IB - 4/1/17 TWS update, tips and tricks (column issue solved)

M

MoreLeverage

If you haven't noticed, IB updated the default stable TWS to 963.3a as of this weekend, which caused things to look and act slightly differently. After a hour or two of fooling with it, I fixed 3 of my main annoyances from the "Layout Nightmare" thread.

I recommend checking the following and in this order:

1. The update reverted your graphics heap to the default (too low) memory amount. This will cause general slowness and graphical unresponsiveness. Fix it by going to ~/Jts/tws.vmoptions and under the "max Java heap size" try 2 gigs, ie "-Xmx2G" instead of the "-Xmx680m". Then restart TWS. You can see your heap memory use in TWS by Help->About TWS.

2. The stupid "Key" order column is now mandatory and reappears if you delete the column once you switch away from that tab and switch back. When you have related orders, they have order groups and related key numbers (ie stop loss attached to a buy). I don't want to see this and I don't want to see it right in the front of my order row. To fix this, go to

Edit
Global Config
Trading Tools
Quote Monitor
Default Layout

Then switch to the Order Columns (2nd tab). If you don't see Key in the list, find it under the Status properties and Add it. Then use the down button to move it to the bottom of the Shown Columns list. If you can't get rid of it, at least you can push it of the far right side of your screen and not look at it.

image.jpg

3. The Column bug. Basically if you you're unlucky and try to resize the TWS quote monitor columns on one page, it screws up the layout on other pages. Every time you switch pages, you have to fix that one and a bad layout with super wide or super tiny columns renders some data unreadable. Very annoying. To fix, go to

Edit
Global Config
Trading Tools
Quote Monitor

And look for the Pages and Other Layouts sections. In Pages, you should see your list of named pages. Go to Other Layouts, select New and give the new layout a unique name, ie page1, etc. I made a layout with the name of each of my named pages. Then go to Pages, and for each page, change the Layout from Default to the custom one you just made with the same name.
image.jpg
Now when you go through and adjust all your columns to be "just right", it will remember and not associate it with any others. I had to do this many times a day for the past week when this but showed up for me, and today was hopefully the last time!

4. You might want to check this thread to make sure your stock and futures market data settings are updated in light of whatever exchange annoyance required IB to pay more for non-snapshot data feeds.

Good luck and happy trading!
 
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I'm not sure why I didn't see this in my main TWS, but in the API account, I had an issue similar to the unwanted Key column, only this time it was called Ticker Action. It's for the snapshot refresh on a quote row (rather than an order row) if you're not subscribed to all the feeds that make up the BBO due to the recent data service changes.

Unlike Key, this one does not appear in the list of Shown Columns, so you can't move it that way. However you can grab the column and move it manually off the right side of your screen. Yes, you won't see the snapshot refresh icon, but I'm taking my chances on that and trying to get my market data subscriptions fixed so that's not an issue.

When you move it, it will give you a choice to move both the Ticker Action column header as well as whatever the order row field is under it. You probably only want to move the Ticker Action column. Here's what it looks like.
image.jpg

I think I've finally get everything more or less back to how it was on Friday, although the new build still seems a tiny bit less snappy / responsive than it was before at least for my setup and system.
 
I did your separate layout of each page nonsense (and having to do that IS nonsense) on my own , before you posted the idea, as a last ditch effort to bypass the INHERENT bugs IB should be fixing.

As you are no doubt aware, this now means if you have 10 or more pages , and you want to add/delete a column or modify it any other way

YOU HAVE TO CHANGE IT ON EVERY FREAKING LAYOUT
10X or more times the WORK

Sorry, but it's not a good solution to the bug, though it beats F%^%ing with column every day.
 
TWS has updated a few times since this past weekend, presumably minor changes or bug fixes. Anyway, the annoying thing I notice is that my graphics memory (#1 above) keeps reverting. Reading tws.vmoptions more carefully this time, I realize that where in that file you set the graphics memory amount determines if you want it kept if there's an update.

So look at the bottom of the file and there's a line that says "### keep on update" and the instructions say things below that marker won't be changed. So I moved the java heap line below it ("-Xmx2G") and hopefully this will be the last time I have to tweak the vmoptions file.
 
SoesWasBetter said:
Had no luck EVEN with that followed a few times. So don't be shocked.
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Thanks. Next time it happens I'll write a shell script to check that file and do the replacement before running the TWS executable. I've got enough to do work for trading without doing menial things repeatedly, especially if they can be easily automated.
 
TWS stable updated today and my memory settings were indeed preserved automatically after I moved them as described above. Aside from the downloading of the new files and restarting TWS once in order to get logged in, there were no obvious changes or issues reverting.
 
MoreLeverage said:
I'm not sure why I didn't see this in my main TWS, but in the API account, I had an issue similar to the unwanted Key column, only this time it was called Ticker Action. It's for the snapshot refresh on a quote row (rather than an order row) if you're not subscribed to all the feeds that make up the BBO due to the recent data service changes.
More...

I just updated my TWS from some 94x version to the latest offline version. Ticker Action is one of the options under Global Configuration --> Trading Tools --> Quote Monitor --> Default Layout, Market Data Columns tab under the Financial Instrument Description category. I was able to move it around where I wanted that way instead of letting TWS jam it into my line where it decided. Is there a way to add separators in the Market Data Columns (there is <Separator> in the Order Columns, but I can't find it in the Market Data Columns)?

Another thing I noticed is that now when I switch between tabs, there is an enclosing window that shows the title of the active tab. Is there anyway to make this window header disappear? In previous versions of TWS, it did not exist.

I appreciate the advice on this thread - it has been helpful! Thanks!
 
sprstpd said:
Another thing I noticed is that now when I switch between tabs, there is an enclosing window that shows the title of the active tab. Is there anyway to make this window header disappear? In previous versions of TWS, it did not exist.
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Yeah, I remember when that showed up. Seems like a waste of a row, but i didn't figure out any way to get rid of it. Incidentally, the wrench on the far right side of that top row takes you to configuring the column layout for the Quote Monitor. Speaking of which,

sprstpd said:
is there a way to add separators in the Market Data Columns (there is <Separator> in the Order Columns, but I can't find it in the Market Data Columns)?
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There aren't separators for those. I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do in terms of layout, but I think you can probably accomplish it by some combination of adjusting the market data column widths and/or text alignkent, and adding separators if necessary in the order columns.
 
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