going to Trading >> New Chart.
A new chart should appear on your screen as per below.
In the top left hand corner, enter the symbol of the contract that you wish to view. In this example, we are viewing
APM3 – SPI ASX 200 futures.
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There are many options that you can select within charts that you can select. These are outlined below.
1. Add new secondary instrument – this allows you to add a secondary instrument to the current chart you
have for the primary instrument.
2. Period – this allows you to choose the period of the chart.
3. Chart type – allows you to select the type of chart that you need.
4. Zoom – zoom in or zoom out.
5. Auto scale and restore chart range – only applies if you have resized the chart.
6. Studies – add the studies that you require onto the chart. HalifaxOnline offers plenty of studies including
the standard MACD, moving averages and AROON, along with Ichimoku Kinko Hyo, Kairi and TRIX.
7. Annotations – allows you to annotate the chart with lines, text and other notes.
8. Eraser – erases any annotations.
9. Cursor mode – allows you to switch between crosshair, trackball and a normal pointer.
In order to change the settings of the charts, you will need to go and click on the arrow under the “Add
instrument” field with the contract code next to it and select properties. Here you can change the chart details.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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VIEWING ACCOUNT SUMMARY
Account summary displays all your current cash value, margin usage and any open positions. Below is a screenshot
of it and the details behind each one. You can access this by going to Account >> Account Summary.
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Account Value This is the current value of the account, if all trades were liquated at this time and margin
were given back at the time.
Other collateral Instruments NOT online tradable. For example bonds.
Not available for
Margin collateral
The account value less Other Collateral.
Used for margin
requirements
The current amount of money tied up in margin
Available for margin
trading
The amount you have currently that you can use for trading margin products
Margin Utilization The current percentage of the total value used up as margin
Non-margin
positions
Unrealized margin
profit/loss
The current market value of any securities (e.g. equities, bonds etc.) held. The market
value is calculated using current price.
The sum of margin positions and its profit/loss.
Unrealized value of
positions
The sum of Non-margin positions (value of collateral), Unrealized margin profit/loss
(unrealized value of all open positions) and Cost to close (commissions and fees).
Cost to close The cost of closing your positions, e.g. commissions and trading fees.
Cash balance
Transactions not
booked
Cash on hand excluding an unrealized value of positions.
Trades, commissions etc. that have not been booked. For example a trades executed
today will be booked the next business day.
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REPORTS
HalifaxOnline can allow users to view reports for past activities. This can be achieved by doing to Account and
selecting the report you require. Below is a summary of the reports available.
Account Statement The Account Statement displays an itemised list of all postings in your
account:
• Fund transfers to your account
• Fund withdrawals from your account
• Profits and losses from trading activities
• Commissions
• Dividends and Interest
Financial Statement The Financial Statement displays the aggregate summary of your account, from
commissions, profit and loss and interest. Useful to quickly view your overall
account.
Trades Executed The Trades Executed list offers an overview of your opened and closed positions.
This statement lists all trading activity, including activities that are not reflected in
your cash flow.
Trades Booked
Statement
This overview of trades booked gives an itemised list of all trading activity
that makes a change on your account.
All direct cash investments are booked. Margin-based trades are
booked when you close a position and the net profit or loss is credited or
debited to your account.
Forex Rollover Report If you hold a position over-night, the position is rolled over and you may pay or
receive swap points. Swap points (Tomorrow/Next rate) are calculated by the
difference in the interest rates that apply to the two currencies in the currency
cross that you’re trading.
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MARKET DATA SUBSCRIPTIONS
To be able to trade and get live pricing for contracts you will need to
subscribe to certain subscriptions. To do this you will need to click on
Account > Subscriptions > Subscriptions Pricelist. This should open up
the subscription pricelist tab. Scroll down to see the possible
subscriptions.
Once the Subscription Price list is opened, you will need to click on the Subscribe tab as shown below. When you
click on this, a new popup will appear asking you to fill the details as required.
Please note, that if the client is setting it up as an individual or joint account, it is a private investor, and anything
else like trust or company is a professional. Make sure they select the right one.
Also note that Level 2 subscriptions will give you market depth, whereas Level 1 subscriptions only gives you
prices.
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TRADING CONDITIONS
Trading conditions allows you to view the commissions, margins and collateral values of products available in the
platform. To do this you will need to click on Account > Trading Conditions.
This will bring you to the Trading Conditions screen, where you can begin viewing the rates and conditions of a
particular product. Please note you can switch between products by clicking on the dropdown box and selecting
the relevant product.
