Trader Guide ·  Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of 20: all chapters
  1. 1. Syndication in one page
  2. 2. Your accounts and your syndication balance
  3. 3. A tour of the Terminal
  4. 4. The three trade settings
  5. 5. Watchlist and instruments
  6. 6. Chart and Backtest Allocation
  7. 7. Pre-open: what the Desk would do
  8. 8. The earnings projection
  9. 9. Placing a trade: the Execute ticket
  10. 10. What happens after you press Buy or Sell
  11. 11. The Allocation panel
  12. 12. The Activity panel
  13. 13. Managing open positions
  14. 14. Pending orders
  15. 15. Closed trades, replay and sharing
  16. 16. Money: balance, fees, overnight charges and payouts
  17. 17. The Terminal on your phone
  18. 18. The Desk page
  19. 19. Questions traders ask
  20. 20. Glossary
Chapter 11 of 20

The Allocation panel

Select a position in the Positions list and the Allocation panel shows the Desk's allocation on it. The badge in the title bar shows its state: Qualified (the allocation is running), Out (the Desk's stop was hit), Syndication ended, Settled or Disqualified.

A live, qualified allocation.
1Your earnings from the Desk allocation, live.
2Price move since entry in bp, in % and in dollars on your position.
3Desk at: how much of your size the Desk holds now. The bar above shows the levels: filled up to the current one, the next one dashed.
4Next: the next level and the price that unlocks it. It can also say the next level comes next minute, or that the top level is reached.
5Desk trailing stop: where the Desk's stop is now.
6Trailing distance, Peak (the highest level reached) and Fee paid.
7State badge.

Banked and still running

When the Desk has sold part of its allocation on a pullback, a box under the levels splits your earnings in two:

  • Banked: your share of what the partial sales locked in, and how many sales there were. It can no longer be lost to a later move.
  • Still running: your share of what the part the Desk still holds is making now. It moves with the price.

The two always add up to Your earnings above. Nothing in the box is extra money.

Banked can be below zero when a sale was made before the trade was in profit. That comes out of the Desk's own risk, never from you, and if the total finishes behind, the trade has nothing to share.

A live allocation after partial sales: Banked and Still running.

How your earnings were built

Below the summary, a table shows each step of the allocation: the Initial Allocation, each time the Desk added, sold part or bought back, the price, the move that step was paid on, and what it earned. "Now at" shows the current price and the total earning now.

Each move is paid at your share of the allocation the Desk held while it happened.

At the bottom, a line shows your underlying P&L, entry and size: that is your own position, separate from your earnings.

The full live view with the step table.

When the Desk's stop is hit, or the allocation ends

"Out": the Desk's stop was hit.

This trade is no longer qualified. The Desk's stop was hit, so the remaining allocation settles at nothing. Earnings already paid are shown separately ("Already paid") and stay paid. Your own position may still be open.

"Syndication ended" while your position is still open.

The Desk is no longer in this trade; your position is still open. The allocation settled with the result shown. You are holding the position on your own account alone.

Settled trades

After a trade closes, the panel shows You earned, the Result with its time, and how the earnings were built, ending with the closing price and the Total settled. The footer shows the peak allocation, the initial allocation, your entry and the fee paid.

A settled trade: "Desk took profit".

If the Desk made partial sales, the same Banked box shows what they locked in and, beside it, From the rest: what the part held to the end made. Together they are what you earned.

A settled trade with partial sales.

How this is calculated (legs). For newer trades, the Desk is paid on what its own allocation made on your trade. Each time that allocation changed, one leg closed and another opened. The table lists each leg: what the Desk held, from and to which price, the move and what the Desk made. A run of partial sales, or of buy-backs after them, is shown as one row ("after sale", "n sales", "n buy-backs"). You receive 90% of the total.

Legs that lost money reduce the total. If the total finishes behind, there is nothing to share on that trade, and the Desk absorbs its own losses in full; you are never charged for them.

A settled trade explained leg by leg.

Why the Desk can be behind on a move that went your way

The Desk starts small and adds as the move proves itself. Its later additions are made at prices further along the move, so its average entry is worse than yours. If the price then pulls back, the Desk's larger, later holding can lose more than its small early holding made, even though your own position is still ahead.

That later entry is risk the Desk carries and you do not. It is why your earnings can be lower than your own position's profit, or zero on a trade you closed in profit.

Open Details under the table to compare the Desk's average entry with yours, and to see the fee paid.

When the breakdown is missing

Occasionally the panel says the step-by-step breakdown is not available for a trade. Your earnings figure is still correct; only the detail is missing.

The screens come from a demonstration account; prices, sizes and amounts are sample data. Estimates, projections and backtests in the Terminal describe how the Desk behaves. They are not promises of future results. Trading involves risk.