Paper orders and fills

A paper order is a note of intent. RavingDesk does not watch prices, so an order stays Working until you record a fill or cancel it. A fill always becomes exactly one line in the ledger, linked to its order. This tutorial uses the Order ticket practice example (File → Start from an example…).

1. Read the blotter

Open Orders. The example has three working orders for the fictional symbol EXAMPLE-O, whose mark is 42:

Show filters the blotter by Working, Filled or Canceled; the line next to it counts working orders.

2. Write an order

In Order ticket enter Symbol EXAMPLE-O, choose Side Sell, Order type Limit, Quantity 10, Limit or stop price 48 and an Order date. Press Add paper order. The order appears at the top of the blotter. For a market order the price field is disabled: market orders have no limit or stop price.

If something is wrong, the ticket explains it under the button, for example Enter a valid limit price.

3. Record a fill

Press Record fill… on the buy limit at 40. The dialog Record a paper fill reminds you that A limit fill must be at the limit price or better. Enter Fill price 40.5 and press Record fill: the dialog refuses with Limit fills must respect the limit price. Change the price to 39.8, add a Fee of 1 and record it.

The order is now Filled and the Fill column shows the price and date. Open Ledger: the new fill carries the chip From a paper order, and the Overview shows a long position of 50 EXAMPLE-O at 39.8.

For a stop order the dialog warns that The fill price of a stop order is your own assumption. RavingDesk cannot check whether the stop really traded at that level.

4. Cancel and remove

• Cancel order sets a working order to Canceled. The ledger is unchanged.
• Remove deletes a filled or canceled order from the blotter. A filled order's ledger fill stays.
• In the ledger, Remove on a fill that belongs to an order is refused with Remove the linked paper order before removing this fill. This keeps orders and fills consistent.

Every step can be undone with Ctrl+Z and redone with Ctrl+Y.

5. Fills without an order

Not every practice trade needs a ticket. In Ledger → Add a paper fill enter Symbol, Side, Quantity, Fill price, Fee and Fill date, then press Add paper fill. Fills are replayed in the order you enter them, not by date: buying more updates the weighted-average entry, selling more than you hold closes the long and opens a short with the rest.

Next steps

Size an order from a risk budget in the risk planner, or export the blotter with Export → Orders (CSV).