Fully automated futures trading

andrewcraig · Sep 6, 2024

I'd been having IBC / Gateway crashing issues that were very frustrating as well.

When I was running out of a Docker image it was frequent, but switched to hardware and moved around some of my settings - seems more infrequent now.

I try to make sure gateway is always running in case of a crash, and moved the auto-restart to midnight. Someone said IBC auto restarts there gateway instead? Not sure I was making use of that.

Code:

# Gateway should auto-restart at midnight, but we try manually if there is an error
*/5 * * * * /home/trader/start_ib_gateway.sh

younggotti · Sep 6, 2024

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/about/mediaRelations/8-6-24.php

Crude Palm Oil Futures (FCPO) and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Futures (FKLI) are now available

newbunch · Sep 6, 2024

younggotti said:
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/about/mediaRelations/8-6-24.php

Crude Palm Oil Futures (FCPO) and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Futures (FKLI) are now available

TWS "order preview" tells me "No Trading Permission, Regulatory Restriction." I did enable trading permissions for Malaysia just now. Either this is not available to US traders, it takes time for the permissions to go through, or IB is still setting things up. The "Regulatory Restriction" suggests that US citizens can't trade this.

younggotti · Sep 6, 2024

I live in Europe and I was able to successfully simulate trading right after I updated trading permissions, so it's probably a US citizen restriction.

newbunch · Sep 6, 2024

newbunch said:
TWS "order preview" tells me "No Trading Permission, Regulatory Restriction." I did enable trading permissions for Malaysia just now. Either this is not available to US traders, it takes time for the permissions to go through, or IB is still setting things up. The "Regulatory Restriction" suggests that US citizens can't trade this.

I'm also not sure how IB handles Malaysian Ringgit margin. The currency pair is MYR.USD in TWS, but it's not listed as a tradeable currency on their website and no interest is given by them either.

lore · Sep 14, 2024

newbunch said:
TWS "order preview" tells me "No Trading Permission, Regulatory Restriction." I did enable trading permissions for Malaysia just now. Either this is not available to US traders, it takes time for the permissions to go through, or IB is still setting things up. The "Regulatory Restriction" suggests that US citizens can't trade this.

I just tried this today (U.S. investor) and it didn't say it was restricted, just the usual "You are trying to trade something you don't have market data for..." warning.

I'm also not sure how IB handles Malaysian Ringgit margin. The currency pair is MYR.USD in TWS, but it's not listed as a tradeable currency on their website and no interest is given by them either.

If I try to trade USD to MYR I get "no trading permissions".

newbunch · Sep 14, 2024

lore said:
I just tried this today (U.S. investor) and it didn't say it was restricted, just the usual "You are trying to trade something you don't have market data for..." warning.

If I try to trade USD to MYR I get "no trading permissions".

I've been checking every day and it always said "No Trading Permission, Regulatory Restriction." Now I check and that message is gone and it looks like I can trade it. IB must have updated this in the last day or so.

I'm still not sure what happens in terms of margin, since you have to put up Malaysian Ringgit but IB doesn't let you trade it. I assume IB forces you to borrow the Ringgit initially and lets you close out any net long or short position, but you can't buy Ringgit yourself to hold as margin. IB also doesn't provide an interest rate, which I use to determine my cost of holding a position, but I'm sure I can find that elsewhere.

HobbyTrading · Sep 15, 2024

newbunch said:
I assume IB forces you to borrow the Ringgit initially and lets you close out any net long or short position,

I haven't tried this with MYR but had a similar issue previously with KRW. I had built up a negative KRW cash position. I was able to buy KRW using USD to close this negative position. But I was not allowed to buy more KRW than that. So I was not able to buy a positive KRW cash position.

newbunch · Sep 15, 2024

HobbyTrading said:
I haven't tried this with MYR but had a similar issue previously with KRW. I had built up a negative KRW cash position. I was able to buy KRW using USD to close this negative position. But I was not allowed to buy more KRW than that. So I was not able to buy a positive KRW cash position.

I've done the same with KRW, but IB's website says you can trade "KRW (with special conversion functionality)." It doesn't say the same about the Ringgit but I assume it will work the same way.

newbunch · Sep 15, 2024

newbunch said:
I've done the same with KRW, but IB's website says you can trade "KRW (with special conversion functionality)." It doesn't say the same about the Ringgit but I assume it will work the same way.

I added the Palm Oil futures into my system. I even subscribed to the realtime quotes for the Malaysian Bursa since it is only 60 cents a month. I

newbunch said:
I've been checking every day and it always said "No Trading Permission, Regulatory Restriction." Now I check and that message is gone and it looks like I can trade it. IB must have updated this in the last day or so.

On to the next problem. I added the Palm Oil futures and was running my usual tests and I get the error "Specified algorithm is not allowed for this order." I used IB's Adaptive Algo, which I guess has not yet been set up for this instrument or exchange. Doh!

I'm leaving it in my system but I disabled trading. Hopefully IB will get this straightened out soon.