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API Key has been disabled on exchange:
API Key not found on exchange:
API Key only has read-only permissions:
As a non-professional UK user, you cannot trade futures
Cancelled Tradeplan - Past Expiry
Entry RR did not meet Min RR:
Not Enough Margin:
Position already open:
R:R Below Minimum:
Symbol has expired:
TP or SL on wrong side:
Zero Position Size or Leverage:
"Oh no, VEMA didn't enter my trade and I have no idea why!"
If this sounds like you, fear not.
There's most likely a very good reason, and in this article we'll do our best to help you understand why your entry may have not been taken.
The first thing to consider is:
1. Were all your entry conditions met?
If your trade is still monitoring, the likely reason is your entry conditions haven't been met.
Use this article to make sure you understand each entry condition used in your setup:
Understanding Entry Conditions
If your trade has a closed status and never entered, it's time to take a look at the VEMA logs to see what prevented the entry.
2. Accessing the VEMA Logs:
Accessing the VEMA logs is done from the review screen by selecting the Journal tab.
The logs are in chronological order with the most recent entry at the bottom.
3. Understanding Failed Trade Entries:
API Key has been disabled on exchange:
This error occurs when an API key has been disabled manually on the exchange the API key is connected to.
API Key not found on exchange:
This log will be shown when the API key for the selected exchange account has been deleted from the exchange.
API Key only has read-only permissions:
This log will trigger when the API key for the selected exchange account is read-only. VEMA checks upon linking API keys that they have the correct permission, but users can alter permissions on the exchange directly after this, leading to this log.
As a non-professional UK user, you cannot trade futures:
Currently UK-based retail traders cannot trade futures contracts. However, those on an institutional account can still have futures trading enabled..
Cancelled Tradeplan - Past Expiry:
This log means you used the "Expiry Date" condition and the date and time you selected for the trade to expire has now passed.
VEMA has now cancelled the tradeplan, as the entry conditions are now invalidated.
Entry RR did not meet Min RR:
The Minimum R:R condition is in place to allow VEMA to enforce any minimum R:R rules you have in your trade plan. This log occurs when your entry conditions are met at a time that the R:R of the trade would be lower than the value set as the minimum R:R for that trade.
This message differs from the R:R Below Minimum log below, in that this failure occurs at the secondary R:R check, which is performed after stop loss is placed but before entry in case price movement has occurred.
Not Enough Margin:
This issue occurs when the position you attempted to enter cannot be funded by the account you attempted to use. This can occur for a number of reasons, low leverage, large account risk percentages, or tiny stop losses.
For a quick (and slightly simplified) example of when this issue can occur:
- Say we set a trade up and want to risk 5% of our account, and our account balance is $100 - so we want to risk $5.
- We have 20x leverage, and are using a 0.1% stop loss. This means we're risking 2% (20x * 0.1%SL) of the margin we place on the trade, and our position size will be based on this figure.
- If we lose 2% of our margin, and want to risk $5 (5% of our $100 account) we need our margin for this trade to be $250.
- 2% of $250 is $5, so this would get us our 5% account risk.
- However, our account balance is $100. Therefore our maximum margin is $100. We don't have the $250 in margin we need to fund this position with the desired risk amount we selected, so we cannot possibly enter this trade.
Let's consider another example with 2x maximum leverage.
- We want to place a trade that risks 1% of our account, for a $1 loss.
- We set up a trade with a fixed 0.4% stop loss. At 2x leverage that gives a maximum margin loss of 0.8% (2x * 0.4%SL).
- We can see if we put on 100% of our account balance, for $100 of margin, we'd only lose 80c. As this doesn't match the 1% account risk specified, VEMA attempts to up the position size, which increases the margin requirements to $125. At 0.8% loss, a $125 margin trade would give a $1 loss - 1% of our account.
- Unfortunately again, we have a maximum margin of $100 and need $125 to meet the risk we specified, so the trade fails to enter due to insufficient margin.
Position already open:
Currently, VEMA only allows for one live position on a symbol per exchange. This is to prevent multiple positions from interfering with each other which could lead to reduced profits or even liquidations.
As such, this message will be sent when entry conditions are met for a trade setup, but you already have a live position on that pair with VEMA.
A good workaround if you consistently encounter this issue is setting up trades on both Perp and Quarterly contracts (such as XBTUSDT and XBTUSDTM23 on BitMEX), Using two different perpetual contracts on exchanges that offer them such as XBTUSD & XBTUSDT on BitMEX, or using the same pair across different exchanges (Such as BTC-USDT-SWAP on OKX and XBTUSDT on BitMEX).
R:R Below Minimum:
The Minimum R:R condition is in place to allow VEMA to enforce any minimum R:R rules you have in your trade plan. This log occurs when your entry conditions are met at a time that the R:R of the trade would be lower than the value set as the minimum R:R for that trade.
Symbol has expired:
This log occurs when a trade is set up on a quarterly contract. Quarterlies have an expiry date, which is shown in the Trade Create screen.
Some exchanges, like OKX, will even include the expiry date in the symbol name.
Here the -230421 suffix refers to the year 2023, the fourth month (April) and the 21st day, which is the expiry date, in VEMA this is also shown directly below with a countdown timer to expiry.
Once this contract has expired, any positions still monitoring on that pairing will terminate and give the above log.
TP or SL on wrong side:
This log will be seen when entry conditions are met, but one or both of the Stop Loss & Take Profit orders are on the wrong side of price for the trade. Such as in the example below.
This trade was a long bounce.
At the time of creation, the fixed value TP was well above current price and the trigger. However, by the time entry conditions were satisfied it was below current price - invalidating the long trade and resulting in the "TP or SL on the wrong side" Log.
Zero Position Size or Leverage:
This log occurs when your risk management settings combined and the balance of your selected exchange account combine to give a position size that is less than the exchange minimum, resulting in the exchange returning a zero position size error.
VEMA does give a warning in the Trade Create screen if it can confirm this to be the case on setup, but sometimes it cannot be calculated until entry, resulting in this Log.
4. Couldn't find your log here?
These are a subset of the most common VEMA Logs for a failed entry. If you encounter a log that isn't listed here, or believe you're getting an log that you should not be, contact support here:
https://support.vematrader.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
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