Settings

Settings let you personalize your overall interaction with the Active Trader Pro PlatformsSM. By customizing the location and appearance of the tools in your workspace, you can create your own trading experience, helping you manage your accounts and trades more effectively.

From the Settings dropdown menu, choose the function you'd like to customize. You can change which settings you'd like to customize using the dropdown menu from the Settings window.

  • General

    In General Settings, you can choose a number of defaults to enhance your overall Active Trader Pro® or ActiveTraderPro.com® experience.

    Account

    There are several ways to customize how your account(s) appear:

    • Default Account ‒ Select the account you would like to use as a default for account-based tools within the Active Trader Pro Platforms, such as the Positions, Balances, and History. If no selection is made, the application will choose the first available account alphanumerically.
    • Sort By ‒ Choose to sort account lists alphanumerically by Account Name (nickname or registration) or by Account Number.
    • View Accounts, Account Groups, and Watch Lists as a ‒ Choose to view account lists grouped by individual accounts and account groups or displayed as a single list in tools like Positions and Balances.

    Market Data Update Frequency

    You can choose whether you would like to receive continuous streaming market data or data that is updated at 2-second, 5-second, or 1-minute intervals. Your choice may have an impact on the application's performance, depending on the quality and speed of your Internet connection.

    Theme Color

    You can make your workspace background either white, blue, or black. You can also Show Alternating Row Colors in tools like Positions, Watch Lists, Orders, and Filters.

    Sidebars

    Sidebars let you quickly organize and simplify access to a group of tools. Sidebars snap onto the right and left sides of your workspace, expanding or collapsing with a click, and are an easy way to keep functionality at your fingertips while reducing screen clutter. You can designate sidebar space on the left, right, or on both sides of your screen. You may also choose to have no sidebar. When your sidebar appears, drag any tool into it to add it to the Sidebar. Once in a sidebar, a tool will always have a fixed width. Height, however, is adjustable for certain resizable tools.

    Note: When you turn a sidebar on, it will be on for all layouts and you can store different tools in the sidebar for each layout. Turning off a sidebar will cause all tools stored in the sidebar to be removed from all layouts.

    Zoom

    You can adjust the size of the text by using the Zoom slider. Slide left to reduce the text size, and to the right to increase the size.

    Market Ticker

    Check or uncheck whether or not to show the Market Ticker.

    Auto Save Layout

    Choose how you would like layouts to be saved per session:

    • Automatically save layout changes – Changes automatically save throughout your session.
    • Prompt to save layout changes – You will be prompted to save changes before logging out (or switching between layouts on the desktop).
    • Do not save layout changes – Changes will only be saved when you manually save them from the Layouts menu in the main navigation (desktop only).
  • Trade

    There are many ways to customize your trading experience using the three tabs in the Trade Settings menu:

    • General
    • Stock Defaults
    • Option Defaults

    General

    Use this menu to customize settings that apply to all trades.

    • Default Trading Account – You have the option to choose an account to automatically be used when opening a trade ticket.You may also opt for none, which may help alleviate placing trades in the wrong account.
    • Default Trade Ticket – You can select a default ticket time for your trades, including Standard Trade, Multi-Trade, and Directed Trade.
    • You can also opt to always display the cash/margin trade type drop-down on the trade tickets, when trading in a margin account.
    • Lastly, you may choose whether you would like to skip Trade Preview and/or Trade Confirmation. If you decide to skip Previews and Confirmations, you'll still receive trade warnings (when they are triggered). In addition, you can view orders in the Orders tool after placing an order for which you elected not to receive a confirmation.

    Stock Defaults

    When placing an order for a stock or exchange-traded fund (ETF), you can choose the default order details that will populate your order ticket. You can set the following:

    • Default Quantity
    • Default Order Type
    • Default TIF (Time in Force)
    • Condition
    • Preset Buy Limit
    • Preset Sell Limit

    Option Defaults

    When placing an order for an option, you can have default order details populate your order ticket. You can set the following:

    • Default Quantity
    • Default Order Type
    • Default TIF (Time in Force)
    • Default Conditions
    • Preset Buy Limit
    • Preset Sell Limit

    Note: The option settings set here will not apply to multi-leg options trades.

