Dont like IB platform. Help.

L

Laguna

I switched from MB trading to IB brokers because of the .005 cent comm. as to the .01. Half price. I daytrade only stocks at about 10,000. shares per day. I just cant get comfortable with the IB TWS platform. I find it is not user friendly and too cumbersome. I did like the MB platform and I have used in the past, and like Real Tick, Light Speed, Watcher.
Can anyone give me advice or point me in a direction of where I can get a user friendly platform? Will I need to switch brokers again? I dont want to pay more than .005 per share. And I want to feel that my money is safe with a reputable clearing firm or self clearing broker. Thanks for your reply.
 
Good choice .....ZeroLine and QT.
ButtonTrader is excellent with many features and rock solid but it costs more. No floating windows outside the workspace, though.

Both ZLT and QT allow multple windows to float anywhere on screen(s). Very important feature - for me, at least.

Edit: BT is much more of a mature product. Build and test strategies w/ point and clk.

All three products offer top notch service. Just cant go wrong with any of them.
 
Same here, QT and Buttontrader, both very excellent products, specially latter will save you a lot of money and nerves.
I never even see the IB TWS desktop, I start it up and it minimizes to the taskbar right away. When day ends I rightclick that task and close it :).
 
I hear you about the commissions.

I changed from TS to IB for the commissions and the MM rate they give.

I tried Zeroline and quotetrader. I trade many different stocks and found zeroline cumbersome in changing stocks in the DOM. quotetrader moves the prices in the middle off the dom instead of moving the bid /ask around the prices.

I have found that the IB booktrader to actually be my prefered choice. took a while to figure out and it doesn't/haven't figured out how to make the number of prices large enough for my taste but its the best choice from my point of view.

I still think TS DOM is a world better but I too didn't want to pay the higher fees (along with some other smaller reasons)
 
Quote from 1Reason:

I hear you about the commissions.

I changed from TS to IB for the commissions and the MM rate they give.

I tried Zeroline and quotetrader. I trade many different stocks and found zeroline cumbersome in changing stocks in the DOM. quotetrader moves the prices in the middle off the dom instead of moving the bid /ask around the prices.

I have found that the IB booktrader to actually be my prefered choice. took a while to figure out and it doesn't/haven't figured out how to make the number of prices large enough for my taste but its the best choice from my point of view.

I still think TS DOM is a world better but I too didn't want to pay the higher fees (along with some other smaller reasons)
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Can you change the Share quantity in book trader before you send out an order? for example if default 1s 100 shares can you change that to 500 for a particular order? I don't have an account with IB but am interested in opening one. Their video on the book trader was not clear and didn't address this aspect.
 
Quote from akeyla:

Can you change the Share quantity in book trader before you send out an order? for example if default 1s 100 shares can you change that to 500 for a particular order? I don't have an account with IB but am interested in opening one. Their video on the book trader was not clear and didn't address this aspect.
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IB IMHO doesn't do a good job explaining the 10 million things TWS does. You also might as well forget about asking customer service as they don't seem to know either.( I thought you may want to know that before you sign up)

Yes, in the book trader you can change the number of shares. you can type it in or you can click the amount and different amounts will appear that you can click on. aside from not being able to scrawl up or down as much as I want without limit it seems to work better (for me anyway) than the third party tools.

One other point is you can direct the orders to a marketplace. for example NYSE stocks to ARCA etc.... (while you may with the third party tools that connect via API IB charges an API fee if you don't use SMART routing)
 
I haven't seen any software that's especially good for trading stocks with IB, especially if you like to trade with hotkeys. ZLT, Button, Ninja all seem to be oriented more toward futures markets.

I think there's a great need for somebody to offer a Hydra/Hammer/Lightspeed type frontend for IB.
 
Quote from 1Reason:

IB IMHO doesn't do a good job explaining the 10 million things TWS does. You also might as well forget about asking customer service as they don't seem to know either.( I thought you may want to know that before you sign up)

Yes, in the book trader you can change the number of shares. you can type it in or you can click the amount and different amounts will appear that you can click on. aside from not being able to scrawl up or down as much as I want without limit it seems to work better (for me anyway) than the third party tools.

One other point is you can direct the orders to a marketplace. for example NYSE stocks to ARCA etc.... (while you may with the third party tools that connect via API IB charges an API fee if you don't use SMART routing)
More...

Thanks.
 
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