Get your sh*t together IB...you guys gotta really fix your data feed/charting.

El_C's point is very valid. It is very easy to bog down TWS with multiple time frames switching instruments. Very sub optimal. So now I use TWS for a single instrument, ES. I have no problems. I.e. it works great. Just being practical and making the system work within its restrictions.

Of course, this is not a workable solution for people doing stocks. If I were to do stocks, I would choose another platform that does a better caching job. If TWS has to fetch from the server, I calculated it is 5-10 seconds before a 5 time frame layout populates. That is a lot of time to waste waiting over a year of trading.

I would not be waiting for IB to "fix" TWS and certainly I would not try to make the system work, when it does not. I want to trade and not waste time. Find what works, work within the restrictions, otherwise move on and find something that does work for your needs. No need to complain or cry foul, all tools have limitations and you can easily deal with it by re-tooling.

IB user for over 2 decades.
 
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I have a dozen charts open at the same time and about one hundred tickers in my monitor windows.

Here's the thing. I checked the bandwidth used by IB's data in my PC's Network Activity Monitor and it's generally on the order of 20 Kb/s, so it shouldn't make any difference whether you have a 20 Mb/s ADSL line, 1 Gb/s FTTH line or an 8 Mb/s 4G wireless connection since IB's data bandwidth is at least two orders of magnitude less than the line's max bw.

I have used the same TWS set-up over different data lines with bandwidths that were orders of magnitude higher than that typically utilized by IB and there were notable differences in performance based on the underlying technologies and on the ISP. There are factors that you will never be aware of. For instance some ISPs may interleave data packets to reduce burst error sensitivity, adding as much as 25 ms to the line's latency.

So I stand by what I said earlier. FWIW I have 20 years of nearly daily experience with IB's streaming data in three different countries and over a variety of data lines and underlying technologies, and my background was in electronics and telecoms engineering until I changed careers and took up jobs in investment banking.
 
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LondonHedger said:
I have a dozen charts open at the same time and about one hundred tickers in my monitor windows.

Here's the thing. I checked the bandwidth used by IB's data in my PC's Network Activity Monitor and it's generally on the order of 20 Kb/s, so it shouldn't make any difference whether you have a 20 Mb/s ADSL line, 1 Gb/s FTTH line or an 8 Mb/s 4G wireless connection since IB's data bandwidth is at least two orders of magnitude less than the line's max bw.

I have used the same TWS set-up over different data lines with bandwidths that were orders of magnitude higher than that typically utilized by IB and there were notable differences in performance based on the underlying technologies and on the ISP. There are factors that you will never be aware of. For instance some ISPs may interleave data packets to reduce burst error sensitivity, adding as much as 25 ms to the line's latency.

So I stand by what I said earlier. FWIW I have 20 years of nearly daily experience with IB's streaming data in three different countries and over a variety of data lines and underlying technologies, and my background was in electronics and telecoms engineering until I changed careers and took up jobs in investment banking.
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Well this issue never happens in think or swim or DAS with similar layouts or even more charts. So I stand my by statement its still something on IB's end
 
I wonder if it is a combination of things. For instance, I use the default 100 ticker limit. I wonder if I upgraded to a "booster pack" if I would get a different feed and perhaps better performance?
 
Bad_Badness said:
I wonder if it is a combination of things. For instance, I use the default 100 ticker limit. I wonder if I upgraded to a "booster pack" if I would get a different feed and perhaps better performance?
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My understanding is it's not some higher quality tier of data. They simply flip a switch to allow you fetch more data.

But don't get me started about the 100 data line limit. IB has clarified to me directly that not only are the charts a line of data, but so are every indicator on the chart is a line of data. So between your watch lists, your charts, and the indicators you hit the 100 limit easily.
 
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