IB Figure yourself out with TWS so many easily fixable errors.

[themickey]

I'm guessing what's happened with IB, is, they started off with good intentions.
Over the course of time the software became so large and bloated it turned into a monster.
The original team of designers no longer work at IB, there has been a turnover of staff.
When the original core team departed, it threw a huge workload onto the remaining staff.
Those staff left to cope with the monster have become demoralized and are out of their depth, overworked, maybe under paid.
My opinion re IB, it should never have been one platform/software to cope with all the facets of trading, it should have been created as modules, each dedicated or specialized to its own expertise, eg options, futures, stocks etc.

 

[Chubbly]

I am with Max E Pad on this since I also use a bunch of brokers. The IB charting needs a plotted intra-day & multi-day VWAP to be in the same leauge as your competitors. It would also be nice to be able to see more than a year of futures historical chart data. Any why are your margins on IRA's so high? On TDA my Roth initial overnight margin on the NQ is $5,297 - on IB it is $20,000.

I agree with this. I just wish they would fix the broken margin calculators. I started a thread showing some even more insane margins than this example.

https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-ib-margin-calculator-and-support-are.306919/

 

[Max E.]

Cut and paste it but tone it down a bit.

Guess they didnt like my tone, no response whatsoever from IB.

 

[Max E.]

I'm guessing what's happened with IB, is, they started off with good intentions.
Over the course of time the software became so large and bloated it turned into a monster.
The original team of designers no longer work at IB, there has been a turnover of staff.
When the original core team departed, it threw a huge workload onto the remaining staff.
Those staff left to cope with the monster have become demoralized and are out of their depth, overworked, maybe under paid.
My opinion re IB, it should never have been one platform/software to cope with all the facets of trading, it should have been created as modules, each dedicated or specialized to its own expertise, eg options, futures, stocks etc.

So here is another easy out for IB if they wanted to hold on too day traders, why not allow traders to lease other professional software like Sterling or DAS, like so many other firms do. I would pay the 50-100 bucks i pay for entitlements through IB, plus the cost for the third party software vendor, plus entitlements on that if that is what they wanted, thats just a free 100 bucks a month then they dont even have to worry about it anymore.

I guarantee if they gave the option to use Sterling or DAS, thousands of traders would sign up, and pay to use it.

 

[Max E.]

Amen. IB is amazing in some ways. In other ways it is comical. If they would develop a front-end for active traders, they would attract a giant client base that can't use them currently for lack of speed and configurability.

The platform is slow.

Changing symbols is a nightmare. How many clicks or keyboard buttons should this really take? Lightspeed for example is symbol + enter. The way it should be.

Can't have more than 3 book traders up? I could use the regular level 2 if it let me keyboard trade through it.

And those keyboard shortcuts in the book trader are a joke.

Message to IB: want more traders and big commissions from active guys? Copy a true daytrader's platform like Lightspeed.

And consider being less strict on those margins. I use multiple brokers and stocks that are completely marginable at the others require 100% at IB sometimes. Maybe if you require that those "risky" stock positions be closed by EOD, you can make them be marginable.

Yeah their hot keys are a total joke, and point and click resets the price you want to buy at every time, and just flat out takes to long, so there really is no viable options on stocks that are quick most of the time i just stroke a bid/offer down like 10 ticks if im thinking about hitting the bid/offer based on a point where a stock is going to pick up speed, and then alot of the time by the time i load a second order to short or buy more the stock is already gone past the price im willing to buy/sell, and i dont want my default to be market orders, its frustrating that the price you bought/sold at keeps getting reset to blank on limits so you have to redo the process, when the software is already slower than shit to begin with.

 

[themickey]

So here is another easy out for IB if they wanted to hold on too day traders, why not allow traders to lease other professional software like Sterling or DAS, like so many other firms do. I would pay the 50-100 bucks i pay for entitlements through IB, plus the cost for the third party software vendor, plus entitlements on that if that is what they wanted, thats just a free 100 bucks a month then they dont even have to worry about it anymore.

I guarantee if they gave the option to use Sterling or DAS, thousands of traders would sign up, and pay to use it.

Well prolly because they are fighting so many fires on so many fronts their brains are fried and gone numb, they can now no longer think outside the square.
Sort of situation many get into when day trading or fighting in the ring with a Casius Clay (Muhammad) type.

 

[HobbyTrading]

So here is another easy out for IB if they wanted to hold on too day traders, why not allow traders to lease other professional software like Sterling or DAS, like so many other firms do. I would pay the 50-100 bucks i pay for entitlements through IB, plus the cost for the third party software vendor, plus entitlements on that if that is what they wanted, thats just a free 100 bucks a month then they dont even have to worry about it anymore.

I guarantee if they gave the option to use Sterling or DAS, thousands of traders would sign up, and pay to use it.

Do you mean this company: https://www.sterlingtradingtech.com/partners-and-global-trading-network/#bro ? They do list IB as possible broker.

 

[Max E.]

Do you mean this company: https://www.sterlingtradingtech.com/partners-and-global-trading-network/#bro ? They do list IB as possible broker.

Hmmmmmm, might have to look into that, the software was called Sterling Trader Pro, looks like they are the same, but i havent ever heard of anyone trading on Sterling through IB, so dont know how accurate that is. Might have to be a big wig to set up like that.

they had pretty piss poor charts, but way faster, than TWS, and having more than 5 charts on your screen didnt completely grind their software to a halt, and their hot keys are the best in the business, used to have all my F keys set up as buys and sells, then hit tab once to price, then hit tab once to size, then tab once to adjust how much you wanna show, it was awesome software when i was scalping size back in the day.

Plus they were very easy to use to send orders through excel.

 

[SoesWasBetter]

The lack of true vwap on the chart is perverse. Might be some perverts on the staff.

They have added 100 indicators that I could care less about, but somehow, never got around to displaying a vwap line on their charts.

1) The do have a working vwap column that displays the current vwap. You guys know this?

2) I get my vwap FREE (if you pay for it you're an idiot) from both TOS and Medved trader.

3) you can thank me

 

[Max E.]

Yeah it really is strange, the most commonly used indicator and they havent fixed it in almost a decade, I cant imagine they havent gotten an endless number of emails complaining about it.

I get my VWAP for free from freestockcharts.com, but you need silverlight and internet explorer, and the program used for it is just a hog, and it only displays one chart. I only use it to check where VWAP is once im already in a position.

I have 12 charts on one screen, 9 on another, then my 4 main focus charts, i really want to be able to lay out VWAP on all 12, and 9, cause then the old charts i leave up just to glance at, i know where they are in respect to VWAP, so i know if a bounce off the lows/highs that develops a trend could have potential if it is through VWAP, or if it looks overextended into the number, or its grinding right above or below the number and holding i use it as a support/resistance line

The point is the 21 charts i keep on my left hand screens arent my top plays just stuff thats currently running that i glance over at over at throughout the day, and take a trade on them once in a while if anything looks obvious based around VWAP, so i need the ability to make a whole chart layout with VWAP on it.

Are TOS and Medved, decent software that isnt too slow, that allows you to put a multichart layout up or can you just use them to look at 1 chart at a time?

The lack of true vwap on the chart is perverse. Might be some perverts on the staff.

They have added 100 indicators that I could care less about, but somehow, never got around to displaying a vwap line on their charts.

1) The do have a working vwap column that displays the current vwap. You guys know this?

2) I get my vwap FREE (if you pay for it you're an idiot) from both TOS and Medved trader.

3) you can thank me