The Trading Accounts tab allows you to define the trading accounts you’ll use in your Live system. Please note that, if you are setting up the Live system for the first time, it is not possible to create any Trading Accounts until a Trading Specification has been created or imported, and the Live system has been started. Please refer to the Tutorial on Moving To Live Trading for a reminder of how this is done.

To work with an account, please select it first in the drop-down list, then click one of the buttons below the list that best describes the operation you want to perform on that account. Note that some of the operations (e.g. Deposit/Withdraw Cash, Add/Remove Shares) will be associated with the currently selected share in the main Share List window. These buttons are:

• Create: to create a new trading account
• View/Edit: to edit or view the selected account’s settings that were defined when you created it
• Rename: to rename the selected account with a new, unique name
• Close: to close the selected trading account. You will be warned if there are any open positions in the account and given the opportunity to close those position. However you may close the account, without doing so, if you choose
• Delete: to delete the selected account. Note that the account must closed before it can be deleted
• Deposit/Withdraw Cash: to add or remove cash from the selected account. You will be asked to enter a date, type, description and value for the transaction. Please see How Cash-Flows Are Handled In Reports for information on how cash movements are treated in the performance reports. Transaction types are:
  • Deposit / Withdrawal
  • Dividend*
  • Nil-paid rights*
  • Interest received / paid
  • Account charge
  • Other income / expense*

* These transaction types are associated with the currently selected security (provided there is or was an open position in the share, otherwise the transaction will fail) and are exported to the default linked portfolio in ShareScope.

Note that Dividends are normally picked up automatically in ShareScope and exported to RuleTrader, so this type is usually only required if a Dividend has been missed

• Add Shares: this button is used to add a quantity of the currently selected share received as scrip dividends, grants or gifts, provided no cash expense is involved (otherwise you should enter it as a trade)
• Remove Shares: use this button to remove a quantity of the currently selected share (which must have an open position), provided no cash income is received from the transaction (otherwise you should enter it as a trade)
• Sync Accounts: synchronisation of your trading account with the ShareScope linked cash account and portfolios happens automatically at the start of every day and after any change to  the account in RuleTrader. So you would only need to use this button to synchronise the selected account with ShareScope if you have made changes to the linked cash-account or portfolios in ShareScope. If RuleTrader detects an open position stored in ShareScope that it has no record of, then it will ask you to specify a trading strategy that will be used to monitor the position.