Tradovate Order Entry Panel Complete Guide

The Tradovate order entry panel is where every trade becomes real. If you don’t fully understand it, you’re trusting your account to muscle memory and luck. This complete guide walks through every part of the Tradovate order entry panel so you can place trades with intent instead of guessing what each button does.

Where the Tradovate Order Entry Panel Lives

The Tradovate order entry panel usually sits attached to a chart or the DOM. On charts, it’s the panel where you pick account, quantity, order type, and ATM strategy. On the DOM, the same logic applies, just laid out vertically. Either way, this panel is the brain of your execution.

You can show or hide it from the chart toolbar. If you rely heavily on the DOM, make sure you’ve also dialed in your setup using the Tradovate DOM settings guide.

Key Parts of the Tradovate Order Entry Panel

Let’s break it down into the main elements you see every time you place a trade.

Section	What It Controls
Account Selector	Which account (SIM, live, eval) the order hits
Symbol / Contract	The futures contract you’re trading (ES, MNQ, CL, etc.)
Quantity	Number of contracts
Order Type	Market, limit, stop, stop-limit, etc.
Time in Force (TIF)	Day, GTC, IOC, etc.
ATM / Bracket	Preconfigured stop-loss and take-profit
Action Buttons	Buy, sell, flatten, reverse

Every mistake you’ve ever made placing an order probably came from one of these sections being set wrong. The fix is understanding each one and locking in reliable defaults.

Choosing the Right Account Every Time

The account selector is easy to ignore until you slam a live trade when you thought you were on SIM. Tradovate makes this worse by letting you trade multiple accounts from the same panel. That’s powerful, but dangerous.

SIM accounts are usually labeled clearly, often with “SIM” or a separate color.
Evaluation accounts from prop firms will have their own names.
Live accounts look similar to eval accounts if you’re not paying attention.

Best practice: when you sit down to trade, confirm the account first, not last. Treat it like a pre-flight check. If you trade evaluations, go read daily loss and resets and then come back and set stricter habits.

Contract Selection and Roll Mistakes

The order entry panel also shows the exact contract: ESZ5 vs ESH6, for example. If you’re not paying attention around rollover, you can easily trade an illiquid contract and get hammered with slippage.

Make sure:

You’re always trading the front month unless you have a specific reason not to.
You update your workspace symbols at rollover instead of letting them go stale.
You confirm tick size and margin match what you expect (especially if you trade both full-size and micros).

This is where having a clean workspace from Tradovate workspace setup basics pays off.

Quantity: Position Size Starts Here

Quantity is the simplest field and the easiest way to blow yourself up. Typing “10” instead of “1” on NQ in a prop eval is game over.

Simple rules for quantity in the Tradovate order entry panel:

Default quantity should be your normal “base size” (usually 1).
Use hotkeys or the up/down arrows only after you’ve mastered base size (see your hotkey setup article if you use them).
Change size only before the trade, not during tilt after a loss.

Position size is part of risk, not emotion. If you don’t have a risk plan, you shouldn’t be scaling size at all.

Order Types Inside the Tradovate Order Entry Panel

The Tradovate order entry panel supports all the standard futures order types. If you’re unclear on what each one does, you’re gambling. You should already understand the basics from your Tradovate order types explained article, but here’s a quick operational view from inside this panel.

Market Orders

Fastest fill, worst control. In the order entry panel, a market order sends you straight into the book at the best available price. Good for emergency exits and fast flattening. Bad for casual entries in thin markets.

Limit Orders

You pick the price, and the market must come to you. Ideal for entries, questionable for panic exits. In the panel, you’ll usually set the limit price by clicking on the chart or DOM, then confirming via the panel’s buy/sell buttons.

Stop Market Orders

These trigger at your stop level, then execute as market orders. They’re your basic “get me out” safety nets. Combined with ATM strategies, they’re the backbone of risk control.

Stop Limit Orders

These try to control slippage by turning into limit orders at your stop. In fast-moving conditions, they can fail to fill entirely. Use them only if you truly understand the trade-off.

Pick one order type for entries and one for exits and master them before adding complexity. The Tradovate order entry panel can do everything, but you don’t need everything yet.

Time in Force (TIF) Settings

TIF defines how long your order stays alive. Tradovate keeps this simple but you still need to know which one you’re on.

DAY: Order works for the session, then cancels.
GTC (Good Till Cancelled): Order stays until you cancel or it fills.
IOC / FOK: For advanced use; most beginners don’t need these.

Default to DAY for intraday trading. If you’re holding swing positions, be deliberate about GTC and make sure you know exactly where those resting orders live.

ATM Strategies: Making the Panel Work for You

ATM strategies are one of the most important parts of the Tradovate order entry panel. They define your stop-loss and take-profit behavior the moment your order fills. If you’re placing raw entries and then “adding stops later,” you’re playing with fire.

