Accessing the Trade ID and managing it locally

I have a VB based algorithmic trading system that needs to record the trade id to a database once the trade is placed. The reason is that the the system can place a second concurrent trade but with different profit and loss targets...



Before entering any trade the program needs to be able to clarify that there are not 2 trades already open and identify the trade id of any open trades to discover if the open trade of of 'type 1' or 'type 2'.



So really a method in VB of managing the Trade ID locally.



I have searched the forum but no obvious solution unless I missed it - I guess it would make use of the trades table - but how to manage the whole process is a bit of a mystery to me and I am not a great C++ programmer to boot :)



All help appreciated



Regards