How to automate trades with Flows

Flows is a no-code, agentic finance tool in Questrade Pro and the Questrade app. Build "if this, then that" rules to place trades and send alerts when your conditions are met. Every action a Flow takes is logged and timestamped.

Quick reference

Before you start

• Build and edit Flows on Questrade Pro or the Questrade app. Both support the Flow assistant. Describe your strategy in plain language and review the strategy that our Flow assistant helps to generate.

• Your account needs enough buying power for Flows to place an order when your conditions are met. If buying power is insufficient when a buy order triggers, the Flow pauses.

• Flows monitors your conditions around the clock. Orders for eligible stocks and ETFs can be placed during regular, pre-market, after-hours, and overnight sessions, while options orders execute during regular market hours.

• Each order placed by a Flow is capped at $250,000.

• You can have up to 50 Flows at one time. Up to 20 of those can place orders. The rest can send alerts.

• Before any Flow is activated, you must confirm the logic is correct.

Build your first Flow

On Questrade Pro (opens in a new tab): click Flow in the left navigation.

On the Questrade app (opens in a new tab): click Flow from the homepage.

Two ways to create a Flow: describe it to the Flow assistant, or build from a blank canvas.

Build with the Flow assistant

1. Pick a template or describe your Flow in plain language. For example: alert me when any position I hold is up 15% or down 10%. You can type or use voice input.

2. Review the draft. The Flow assistant translates your words into logic. It does not choose a strategy or pick securities for you.

3. Adjust any trigger or action, confirm the logic, and select Activate.

Build from a blank canvas

1. Click Build with a diagram.

2. Add a trigger ("if" condition). Choose from Market data, Positions, Balances, Schedule, or Event calendar (earnings, dividends, stock splits).

3. Select an action ("then" command). Choose Place order or Send notification.

   1. Place order:

      • Buy/Sell

      • Type (Market/Limit)

      • Amount (dollars, shares, or max quantity)

      • Time in force (Day/GTC/overnight/GTEM)

   2. Send notification: select a method (Push, Email, SMS) and enter the message.

4. Define trigger and action parameters (symbol, amount, etc.).

5. Click the + symbol to add up to five conditions per Flow using AND/OR logic.

6. Configure settings (optional): end date, frequency (cooldown), and max daily orders.

7. Review the logic on screen and click Save and activate.

8. To update the name or description later, click the three dots and choose Edit Details.

Once active, the Flow shows an Active status and begins watching for your conditions.

Manage your Flows

Pause or resume

Pausing stops a Flow from firing without deleting it.

1. Open Flows and select the one you want to pause.

2. Select Pause. The Flow stops watching for its conditions.

3. To turn it back on, open the Flow and select Activate.

Edit

1. Open Flows and select the one you want to change.

2. Pause the Flow first.

3. Make your changes, review the updated logic, and select Activate.

Delete

1. Open Flows and select the one you want to remove.

2. Click the three dots, then Delete.

3. The Flow stops permanently and is removed from your list.

Track what a Flow does

Every Flow keeps a timestamped history.

1. Open Flows and select a Flow.

2. Open Execution History to see when it fired and any order or alert it triggered.

What Flows can do

Ever miss a trade by seconds, then watch the stock do exactly what you expected? Flows helps you stop leaving those on the table.

Set a rule: IF any position in my TFSA drops 5%, THEN buy $100 more.

Common templates:

• Buy the dip: a stock drops a set percentage in a day. Place a buy order.

• Take profit or cut losses: a position hits a target price. Sell it.

• Put idle cash to work: your cash balance crosses a threshold. Invest it. Use max quantity to sweep your full buying power in a single order, and configure flow conditions to avoid converting currencies by default. (Every order is capped at $250,000)

• Schedule (Recurring buys): invest a fixed amount into a symbol on a set schedule.

• Price alerts: get a push notification when a symbol hits a price or a position moves a set percentage.

Flows does not decide what to trade. It runs the strategy you already have, on the terms you set. It is not a bot that picks securities, and it makes no call on where the market is going.

Troubleshooting

Your Flow paused on its own. A Flow pauses after repeated failures. For example: when there is not enough buying power for the order, several symbols meet the condition at the same time, or a symbol gets delisted from your conditions. 

You get a notification. Open the Flow, check Execution History for the cause, fix it, and reactivate.

Your Flow shows a Blocked status. Set by Questrade. You cannot reactivate it yourself. You can still view it, use other Flows, and trade manually. Contact support for next steps.

Several symbols triggered at once. When more than one symbol meets the condition at the same time, Flows pauses and asks you to place those trades manually. Review the alert and act from your account.