Position_intent errors

Alpaca Trading
1

Getting this error when trying to place orders via the go sdk:

Order of | 7 TSLA buy | did not go through: invalid position_intent specified (HTTP 422, Code 40010001)

I am just using the example long-short provided by the examples directory. I was getting this error on my own code as well so i moved to the example to see if that would fix it, to no avail.

submit order function:

func (alp longShortAlgo) submitOrder(qty int, symbol string, side string) error {
	if qty > 0 {
		adjSide := alpaca.Side(side)
		decimalQty := decimal.NewFromInt(int64(qty))
		_, err := algo.tradeClient.PlaceOrder(alpaca.PlaceOrderRequest{
			Symbol:      symbol,
			Qty:         &decimalQty,
			Side:        adjSide,
			Type:        "market",
			TimeInForce: "day",
		})
		if err == nil {
			fmt.Printf("Market order of | %d %s %s | completed\n", qty, symbol, side)
		} else {
			fmt.Printf("Order of | %d %s %s | did not go through: %s\n", qty, symbol, side, err)
		}
		return err
	}
	fmt.Printf("Quantity is <= 0, order of | %d %s %s | not sent\n", qty, symbol, side)
	return nil
}
2

Just hit this myself with a previously working version of the code.

It looks like they introduced a breaking change at some point in the near past (Not sure when just updated go/the sdk)

https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/alpacahq/alpaca-trade-api-go/v3@v3.7.0/alpaca#PositionIntent

So it says that PositionIntent is optional and defaults to “None” but if we look at the constructed trade from the sdk we get something like:

SELL REQUEST: {Symbol:IHS Qty:30 Notional:<nil> Side:sell Type:market TimeInForce:day LimitPrice:<nil> ExtendedHours:false StopPrice:<nil> ClientOrderID: OrderClass: TakeProfit:<nil> StopLoss:<nil> TrailPrice:<nil> TrailPercent:<nil> PositionIntent:}invalid position_intent specified (HTTP 422, Code 40010001)
panic: invalid position_intent specified (HTTP 422, Code 40010001)

Where my PositionIntent is empty - not even a nil pointer.

Then we can look at the PositionIntent over in the SDK:

alpaca-trade-api-go/alpaca/entities.go at v3.7.0 · alpacahq/alpaca-trade-api-go · GitHub


const (
	BuyToOpen   PositionIntent = "buy_to_open"
	BuyToClose  PositionIntent = "buy_to_close"
	SellToOpen  PositionIntent = "sell_to_open"
	SellToClose PositionIntent = "sell_to_close"
)

None is not even an option.

I’m not finding documentation on what these different PositionIntents mean… so :shrug: taking a random stab at it:

	return alpaca.PlaceOrderRequest{
		PositionIntent: alpaca.SellToClose,
		Qty:         &qty,
		Symbol:      position.Ticker,
		Side:        side,
		Type:        "market", // could put logic around limits
		TimeInForce: "day",    // could change this as well to make sure it goes.
	}
}

This will now compile and run.

However I have no idea what these position intents mean and I can not find documentation on what they mean.

Looking at GH issues looks like this was introduced sometime ~April 2024. So if you’re running a version previous to this and update you’re gonna break.

3

here is the code I’m using to build the place order request

#GoLang

func buildPlaceOrderRequest(position types.Position, sideString string) alpaca.PlaceOrderRequest {
	qty := decimal.NewFromFloat(position.Shares)
	side := alpaca.Side(sideString)
	var positionIntent alpaca.PositionIntent
	if sideString == "sell" {
		positionIntent = alpaca.SellToClose
	} else if sideString == "buy" { 
		positionIntent = alpaca.BuyToClose
	}
	return alpaca.PlaceOrderRequest{
		PositionIntent: positionIntent,
		Qty:         &qty,
		Symbol:      position.Ticker,
		Side:        side,
		Type:        "market", // could put logic around limits
		TimeInForce: "day",    // could change this as well to make sure it goes.
	}
}

I’ve declared the positionIntent as a variable which looks to be defaulting to nothing.

That way if the position side is not passed in (“buy” or “sell”) it will default to nothing and you’ll be back to the invalid position_intent error - which is better (IMO) than it randomly doing something with your money.