# Trading and paper accounts

> Trade from the order ticket, the chart and the ladder; paper accounts fill against the live market with real queues, fees and funding.

Flowscope trades from where you read the market: an order ticket on the
right, orders and positions on every chart, click trading on the ladder and
an account panel under the panes. Every account starts as a **paper
account**: simulated fills against the live market, so you can practise and
test ideas without funds. [Live accounts](/docs/app/live-trading) use the
same ticket, lines and panel.

## Open the trading tools

- **Trade** in the top bar (<kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>O</kbd>) opens the order ticket
  on the right and the account panel under the panes.
- **Trading panel** in the bottom bar (<kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>P</kbd>) shows or
  hides the account panel alone.

The ticket trades the market of the active pane. An aggregated chart ("All
venues") trades on its primary venue, Binance futures; with a live account in
use, the same coin on that account's venue.

## How paper accounts fill

Paper fills follow the real market, not the last price alone:

| Order | Fills |
|---|---|
| Market | Sweeps the shown order book from the best price (slippage), taker fee |
| Limit that crosses | Takes what the book holds up to its price, the rest rests |
| Resting limit | Joins the back of the queue: the size already resting at its price must trade first. A print through its price fills it whole |
| Stop, stop limit, take profit | Fire when a print reaches the trigger, then work as market or limit |
| Trailing stop | The trigger follows the best price by the trailing distance |

Fees are each venue's base tier (or your own, or none, in the account's
settings). Funding is paid or received at every funding period. Margin is
cross or isolated per market with leverage up to the venue's maximum; an
isolated position is liquidated when its margin runs out, a cross account
when its equity falls to the maintenance margin of its positions.

## The order ticket

| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Account chip | The account in use (amber dot: paper, green: live), its equity; the menu switches accounts, creates paper accounts, connects venues |
| Market, Limit, Stop, Algo | Order types; Stop offers stop market, stop limit and trailing |
| B / M / A | Fill the price field with the best bid, mid or best ask |
| Size | In the coin or in USD; the slider sets a share of what is available at your leverage |
| `10x · Cross` | Leverage and margin mode for the market |
| Reduce only, Post only, TIF | Order flags: post only is rejected if it would take; GTC, IOC, FOK |
| Take profit / Stop loss | Prices that become the position's TP and SL once the entry fills |
| Buy / Long, Sell / Short | Place the order |
| Position card | Size, entry, unrealized P&L, liquidation price; close, close half, reverse |

## Algos

The ticket's **Algo** tab holds three execution helpers:

- **Scale**: a ladder of 2 to 50 limit orders between two prices, with a size
  skew from equal sizes to nine times more at one end.
- **TWAP**: a size spread over time in 2 to 200 lots, with jitter, irregular
  lot sizes, chased slices (each lot rests at the touch and follows it) and
  price bounds (pause or skip a lot while the price is outside).
- **Chase**: a limit that follows the best bid or ask (or one tick inside the
  spread) until it fills, giving up after a move you choose.

Running algos show at the top of the ticket and in the panel's **Algos** tab
with their progress; pause, resume or stop them there.

## On the chart

- The **position** is a solid line at its entry with its size and P&L. Drag
  **TP** or **SL** out of its label to set a take profit or stop loss; **×**
  closes the position at market.
- **Orders** are dashed lines in their side's colour. Drag a line or its label
  to move the order; **×** cancels it.
- The **liquidation price** is a dotted amber line; **fills** are small arrows
  on their bars.
- Right-click the chart for **Buy / Sell limit or stop at** the price under
  the pointer, sized by the ticket.

## On the ladder

Arm the ladder with its bolt in the toolbar. A strip under the toolbar holds
the order size in USD (with $100 to $1K presets), the position with reverse
and close, and cancel. Click left of the price to buy and right of it to sell:
below the market that is a limit, above it a stop (and the other way round for
sells). Working orders show as tags on their rows; drag a tag to another row to
move the order, click its × to cancel.

## The account panel

The row at the top shows balance, equity, realized and unrealized P&L,
position and order margin, what is available and the margin buffer. The tabs:

| Tab | Shows |
|---|---|
| Positions | Every position with entry, mark, liquidation price, margin, P&L and TP/SL; edit TP/SL, reverse, close |
| Orders | Working orders; move or cancel them |
| Algos | Running and finished algos |
| Order history | Every order that ended: filled, cancelled or rejected, with the reason |
| Trade history | Round trips from opening a position to closing it, with fees, funding, net P&L and return |
| Balance history | Every change of the balance: realized P&L, commissions, funding |
| Activity log | What was sent and what came back |
| Analytics | Win rate, profit factor, expectancy, average win to loss, drawdown and the cumulative P&L curve |

Click a symbol to show its market on the active pane. The copy icon puts a
history tab on the clipboard as CSV.

## Paper accounts

Create as many as you like from the account menu (**New paper account…**),
each with its own starting balance. **Account settings…** changes the name,
fees, slippage and the leverage and margin mode new positions start with,
resets an account to a balance, or deletes it. Signed in, paper accounts sync
with your Flowscope account like layouts and preferences.