Help with IB TWS API

waterman33 · Aug 9, 2020

Hi. I specifically want to have trades automatically executed via logic in an excel worksheet. Does anyone have experience doing this? Trying to follow IB’s instructions but I can’t even get the spreadsheet to download.

thanks

xandman · Aug 9, 2020

That spreadsheet based on DDE is ancient. Lots of issues when I saw it in 2015, when Excel 2010 was the most trusted version.

IBKR would have most likely disabled any order functionality. Somebody may still have it in the bowels of their computer.

waterman33 · Aug 9, 2020

Interesting that it is still promoted by IB then

guru · Aug 9, 2020

They offer several variants (ActiveX, DDE, RTD), but if you can't get as far as downloading one then I imagine many problems with using them as well.
https://interactivebrokers.github.io/tws-api/excel_apis.html

xandman · Aug 9, 2020

waterman33 said:
Interesting that it is still promoted by IB then

"Promoted" is a strong word but I get you.

Maintaining help pages and documentation is probably the crappiest role you can get in IT/Development. (I am not above it, if anybody is scouting.) You also have to go through a lot of hoops for permission to edit official pages. Be nice when you call support.

Tell you what. If you can find the an Excel add-on that can handle orders via the FIX API for a $100 bucks. I will buy it for you. A serious program with exception handling.

d08 · Aug 9, 2020

Use ActiveX at minimum, it worked last I used it 8 years ago. DDE is unstable and like @xandman said, it was pretty much unusable a decade ago and it's probably worse now.

DarthSidious · Aug 9, 2020

Doesn't have to be complicated. I no longer use IB, but I verified this just now:

Go to https://interactivebrokers.github.io/#

Download the windows version you like. Note where you installed it. Let's say you installed in D:\TWS API. You will find the excel samples in D:\TWS API\samples\Excel

xandman · Aug 9, 2020

d08 said:
Use ActiveX at minimum, it worked last I used it 8 years ago. DDE is unstable and like @xandman said, it was pretty much unusable a decade ago and it's probably worse now.

RTD is available now, if you haven't noticed. But, that still leaves us without order capabilities. ActiveX is just as scary for me as DDE.

d08 · Aug 9, 2020

xandman said:
RTD is available now, if you haven't noticed. But, that still leaves us without order capabilities. ActiveX is just as scary for me as DDE.

Had to look up what RTD was. I only use Excel for very basic slippage monitoring and other similar twice-a-year tasks. The idea of using it for automated trading is frightening...

xandman · Aug 9, 2020

d08 said:
Had to look up what RTD was. I only use Excel for very basic slippage monitoring and other similar twice-a-year tasks. The idea of using it for automated trading is frightening...

It is quite robust for Dashboards, but then IBKR has upped the game with a lot of new Mosaic features.

Maybe the CQG samples can inspire you in terms of possible content.

https://news.cqg.com/blogs/excel

It could be just a lot of desktop noise. You seem to be a guy who has his strategy ironed out.