How to conditioned selling ?

satoh · Feb 28, 2018

Hi, I am using TWS of Interactive Brokers.
I am going to buy a put option of VXX.
Concerning the put option that I will buy, I want to set the sell condition like this; when the price of VIX goes over the price of VIX future (near term), the put option is sold automatically at the market price.
Please advice me how I do this.

JSOP · Feb 28, 2018

You won't be able to do it. IB's Condition does not allow one to compare two prices.

tommcginnis · Feb 28, 2018

This is one of those non-obvious things that makes IB's TWS simultaneously magic, and a p.i.t.a.....

You need to set an alarm in your trigger-contract -- let's say it was the ES, and you wanted to buy the RUT...

As the alarm comes up, one box will read, "Advanced Settings" or some such.
The default tab is Orders, which will be blank except for a ghost-font reading, "Drag/Drop Orders Here...." which, below, was a RTY BUY at LMT 1509.10.....

"Why is it not under Orders, instead of Alarms??"

Dunno.

satoh · Feb 28, 2018

JSOP said:
You won't be able to do it. IB's Condition does not allow one to compare two prices.

Thank you for your comment. If I use API, can I do it?

satoh · Feb 28, 2018

tommcginnis said:
This is one of those non-obvious things that makes IB's TWS simultaneously magic, and a p.i.t.a.....

You need to set an alarm in your trigger-contract -- let's say it was the ES, and you wanted to buy the RUT...

As the alarm comes up, one box will read, "Advanced Settings" or some such.
The default tab is Orders, which will be blank except for a ghost-font reading, "Drag/Drop Orders Here...." which, below, was a RTY BUY at LMT 1509.10.....

"Why is it not under Orders, instead of Alarms??"

Dunno.

View attachment 183246

Thank you for your advise. I live in tokyo time zone. Alarm will wake me up while I am in sleep...It seems tough for me. Would it be possible with API?

JSOP · Mar 1, 2018

satoh said:
Thank you for your advise. I live in tokyo time zone. Alarm will wake me up while I am in sleep...It seems tough for me. Would it be possible with API?

Yes unfortunately if you want to set up an alert to compare the price of one security to another, you would need to program it using API. Functionality in Condition in TWS is very limited.

satoh · Mar 1, 2018

JSOP said:
Yes unfortunately if you want to set up an alert to compare the price of one security to another, you would need to program it using API. Functionality in Condition in TWS is very limited.

OK. I understand. Thank you!

tommcginnis · Mar 1, 2018

JSOP said:
Yes unfortunately if you want to set up an alert to compare the price of one security to another, you would need to program it using API. Functionality in Condition in TWS is very limited.

The example I posted had no API content.

d08 · Mar 1, 2018

tommcginnis said:
The example I posted had no API content.

It doesn't work. He wants to constantly compare the two prices. You showed a simple price alert/condition for a stationary price.

tommcginnis · Mar 1, 2018

d08 said:
It doesn't work. He wants to constantly compare the two prices. You showed a simple price alert/condition for a stationary price.

Ah! I getcha.
Well then, you just track a combo instrument as your target. No biggie.
Instrument would be something like "VIXindex-VIXfut" ?? Haven't tried it, but his is a graphable creation, which means you can put an alarm on it.