How To Trade all available cash

Hey Kenneth Lamers 

You could use set holdings which allocates a percentage that you want to choose for a certain symbol.

#Allocates 100% of the portfolio's value to AAPL
self.SetHoldings("AAPL", 1)

This automatically sets aside 2.5%?

Is there a command that does not?

Hey Kenneth Lamers 

As I mentioned SetHoldings allocates the percentage of your portfolio to a symbol which means that you can change the percentage number. Using 90% or 97.5% of your portfolio would mean that the number is 0.975

self.SetHoldings("AAPL", 0.97)

This would set the desired percentages aside. 

Also I forgot to mention, if I’m not wrong you can set it to one because it automatically takes the fees into account.

self.SetHoldings("AAPL", 1)

I changed to

self.SetHoldings("SPY", 1)

Thanks for the help but it still gave me an invalid trade error due to a shortage of funds. It shows $68,318.08 available and cash needed is $71,495.47. That's about a 4.5% difference! I am not understanding how this command works. I have no other activity in this account and all funding is available. Broker is InteractiveBrokers.

I will try setting to the .97 but it will not be trading my full account which is what my goal is. If my trading fee is $10 dollars, why would I not be able to trade all but $10??? QC could have a command that purchases the max number of shares with the funds available minus the fees which it already estimates.

Hi Kenneth

Sometimes we set FreePortfolioValuePercentage to have buffer cash in this purpose, the default is already 0.25%:

self.Settings.FreePortfolioValuePercentage = 0.01	# say 1%

It is unlikely for a stock to have a 4.5% difference purely based on trading fees. In this case, we'll have to consider if the stock is illiquid, so the market friction is large due to bid-ask spread. Consider execute the trade better, for example, using a SpreadExecutionModel.

Best
Louis

I have figured out the issue. For MARKET bids, the algorithm calculates the number of shared to be ordered based on the bid price of the stock. Interactive Brokers looks at the number of shares requested and multiplies by the ASK price which is higher, thus does not accept the ticket and gives the error that you do not have enough funds. I have seen this difference over 4.5%.

SOLUTION

I do not want to use limit bid because I want the order to go through. Instead, I place two orders. The first is for a quantity at 6% under the maximum shares I could purchase. The second quantity is set to the remaining 6% minus 6%. This ends up trading most of the account. If there is a lot of money in the account, create a third order with the same method. I included a wait time of 10 seconds between the two orders. The code has not run yet so I am waiting to confirm there are no errors…

                    Quantity = self.CalculateOrderQuantity('SPY', 1)

                    FirstOrderQuantity = round (Quantity * .94)

                    SecondOrderQuantity = round ((Quantity - FirstOrderQuantity)*.94)

                    # This next line tells the program to wait 10 seconds after submitting a market order to go to the next line of code. Without this line, the default is to wait 5 seconds 

                    self.Transactions.MarketOrderFillTimeout = timedelta(seconds=10)

                    self.MarketOrder('SPY',FirstOrderQuantity)

                    self.MarketOrder('SPY',SecondOrderQuantity)  

Hi Kenneth

We don't recommend an ice-berg order for this purpose, as it would increase the trading cost and slippage risk. Instead, you may set the free cash percentage in your portfolio to reserve the cash buffer for buying power:

def Initialize(self):
    self.Settings.FreePortfolioValuePercentage = 0.01	# say 1%, for bid-ask spread and slippage

The CalculateOrderQuantity method has already incorporated the real-time margin requirement, so the bid/ask price was not the reason, but most likely slippage.

Best
Louis

This solution regulates me back to not using all the cash in my account which was my goal. I do not want thousands of dollars not working for me. 

I believe the trade fees will come out about the same. Interactive Brokers charges on a per share basis with a 1$ minimum. So, whether I have one purchase of 1000 shares or a purchase of 940 and a second purchase of 60 shares, the total fees should come out pretty close.