Hi,

I'd be most grateful if you could help me with the following question.

I have an IB account and have a strategy that trades two assets: the Dax future (1 contract is 25 times the Dax in EUR, currently about 13000) and the USDJPY cross rate, currently about 110 Yen for one dollar.

How do I need to set LotAmount, Multiplier, Lots, etc. in order to trade
1) 1 Dax Future
2) USD 500,000.00 worth of the USDJPY

I am trying
1) Multiplier = 25; Lots = 1;
2) LotAmount = 25000; Lots = 20;

With the Dax Future, I get the desired behaviour in simulated trading, but when I run a Test in Zorro and take a look at the log file, the profit/loss that is calculated seems to ignore the multiplier. From the log file:
Quote:

Enter 1S DAX-FUT-2017121 at 13:34:00
[DAX-FUT-2017121:strategy:S2701] Short 1@12518.00 at 13:34:00
Units: 1.0000 Margin: 0.00 MCost: 0.1000 PCost: 0.01000
[...]
[DAX-FUT-2017121:strategy:S2701] Exit 1@12384.50: +134 at 19:54:00
Entr 12518.0000 Exit 12384.5000 Spr 0.0000 Slp 0.00$ Rol 0.00$ Com 0.00$

Here, I'd expect a profit of 25*(+134) EUR, but the value of the account increases by only 134.

With the USDJPY, I am totally lost. I thought with LotAmount = 25000 and Lots = 20, I would pay about 25000*110 JPY for one lot which is then worth USD 25000, but that seems not to be what happens. It seems that the position size depends on MarginCost. What does that mean? How do I make sure it always trades the USD 500,000.00 and not anything else?

How do I make sure that the Test does precisely the same as that which happens in live trading?

Thanks a lot for your help,

Gloria

Last edited by Gloria; 11/29/17 13:53.