To create a Trading Specification, click the Create or Edit buttons located in the Trading System dialog group on the Test System or Live System Dashboard tab. This will take you to the Trading Specification Definition dialog, shown above, and through that to the DEfT Wizard. This is where you create the definitions that form your Trading Specification, which in turn defines your automated investment system.

You’ll find helpful instructions on every tab in the Trading Specification dialog and in the DEfT Wizard, to make it as easy and intuitive to use as possible. Also, there will always be a Help button available, to  take you to the appropriate part of this Help system for the task you’re currently engaged in.

Like on the Dashboard, the buttons on the left of the Trading Specification Dialog act as tab selectors, that change the contents of the main central part of the dialog. All of these tabs (except the Trading Universe tab) list the definitions, of that tab’s type, that have been created in the Trading Spec. By way of example, this is shown for the Trading Strategy definitions in the tab above.

Next to each definition is an Edit button, which opens the DEfT Wizard so you can edit the definition. Next to that is a checkmark, which lets you select a definition so it can be managed by the operation chosen from the Operation drop-down selector, at the bottom of the definition list. This is used to perform various operations on the definitions, including creating them.  Further information can be found in the Definition Operations help topic.

For now, lets look at the two-levels that the Trading Specification dialog operates at. These are the Shared level and the Strategy level.

At the top or Shared level, shown above, are the tabs for creating global definitions that can be used by all the Trading Strategies in your Trading Spec:

• Trading Strategies tab: lists the Trading Strategies that your Spec is divided into and allows you to create and edit those strategies
• Trading Universe tab: pre-selects the Trading Universe of all possible shares that your system may conceivably want to trade
• Shared Terms tab: defines the Named Terms that can be shared between all strategies.
• Shared Rules tab: defines the Trading and Action Rules that can be shared between all strategies
• Shared Lists tab: defines the List Selectors that can be shared between all strategies

To use a shared term, a strategy needs only to reference the term’s name. This is made possible by the requirement that all definition names, except Private Terms, must be unique.

To use a Shared Rule or Shared List, you must first select and Copy the definition then Paste it into the strategy you want to use it in. The Copy and Paste operations are described in the Definition Operations help topic. As that topic explains, you can Paste shared definitions either as a Copy or a Link:

• Copy: Subsequent changes to the shared definition in the Shared Rules / Lists tabs have no impact on the copied definition. Similarly, changes to the copy have no impact on the original definition
• Link: A linked definition has performance and maintenance advantages. The shared definition is only evaluated once for all strategies where it is used. Any changes you make to the shared definition are replicated in all strategies where it is linked

When you edit or create a Trading Strategy in the strategies tab, you will be taken down to the Strategy level of the Trading Specification Definition dialog, which has a different set of tab buttons:

At the Strategy level, the tab buttons are concerned with defining the elements of the specific strategy you selected at the Shared level. To  return to the Shared level, simply click the Back To Shared button on the right hand side of the dialog.

At the Strategy level, the available  tabs are:

• Strategy Selection tab: lets you specify if the Trading Strategy should always be evaluated, or evaluated only when specific criteria (conditions) are met. This powerful feature allows you to turn strategies on and off according to market conditions and opportunities.
• Strategy Terms tab: lets you define the Named Terms that will only be used by this strategy
• Strategy Rules tab: lets you define the Trading and Action Rules that will be used by this strategy to open, increase, decrease or close positions that are associated with this strategy
• Strategy Lists tab: lets you define the List Selectors that will be used by this strategy to select the strategy’s trading list, which is the list of shares that the trading rules will act on

The simple rule is to use shared terms, rules and lists if you have a need to share these definitions across strategies. Otherwise define them in the strategy that will use them. If a term is used only by one other term, then define it in the private terms area of that other term, otherwise define it in the strategy’s terms. Don’t forget you can always move definitions around in your Trading Spec by Cutting and Pasting them using the Definition Operations.

Following these simple rules will make your Trading Spec execute faster, be much more manageable and reduce the number of definitions that you need to fit into any one area of the Trading Specification Dialog. This is important because ShareScope does not provide a vertical scroll-bar in its dialogs, so the size of the Trading Spec Definitions dialog (which is limited by the height of your screen) limits the number of definitions that can be displayed in any one area. We’ve not found this limitation an issue, as yet, because we’ve always followed the above rules. The size and complexity of the Example Trading Spec is proof of this.

However, we recognise that dialog real estate may be an issue, so we’ll be introducing a paging mechanism very soon that will allow an essentially unlimited number of definitions to be included in any one tab of the dialog.