TradeStation Help

About Hot Keys

A hot key is a keystroke that launches a specific action or macro command. TradeStation provides you with hot keys that are assigned to common tasks used in the platform. These keystrokes, or hot keys are saved in the "TradeStation" layout. Layouts are used to create and customize hot keys and to associate them with certain commands.

Access using the menu bar View > Hot Keys menu sequence, or from the main toolbar click the Hot Keys $image\hot_key_button.gif$ icon. Or from the Macros dialog, click Hot Keys. The Hot Keys dialog is displayed.

Different types of Hot Key Functions

There are two types of hot key functions that are available in the platform:

Standard Window - Common to the desktop and other applications. For example, Ctrl+O is a standard window hot key function that is assigned to the Open Workspace command.
Macro Specific - Order placement commands and command line macros specific to the platform.

To find out what command is assigned to a particular hot key, open the Hot Keys dialog (View > Hot Keys), choose a Category, and see the list of available commands. Click once on a command to view its existing Current keys assignment. For details, view the Hot Keys topic.

Assigning and Saving a Hot Key to a TradeStation Macro

Hot keys can be created for common functions that currently are not assigned, or you can edit a hot key to a keystroke that would be easier for you to remember. Once hot keys are customized, you can create and save additional hot key layouts to be used in the future.

Order Placement Macro Hot Keys

The following keyboard function keys contain predefined hot keys that are associated with order placement macros. When using the function keys, the symbol used in the active window is the symbol associated with the order placement function key. The order details outlined in the macro are based on how the macro was set up using the Macros Wizard. In order to change the parameters of a macro command, you must edit the macro using the Macros Wizard.

The symbol and order details in the Order Bar are not always the symbol and order details used for the order placement commands. It's important to verify the symbol and order details in the Confirm dialog prior to running the macro.

The Function keys contain order placement parameters using macro commands.

F4 - Runs the Cancel macro	F9 - Runs the Buy Mkt macro
F5 - Runs the Buy Join macro	F10 - Runs the Sell Mkt macro
F6 - Runs the Sell Join macro	F11 - Runs the Sell Short Mkt macro
F7 - Runs the Sell Short Join macro	F12 - Runs the Buy to Cover Mkt macro
F8 - Runs the Buy to Cover Join macro

The Shift key can be used in conjunction with a function key to access Show Only and Cancel All macro commands.

Shift key (Show Only) - Used in conjunction with F5 - F8 keys to run Buy Join ShowOnly, Sell Join ShowOnly, Sell Short Join ShowOnly, and Buy To Cover Join ShowOnly macro commands.
Shift key (Cancel All) - Used in conjunction with the F4 key to cancel all open orders.

The Ctrl/Alt keys can be used in conjunction with a function key to access Improve and Shave macro commands.

Ctrl key (Improve) - Used in conjunction with F5 - F8 keys to run Buy Improve, Sell Improve, Sell Short Improve, and Buy To Cover Improve macros commands.
Alt key (Shave) - Used in conjunction with F5 - F8 keys to run Buy Shave, Sell Shave, Sell Short Shave, and Buy To Cover Shave macro commands.