Dear Vladimir,
at this moment, PTL Trader uses simple market orders to enter positions. For retail traders trading liquid stocks it is enough.
To protect the trader from high bid-ask spreads, the software has a simple protection - internally it uses two z-scores, one calculated from ask/bid and the other calculated as bid/ask. Then it uses the "ask z-score" as a signal to open long pair positions and "bid z-score" to open short positions. So, it basically compensates the bid-ask spread by entering at slightly more advantageous z-score. It looks at bid-ask at real-time and waits for the best moment.
But of course, if you are really unlucky, it may see no opportunity at all. So in general for illiquid markets, real trading brings less trades than backtesting, which is quite simple.
We don't use MoC or LoC orders...
In future we will also have "enterprise" version of PTL Trader with advanced execution algos (based on limit orders fired to order book, etc...). We are consulting potential options with a previous HFT trading expert. But these won't be available for retail users.
For now, you need to stick with liquid stocks to have real profits.
