Bulk Orders from Excel

What you can do from Excel

• Place the same set of orders into one or many accounts across different brokers.
• Copy one order across many accounts, with a different quantity per account.
• Split a large order into smaller slices to stay within the freeze limit.
• Fire all your orders automatically at a set time (for example, right when the market opens).
• Call any AutoTrader API function from your own VBA macros using the Add-in.

Demo video

The Excel tools

Tool	What it does
Copy bulk orders across accounts	Copies many orders across many accounts and brokers.
Copy a single order with different quantity	Copies one order across many accounts, each with its own quantity.
Place bulk orders	Places orders into the accounts you list (places only — does not copy).
Order splitting / slicing	Splits a large-quantity order into smaller slices to get past the freeze limit. This is now also built into the website, so you may not need this tool.

Each tool reads your orders from an orders sheet and the target accounts from an accounts sheet. There is no limit on the number of orders — the tool stops at the first blank row.

You can make as many copies of these Excel tools as you like. Many users keep one copy per strategy. These are normal Excel files, so you can do a lot of automation to auto-fill the order data using Excel formulae or Excel macros.

Basket and multi-leg (option strategy) orders

A basket order is just a group of orders placed together. A multi-leg option strategy (for example, a straddle, a strangle, or a spread) is simply several orders — one per leg.

The bulk order tools handle both:

• Enter each order, or each leg, as a row in the orders sheet.
• Place or copy the whole basket into one or many accounts with a single click.
• Fire the whole basket at a set time using the timer sheet.

If your strategy needs the legs to reach the broker in a fixed order, turn off Parallel Execution in the Desktop Client so the sequence is kept.

Timer orders

Every tool has a timer sheet. Set a time, and all your orders are placed when the timer fires. This is handy when you want orders entered exactly at market open. The timer uses your computer’s clock, so keep your system time correct.

Excel Add-in (for VBA)

If you code your strategy in VBA (Excel macros), the Add-in gives you all of the AutoTrader API functions. See the code samples in the API reference.

Before you start

The Excel tools and Add-in send their requests through the AutoTrader Desktop Client, so install that first. The full download and install steps are on the Excel Setup page.