Can I flip my position from short to long?

Alpaca Integration Applications
1

I am using the alpaca API to submit orders for the close auction. It may happen that I want to flip a position from a long to a short. If I am long x, I realize that Alpaca fully reject me selling > x.
In this respect, how can I flip my position from short to long, or vice versa? Should I send two independent orders, that will both be executed at the close?
In general, what is the logic behind blocking this behavior, as this can be pretty limiting?

2

Right now you cannot flip position side in one order. You need to flatten the position first.

3

Understood, thanks for the quick reply. May I ask if there is any plan to change this?
I also have a side question: I am trying to submit a lot of orders for market close auction or market open. However, it seems that the dashboard is only showing something like the 400 last open orders I have placed, when I can try to place close to 1000. Is that a limitation of the dashboard or a limitation of the API?
How can I manage to place this number of orders without any issue please?

4

Hi

You posted this about an hour before I was going to ask the same question. I noticed if you place two sell orders (one that liquidated, one that shorts) it places 3 sell orders, which is a dangerous bug I hope alpaca fixes. Even if you stagger the sells by a second it still sometimes does this.

I have tested the code below a few dozen times and seems to be a sustainable work around, but I advise testing it before putting real money down. All it does is wait until the order goes through alpaca and then executes with a small time buffer, ensuring the order doesnt glitch as mentioned above. To implement, simply place an order that liquidates your position above this code and one below to short/long

stag = api.list_positions()

while stag != []:
stag = api.list_positions()
print(“queuing”)
time.sleep(0.1)

time.sleep(0.3)

5

Hi,

I am currently closing the position before opening a new one. Received this error previously:
“cannot open a long buy while a short sell order is open”

Best regards,
Pascal

Tradingview @paaax
Telegram @paaax255
Email info@pascal-simon.de

6

From all my testing of flipping from long to short and vice versa, the minimum safe delay between market orders is 5 seconds. Anything shorter can lead to this error “cannot open a long buy while a short sell order is open” or “cannot open a short sell while a long buy order is open”

so less than 5 seconds sometimes work but not close to 99.9%

it is sad but it would’ve been so much better if alpaca just delete this annoying safety check in the API.

7

Any updates on supporting flipping a position? Waiting for the first order to fill before submitting the other one slows down the order execution a lot. I use webull on my other algos and it supports it just fine.

8

Any updates on this? For those using TradingView Webhooks to trigger Alpaca this is extremely important for long/short strategy viability.

9

@bobdylan, @carnagecain still no change regarding this feature request.