It looks like the valuation of an open position is only looking at the available offer when you are short or the bid when you are long. After normal market hours most spreads widen. This makes it look like you are losing money on your open position. But in reality, the spread is merely widening overnight. For this reason, most brokers take the average price between the bid and ask to calculate real-time position valuations. Is there any possibility this can be done here at C2? It is leading to erroneous dips on the chart.
Thanks,
-Raystonn
Just to be more clear, I am talking about the "Open P/L" column of the "Cash & Margin" section.
-Raystonn
Please give me an example or two of symbols / trades where you believe it occurs. In theory, C2 is programmed to do the following: use bid or asks only when markets are open (and in which case it is perfectly correct to use the bid/ask, since this is proper marking-to-market).
When markets are closed, C2 uses last trade prices.
It’s possible this is not behaving absolutely correctly in all cases, so please point me toward specifics so I can investigate.
Thanks.
Hi Matthew,
Please take a look at Raystonn’s Market Timer. There is currently only one trade, which is still open. It shows a small profit. But I show a loss on the P/L, even after having the system recompute it early.
Thanks,
-Raystonn
When trading equity index futures, spreads tend to widen outside normal stock market hours. The futures are obviously still open, as they remain open close to 24 hours per day during the week. But I would request that outside the hours of 9:30am - 4:15pm the value halfway between bid and ask be used for valuations when there is no last trade during the new day. The new day starts at 4:30pm, and in some futures contracts there is no activity for quite some time, with large spreads.
Thanks,
-Raystonn
I disagree. Marking to market means: “If I had to sell right now, what price would I get?” That’s how one values positions, according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principals, the SEC, the CFTC, and virtually any accounting standards board – U.S. or otherwise. If the market is open, the spread widens, and so too does your market risk.
I mean no offense, but I must stress there is nothing at all incorrect here. C2 is doing what accounting standards demand.
MK
It does sound like that should be the intended behavior. Feel free to change the thread title. I do have a question though. How often is the P/L line updated without using one of your allocated refreshes? Mine has been sitting at the same number for hours. It shows a loss whereas it should show a profit even after giving up the spread.
Thanks,
-Raystonn
It does sound like that should be the intended behavior. Feel free to change the thread title. I do have a question though. How often is the P/L line updated without using one of your allocated refreshes? Mine has been sitting at the same number for hours. It shows a loss whereas it should show a profit even after giving up the spread.
Thanks,
-Raystonn
Open P/L is updated every few hours, depending on server loads… or whenever a new trade is executed.
Hi Matthew,
I waited nearly 24 hours and got no automatic update. I manually hit the button just now and the P/L number doesn’t match what’s listed for the open trade. I only have the one open trade so far. Any idea why it doesn’t match? Are the algorithms for computing profit on the account versus the trade different? One is mark-to-market and the other is something else?
Thanks,
-Raystonn
Further information:
After hitting the button to recompute the P/L, the account showed an open P/L of $1280, but the actual trade listed the P/L at $560. Shouldn’t these match since this is the only trade in this system?
-Raystonn