  • Directed Trading

    To customize your directed trades, the Settings tool has four tabs:

    • General
    • Order Types
    • Stock Shortcuts
    • Option Shortcuts

    General

    Use this tab to create a custom view that applies to all directed trades. You may set separate defaults for stock trades and option trades.

    • Quote Book Colors – You can set the default colors (Blues or Industry) for the quote book display.
    • Maximum Book Quantity – Set the limit of shares that you will allow to populate the ticket when you select the Bid or the Ask price in the quote book.
    • Bid/Ask Click Action – Determine the trade action, when you select the Bid or the Ask price in the quote book.
    • Default Route – Set a default route for your trades. You can set an individual route for all securities or set a default route by exchange for NYSE, NASDAQ or AMEX/Regional listed securities.

    Order Types

    On this tab, you can select which of the four advanced order types available through Directed Trading you would like to activate for use. These order types include:

    • Reserve Orders
    • Discretionary Orders
    • Pegged Orders
    • Non-Display Orders

    A description of each order type is provided. You can also learn more about these in the Trading section of our help content.

    Stock Shortcuts

    Use this tab to create up to six prebuilt or custom shortcut buttons for stock trades. This lets you quickly populate some or all of the fields in the Directed Trade ticket. Once created, the shortcut buttons will automatically appear on your Directed Trade ticket.

    Option Shortcuts

    Use this tab to create up to six prebuilt or custom shortcut buttons for option trades to quickly populate some or all of the fields in the Directed Trade ticket. Once created, the shortcut buttons will automatically appear on your Directed Trade ticket.

  • Orders

    You can set up custom Order tickets using this menu.

    Available/Selected Columns

    You can choose which to display by checking off those you would like to use from the Available Columns list, causing them to appear in the Selected Columns list. Then you can reorder the columns by selecting the column you want to move and using the up and down arrows at the bottom of the list.

    You may also:

    • Choose which orders will be displayed based on status
    • Choose a one- or two-row display of order information
    • Color code orders by action, order type, status, or TIF
    • Determine if, and when, you'd like to receive alerts when Good 'til Canceled (GTC) orders are nearing expiration

    Note: When color coding orders, the last color choice wins, using the order in which they appear in the dropdown. For example, if you choose to color Buy orders green and then choose to color Market orders blue, a buy order at the market would be colored blue.

  • Positions/Watch Lists

    You can customize your Positions and Watch Lists to show only the columns you'd like to see. You can select fields to be applied to one or more of the following:

    • All Custom Watch Lists and all Account Watch Lists
    • An individual Custom Watch List or all Custom Watch Lists
    • An individual Account Watch List (Positions) or all Account Watch Lists

    Note: If you add or remove columns when on the Watch List or Positions List using the right-click menu, those changes will only apply to that one Watch List or Positions List. Use Settings to have changes applied across all Watch Lists and/or all Position Lists.

  • Options (by Underlying, Strategy, and Expiration)

    Create your own view for the Options Positions tools by selecting the columns you want to see. You can apply your choices to all of your accounts, or build a custom display for each account.

    Once you've chosen an account, use the checkboxes in the Available Columns list for your selections. Once checked, the column will appear in the Selected Columns list. You can then reorder your choices by selectingone and using the up and down arrows below the list.

  • History

    You can use the History Settings to select the columns to display in your History tool from the complete list of Available Columns. Once selected, your choices will appear in the Selected Columns list. You can reorder them by selecting the column you'd like to move and using the up and down arrows below the list.

    You can also choose whether or not you want journaling transactions and core account settlements displayed in this window.

  • Option Chain

    You can set Default Filters and choose which columns you'd like displayed when you open an Option Chain.

    To select the default Strategy, Strikes, and Expirations, use the dropdown menus.

    To choose the specific columns you wish to display as part of the Option Chain, check them in the Available Columns list. Your choices will appear in the Selected Columns list. They can then be reordered by selecting the column you'd like to move and using the arrows below the list.

  • News

    By checking or unchecking a news source in the Available Providers list, you can customize where to search for your News Searches.

  • Alerts

    In Alerts Settings, you can choose to display an Alert Pop Up and Sounds for the various alert types in Active Trader Pro. You can also select delivery destinations for your price alerts. To edit the available delivery options, use the Manage Destinations link, which will take you to the Alerts section of Fidelity.com.