Basic ATM logic in the panel:

Select an ATM strategy from the dropdown (or “None” if you’re insane).
Once your order fills, the ATM automatically places the stop and target.
Adjustments you make to the stop/target on the chart still follow ATM logic.

You should already know how to build templates from Tradovate ATM strategy setup basics. Here, the point is to always have the correct ATM selected before you click buy or sell. Wrong ATM = wrong risk.

Bracket Orders and OCO Logic

Brackets and OCO (One Cancels the Other) behavior are built into ATMs, but you can also interact with them directly when managing live orders from the panel.

Sell target fills → stop cancels automatically.
Stop fills → target cancels automatically.

This prevents you from getting accidentally flipped into a reverse position when only one leg of your bracket closes. You don’t have to micromanage this if your ATM is set correctly, but you should know that this is the logic under the hood.

Action Buttons: Buy, Sell, Flatten, and Reverse

The order entry panel gives you one-click access to actions that can save you or destroy you.

Buy / Sell: Sends the order you’ve configured.
Flatten: Closes all open positions in that instrument and cancels working orders.
Reverse: Flips your position in the same instrument (rarely a good idea for beginners).

Recommendation:

Flatten should be visible and easy to hit in an emergency.
Reverse should be treated with extreme caution or left unused until you have a defined reason for it.

In prop firm evaluations, flatten is your lifeline. Use it wisely and combine it with the rules you set in your risk articles under Prop Firm Trading.

Using the Order Entry Panel With the DOM and Chart

The order entry panel doesn’t live in a vacuum. It should work alongside your DOM and chart, not fight them.

Use the chart for context and structure.
Use the DOM for granular entries and exits.
Use the order entry panel as the central control for quantity, order type, and ATM.

A common setup is chart + DOM + order entry panel on the same screen, all synced to the same market. You click levels on the chart or DOM, then confirm via the panel. Your Tradovate chart settings guide helps make that chart readable so these interactions stay smooth.

Common Execution Workflows With the Tradovate Order Entry Panel

Scalper Workflow

For a short-term scalper, the workflow might look like this:

Confirm account (SIM or eval).
Confirm quantity (1 contract by default).
Select ATM with tight stop and modest target.
Use a limit order for entry near a known level.
Manage the trade with DOM and hotkeys, flatten if the move fails.

Intraday Swing Workflow

For a trader holding for a larger move:

Confirm account and symbol, especially around rollover.
Use a slightly wider ATM stop and larger target.
Set TIF to DAY.
Place limit orders at key levels identified from higher timeframes.
Let the ATM handle the bracket rather than micromanaging every tick.

The Tradovate order entry panel handles both styles as long as your ATMs and order types match your plan.

Risk Management Inside the Panel

Risk isn’t just a spreadsheet concept. It lives directly inside the Tradovate order entry panel through three main levers:

Quantity
Stop distance (via ATM)
Order type (more or less slippage)

If any of those are wrong, your risk is wrong. Good habits:

Lock in a base size and stop distance combo that fits your account.
Don’t scale size until the strategy actually proves itself.
Always have an ATM selected for live trading.

Building discipline here is what keeps you away from hard prop firm violations and catastrophic losses.

Example: Placing a Full Trade From the Order Entry Panel

Let’s walk a simple ES trade from start to finish using the order entry panel.

Open your ES chart and DOM with the order entry panel visible.
Confirm the account is your SIM or specific evaluation account.
Set quantity to 1 contract.
Select your “ES-Scalp-ATM” template (for example: 8-tick stop, 12-tick target).
Choose LIMIT as your order type.
Click on the chart at the price level you want to enter (say a retest of prior support).
Confirm the limit price in the panel and click Buy.
Once filled, verify your stop and target appear automatically.
Manage the trade. If it does something stupid, hit Flatten and be done.

Everything in that sequence runs through the Tradovate order entry panel. Once you’ve done it a few hundred times, it becomes second nature—provided your settings are consistent.

Common Mistakes With the Tradovate Order Entry Panel

Most screwups fall into the same patterns:

Wrong account selected (live instead of SIM).
Quantity accidentally set too high.
No ATM strategy active, so trades are naked.
Order type left on something odd (like stop-limit) from a prior experiment.
Clicking Reverse instead of Flatten under stress.

The fix is boring but effective: build a pre-trade checklist and follow it every time. The Tradovate order entry panel is powerful, but it’s brutally honest—if your inputs are dumb, your trading will be dumb.

Final Thoughts: Owning the Tradovate Order Entry Panel

The Tradovate order entry panel is where your plan meets the market. When you understand every part of it—account, symbol, quantity, order type, TIF, ATM, brackets, and action buttons—you stop hesitating and start executing cleanly. Mastering the Tradovate order entry panel won’t magically make you profitable, but trading without that mastery guarantees confusion and regret.

Get your defaults locked in, pair the panel with solid ATM strategies, and treat every setting as part of your edge. If you can operate the Tradovate order entry panel with zero doubt, you’ve removed one major source of self-inflicted damage from your trading.

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