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If you have multiple accounts, different trading conditions may apply to each account. You will need to select the
dropdown to interchange between accounts and view its trading conditions.
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FAQS
FAQS
HOW CAN I PUT MORE MONEY INTO MY ACCOUNT?
To deposit money into your account you can either do this by bank cheque or electronic bank transfer. Please
make reference to your trading account number when doing this. After you have deposited your money into our
bank account you should send an email to [email protected] letting us know that you are depositing
money into your account, state your account name and number and how much you are depositing.
BY ELECTRONIC TRANSFER
Funds are first transferred into the Halifax Suspense account. The account details are as follows:
Account Name: Halifax Investment Services Ltd
Account Number: 900 1247
BSB: 302 100
When you are transferring monies, please place your account number and name in the statement
reference/description box.
This method will usually take 2-3 days, but could take a bit longer, depending on the bank.
BY CHEQUE
Cheques should be made payable to:
Halifax Investment Services Ltd. Suspense A/C
and posted to:
Halifax Investment Services
Level 40/1 Farrer Place
Sydney NSW 2000
Please make reference to your trading account number when doing this. Halifax will arrange the transfer of funds
into the trading account.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS METHOD WILL TAKE LONGER TO FUND THE ACCOUNT AS WE WILL NEED TO WAIT
FOR THE CHEQUE TO CLEAR
HOW CAN I WITHDRAW MONEY FROM MY ACCOUNT?
To withdraw your money from your trading account you should send an email to:
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State your name, account number, the amount that you would like to withdraw, and your bank details of where
you would like your money to be deposited.
This method will usually take 2-3 days, but could take a bit longer, depending on the bank.
I NEED TO GENERATE A SECURITY KEY
If it’s the first time the client has logged in to the platform, it will ask them to generate a new security key. Please
see the Installation and Setup section of this guide for instructions on how to generate and activate the key.
If the client is installing the platform on a second computer, and they already have the security key installed on
their first computer, they will need to create a Backup Key, and then load the Backup Key on the second computer.
Please see the Installation and Setup section of this guide for instructions on how to do this.
ERROR MESSAGE: “COULD NOT DECRYPT SESSION KEY OR YOUR LOCAL SECURITY KEY DOES
NOT MATCH THE KEY STORED ON THE TRADE SERVER”
The message means that your current key is corrupted or you have generated a key on another pc. You will need
to delete the current key and generate a new key.
CHANGE PASSWORD
If this is the first time you have logged into HalifaxOnline, you will be asked to change your password immediately.
Please follow the steps on the screen to change the password.
The user can change their password at any time, by going to File > Options and clicking Change Password.
WHY ARE MY CHARTS DELAYED?
Charts will show data, but it will be delayed by 15 minutes, if you are not subscribed to the relevant market data
subscription.
The client will need to subscribe to the relevant exchange on the platform to be able to trade those contracts. For
example, if you want to trade the Nikkei you should either subscribe to Globex or Singapore Derivatives and
Equities. For the SPI, they must subscribe to the Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE).
MY ACCOUNT WINDOW / CHART / SUBSCRIPTIONS LIST IS BLANK / EMPTY
This problem is usually caused by a corrupt ‘workspace’ file. To load a new workspace, go to File > New >
Workspace to load a new default workspace. This will load a pre-set workspace with all the default tabs and
windows set up. Clicking on Blank Workspace will open a blank platform.
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The problem could also be caused by something blocking the platform’s connections. The most common causes
are Firewalls or Internet Security programs (such as AVG or Norton), or Yahoo or Google Toolbar. Checks if you
have any of these installed, and if so, try disabling the program and logging in again.
HOW DO I FIND THE SYMBOLS FOR CONTRACTS?
The platform initially loads a default workspace, which has tabs set up with different contract types, each of which
will have a list of contracts to trade. Additional contracts can be added to the list via the entry box at the top, or
added from the Instrument Explorer.
The Instrument Explorer can be accessed by the pop-up tab on the left hand side of the screen, or if it is not there
you can click on “tools” then select “instrument explorer”. When you have done that you can rollover the tab on
the left hand side, this should open the instrument explorer. In the field section “look for” type in contract that you
are looking for. For example if you were looking for the SPI type in SPI and the contract should show on the list.
To enter them to the Prices and Trade window, right click on the contract, and then click on Prices and Trade.
Alternatively, it is possible to click-and-drag the symbol onto the Prices and Trade window, or onto a chart.
