Unable to place orders

Common reasons orders fail

A user is unable to place orders mainly for one of these reasons.

Reason	What to do
The order is being rejected by the broker	Check the rejection reason column on the Orders tab and make the needed changes. See the rejected orders article.
The trading account has login issues	If you see login errors, go to Accounts -> Trading Accounts and correct your credentials.
AutoTrader Web is giving an error (not the broker)	Check Activity Logs (Menu: Tools -> Activity) for errors. AmiBroker and MetaTrader fixes are below.

If you use any other method, send the full details and screenshots to the support team.

Solution

If you use the APIs directly (without the at-desktop client)

There are two common mistakes.

• Your request is missing the authentication header that contains the API key. Add the API key to the HTTP header. Many samples are available in the API docs (see the HTTP tab).
• You are passing invalid request parameters or missing the mandatory ones. The best way to find this out is to compare your request with the sample requests in the API docs (see the HTTP tab). The API parameters page lists each field.

If you use the at-desktop client

This applies to users who connect through the Excel, AmiBroker or MetaTrader library, or any other setup that talks to AutoTrader Web through CSV files using the at-desktop application. See the client setup guide for the basics.

Check the at-desktop logs for errors

at-desktop logs

Use the same communication path on both sides

at-desktop and your strategy software must use exactly the same communication path. A mismatch in the commands.csv file path used for communication can stop orders from reaching the desktop client.

Remember, the default path contains your Windows username.

Important: In rare cases the default path shown on the client may not exist on your system. If so, change it to point to your home directory (C:\Users\<windows_user>\autotrader). Change this on both at-desktop and AmiBroker or Excel. The path must match on both sides.

AmiBroker

at-desktop

Edit autotrader-ipc.afl

AmiBroker

Note: The <user> in the path is your Windows username, so it will be different for you. Check the C:\Users path and find your current user folder.

Admin

MetaTrader

The default path is:

C:\Users\<windows_user>\AppData\Roaming\MetaQuotes\Terminal\Common\Files\autotrader

at-desktop

MetaTrader

Check for errors in your charting software

If you use AmiBroker, check these two tabs in the log window.

AmiBroker log window

Make sure you used our API functions in your code

Review the client setup documentation and confirm you have made the needed changes to use our API functions.

You can also debug your trading strategy to see how it behaves when there is a signal.