A tour of AlgoDesk
You use two parts of AlgoDesk all the time. The toolbar across the top of the screen opens everything else. The Control Center shows your accounts, strategies, positions, orders and the log.
The toolbar
The toolbar is a thin strip across the top of your screen. Windows keeps that strip free, so other windows maximise below it instead of covering it.
To move the toolbar to another monitor, drag it by the ALGODESK name or by the empty space in its middle. It docks at the top of the monitor you drop it on, and comes back there the next time AlgoDesk starts.
From left to right:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Control Center button | Shows or hides the Control Center. |
| Compile button | Compiles your strategies, indicators and other scripts. |
| New | Opens a new Chart, Book Trader, Debug, Backtester or Optimizer window. Debug shows the messages your scripts print. |
| Tools | Instruments, Instrument Lists, Mapper and Import data... for your instruments and their bars; Compile, Export and Import for scripts; Options; and Global Performance. |
| Connections | One switch per connection to connect or disconnect it (a Static data connection has none: it is always ready), and Configure... to add or change connections. |
| Workspaces | Switches between your workspaces and saves them. See Workspaces. |
| Help | Manual, which opens this manual in your web browser, About and Check for updates. |
On the right are four status icons and the exit button.
The status icons
| Icon | Colours | Click it to |
|---|---|---|
| Connection (a Wi-Fi symbol) | White: nothing is connected. Yellow: a connection is connecting, or reconnecting by itself after its line dropped. Green: at least one connection is connected. Hold the mouse over it to see which. A Static data connection, which is always ready, does not count. | See every connection except Static data with its own coloured dot (red disconnected, yellow connecting or reconnecting, green connected), and click one to connect or disconnect it. |
| Scripts (a cube) | Red: the scripts are not compiled, or the last compile failed. Yellow: compiling. Green: compiled. | Compile the scripts. |
| Claude (a sparkle) | Grey: Claude is not linked. White: linked. Green: Claude is connected to AlgoDesk right now. | Link or unlink Claude. See Connecting Claude. |
| User | Green: you are signed in. Dashed outline: you are signed out. | Sign in or out. See Sign in. |
The X at the far right closes AlgoDesk. It asks you to confirm, and tells you first if strategies are still running. If your workspace has changed, it offers to save it. Then it disconnects every connection and closes.
The Control Center
The Control Center opens after you sign in, just below the toolbar. The Control Center button on the toolbar shows and hides it. Closing the window only hides it: nothing in it stops.
Its tabs sit along the bottom:
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Accounts | The trading accounts of each connection. |
| Assets | The balance of each asset in your accounts, filtered by connection and sub-account. |
| Strategies | Every strategy running on a chart: its instrument, data series, position, unrealised and realised profit, account and connection, with an Enabled switch to turn it on and off. |
| Positions | Your open positions, by account and connection. |
| Orders | Your orders and their state, filtered by connection and by type. |
| Log | What AlgoDesk, your connections and your scripts report, with the time of each message. |
Right-click a row for what you can do with it:
- Strategies: Show chart, Remove and Performance. Double-clicking a row shows its chart.
- Positions: Close closes the position at your broker or exchange.
- Orders: View order, Copy ID and Cancel order. Double-clicking a row opens the order.
- Log: Clear.
A coloured row on the Strategies tab needs your attention. Hold the mouse over it to read why.
- Amber: the strategy is closing the position or orders left from its run through history, on paper, before it starts trading on your account.
- Red: the strategy has stopped because of an error, or it no longer matches your account.
More in Orders, positions and accounts and Running a strategy live.
Workspaces
A workspace remembers your open charts, Book Traders, Backtesters and Optimizers, where each one sits on the screen, and whether the Control Center is open. AlgoDesk starts with one called Default.
To keep your own layout, choose Workspaces, then Save As, and give it a name. AlgoDesk opens the workspace you used last each time it starts. See Workspaces.