Tradovate

Tradovate is a popular futures broker with competitive margin requirements. Automate your futures strategies with TradersPost.

Contact Information

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +1 (844) 283-3100

Supported Asset Classes

  • Futures

Send futures signals to Tradovate

Tradovate is a futures-only connection. The one thing to understand before you wire it up is that TradersPost cannot fetch Tradovate quotes, so the price you put in the alert does real work.

What the price in your alert is for

The Tradovate integration does not include market data, so TradersPost has no live quote to work from. It uses a price from your alert as the reference.

  1. 1first

    Not available

    Tradovate quotes

    • The Tradovate integration does not include market data

  2. 2then

    Used first

    Limit price

    • You enter with a limit order: the limit price is the reference

  3. 3then

    Fallback

    signalPrice in the alert

    • The strategy is set to use limit orders but a market entry goes out
    • Your alert supplies the price TradersPost uses as the reference

Alert Example 

{
    "ticker": "MNQ",
    "action": "buy",
    "orderType": "market",
    "signalPrice": 18500,
    "takeProfit": {
        "amount": 100
    }
}

The entry is a market order and signalPrice is the reference: the take profit becomes a limit sell at 18600.

Leave the price in when you depend on a limit

Tradovate has no quotes for TradersPost to fall back on, so a limit order with no price anywhere changes shape.

Without a price

Market order
{
"ticker": "MNQZ2026",
"action": "buy",
"orderType": "limit"
"limitPrice": ?Missing
}

With limit orders configured and no price in the signal, a market order is submitted.

With limitPrice

Limit order
{
"ticker": "MNQZ2026",
"action": "buy",
"orderType": "limit",
"limitPrice": 18500Added
}

Sent as a limit order at 18500.

A percent trail becomes a fixed trail

Tradovate only takes a fixed trail, so the percent becomes a number of points.

Before

What you set

Subscription exit settings

Order type
Trailing stop
Trail type
Percent
Trail
1%
Entry price
20000

After

What Tradovate gets

Order sent to the connection

Order type
Trailing stop
Trail type
Fixed amount Changed
Trail
200 points Changed
Entry price
20000

Sample math: 1% of 20000 is 200 points. The trail stays fixed as price moves.

Tradovate has no percent trailing stop, and the trail does not stay a percent below the high-water mark. If a fixed distance is what you want, send trailAmount and say so directly.

TradersPost uses a four digit year in futures symbols, such as MNQZ2026, and converts to what the broker expects. Send explicit contract symbols rather than continuous ones like MNQ1!, which are not reliably resolved to the right contract.

Rolling ES from December to March

Sample dates. Check the exchange calendar for each contract.

  1. Before Fri Dec 18

    Switch the signal ticker

    Send ESH2027 instead of ESZ2026 from here on. A dated contract never rolls on its own.

    You do this

  2. When the mapping switches

    Continuous symbols roll

    ES1! resolves to ESH2027 once TradersPost's current contract for ES switches, which can be a different day from your chart or your broker. ESZ2026 stays where it is.

    TradersPost does this

  3. Fri Dec 18 Key date

    December expires

    ESZ2026 stops trading. Close or roll any position first.

    Exchange

  4. When your broker rolls

    Exit with the new contract

    A position opened as ESZ2026 that the broker moved to ESH2027 is exited with ESH2027 in the ticker.

    You do this

Paper accounts, P&L and API access

Tradovate

  • Live and paper
  • No market data
  • API add-on not required
Accounts

Live and paper Tradovate accounts can both connect

Open-position P&L

Not shown for Tradovate positions

Without market data there is no open-position P&L or current price.

Paper market data

Tradovate cannot be the market-data source for a TradersPost paper broker

A connected TradeStation account can.

API Access add-on

Not required

Tradovate's paid API Access add-on is not needed.

A connected TradeStation account can be the market-data source. For the wider futures workflow, see the futures page.

What Tradovate supports

Order types and features by asset class, as TradersPost sends them to Tradovate.

What Tradovate supports
Capability Futures Long and short
Order types
Market orders Yes
Limit orders Yes
Stop orders Yes
Stop-limit orders Yes
Trailing stops Yes
Time in force
Day Yes
Good till canceled Yes
Immediate or cancel Yes
Fill or kill Yes
At the open No
At the close No
Attached exits
Bracket orders Yes
OCO orders No
OTO orders Yes
Trailing stop attached Yes
Direction and size
Short selling Yes

Tradovate: 3 things that work differently

  • Orders Relative exits and trailing stops need a price in the signal

    A percent or amount take profit or stop loss, or a trailing stop, is worked out from the entry price in your signal. Without one the signal fails with a message that a valid entry price is required.

  • Account One login lists every account on it

    Subscribe each account you want and the same alert reaches each one with that subscription's settings. Live and paper accounts both come from the one login.

  • Orders Take profit and stop loss attach as one bracket

    A take profit and a stop loss go out together as attached orders, and a single leg goes as OTO. A standalone OCO is not offered.

Limitations

Due to the lack of market data with Tradovate, a TradersPost paper broker cannot use Tradovate as a connection for market data. TradeStation, however, can be used as an alternative.

Tradovate automation questions

How do I automate TradingView futures into Tradovate?
Create a TradersPost futures strategy, connect Tradovate, subscribe it, and point the TradingView alert at that webhook. Use an explicit dated futures contract ticker, not a continuous symbol, and include a price when you use limits or brackets.