IB Improvements (Part 2)

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def,

"After that next on the agenda looks to be the ability to trade multiple accounts via one workstation"

Multiple accounts via one workstation is ok, it may benefit. But one single account, no matter via one workstation or several workstations, to trade all available "margined/leveraged" products will benefit greatly, too. The key point, to me, is the same risk capital for all derivatives, world-wide. Senario: I trade HK's Hang Seng, then Dax/EuroStoxx50/CAC40 fut&opt, and all-day-long Globex access for ES/NQ/Currency futures. This will be achieved by multi-currency futures account, and is most FCM's "normal" practice. If regulatory-permitted, US equity/index options. One further step, spot FX and currency options(note: currency options is a must otherwise the mere inclusion of FX will be less attractive) trading via these platforms as Atriax or FXall. Isn't it now the retail FX trading is regulated in US by CFTC? Well, now an all-in-one multi-currency "derivatives" account is born. To this point I'll be fully satisfied. No mention the inclusion of equities, a real all-in-one account, doesn't mean I'm against this. In fact I'm full-heartedly enbracing it. I'm only afraid that the regulation/settlement/clearing practice of equity markets will hurt the simplicity/flexibility/efficiency/beauty and cost down of the derivatives account. Otherwise, it's welcome.

This phrase from MAN Direct clearly describes what I want from IB:

"One Account
Use one grouped account for US or European futures, shares on margin, CFDs, equity options or forex."
 
My repeated request is to get the Stop order Algorithm changed or at least modified to have the option of having Stops elected on the Bid or Ask. I try to minimize my slippage to zero on every order. I know exactly where I want in or out so I can determine slippage. To guess the spread on a stock when it is elected for execution under a Stop order at IB is almost impossible, especially for NYSE stocks. Slippage is a killer if you trade intraday and it's taking $400 a day from you (20 trades x 400sh x .05 cents slippage). What happens when you place a buy Stop at $24 for DYN and the bid hits 24 but the ASK is spread up to $24.50? Ouch, thats .50 cents slippage to me! Sure you can use limit orders, but good luck ever getting filled trying to figure out how much room to give yourself on the spread vs. the election price.

Its also very hard when you trade S/R to put your election price slightly outside whole or key numbers. There is a tendency for everyone to place their stops in the same area, creating a bubble when they are hit. If you are first in line you might get a good fill, but 1 or 2 cents away and you get spread for 10 cents (NASD) because of multiple stops triggering. To play with precision you need to know on what penny you will be triggered. Also, if you place your stop too aggressively to save slippage, you may get filled before S/R is broken, and have the stock retreat the opposite direction.

If IB would make this change they'll approach perfection to me.:)
 
Any idea when we will be able to trade through other qoute providers (such as e-signal), or at least when will IB level2 quotes be configured for default amount of shares not the total shown (when I click on level 2 to bring up a trade, it brings up the total amount of shares shown instead of default amount like 1000 or 500 shares)?

Thanks,
shneed
 
Originally posted by mjt


How did you manage to do this? Do you have to know programming? Is it something peculiar to QCharts, or can you do this with any quoting package? I would love to have the option of trading from a level 2 box.
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You should be able to do this with any quote package that provides an API to communicate trade information. QCharts uses application specific window messages to send trade information. So the only thing you have to do is register those messages and set up a handler for them which performs format translation and then submits the order on a DDE advise loop to TWS. Doesn't take a lot in terms of programming knowledge. Some C++ experience and a basic knowledge of the relevant Win32 APIs and MFC will do.

Drop me an email if you want a copy of the program.

Dave
 
Is the new Sound Manager actually working for anyone to play a WAV file on executions? I'm not getting any sound at all. And what's even worse, TWS won't let you revert back to the system beep because the dialog refuses to save the modifications in that case. The only way to get the system beep back is to go into the account's user.ini and manually delete the whole [Sound Manager] section.

Dave
 
in a bit of a rush so sorry about the lack of detail:

Active X: It should be released on the beta today.

The addition of activeX may allow other firms to write programs to route to IB. I'm not sure about this one but I think it opens the door.

Multi-accounts/1 screen: They should work as you like. The reason you will need multiple accounts would be to seperate commodities and/or stocks per regulations. Perhaps something will be done to link them but in the end, you should be able to trade via one currency and use those funds for margin around the world. This already exists for equities. e.g. Last week in my US equities USD account I bought and sold some euro demominated stocks on eurex. It was seemless. The same should be the case once the commodities are added.

stops - you'll have to make the request to ibmgt. I believe the issue is to protect from bad triggers. If you make a good case, perhaps they will reconsider.

sound: i'll point it out to programming.

hope i got to all the questions/comments.
 
Def,

I've got sound to work in the meantime. It seems that Sound Manager is quite selective in what WAV files it will play. There's also some files that don't produce any audible result unless the repeat count is set to 2 or 3. In addition the counterintuitive user interface logic with both the Apply and Close button needing to be pressed for changes to stick had tripped me up at first.

Dave
 
Originally posted by SciTrader

...
Multiple accounts via one workstation is ok, it may benefit. But one single account, no matter via one workstation or several workstations, to trade all available "margined/leveraged" products will benefit greatly, too. The key point, to me, is the same risk capital for all derivatives, world-wide.
...
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While I, too, would like to replace my current 4 accounts with 1, there is a problem there if you have open option positions. The account in which I keep such positions used to be routinely frozen until shortly before the US market open, showing null in the account window because the system could/would not value the positions. This cost me a fortune in pre-market trading profits until I realized what caused it and opened a second account.

Also, I like the idea of compartmentalizing capital in case something bad happens (like I die) when I don't have a stop in place. Being sold out of 15% of my capital instead of losing most of it to a terrorist-attack-driven crash certainly lets me sleep easier at night. Also, it keeps me from violating self-imposed position limits that I might violate if I had access to additional money from the other accounts. The inefficiency is something I've just gotten used to.

What I really would like to see is multiple workstations being able to access one account at the same time. I have two separate net connections for redundancy and it would be nice to be able to hit "cancel all" from a second TWS that's already logged in if the primary one dies, instead of having to wait for it to log in and initialize. Not to mention the ticker limit on the current Excel implementation.
 
Originally posted by ddefina

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To guess the spread on a stock when it is elected for execution under a Stop order at IB is almost impossible, especially for NYSE stocks. Slippage is a killer if you trade intraday and it's taking $400 a day from you (20 trades x 400sh x .05 cents slippage). What happens when you place a buy Stop at $24 for DYN and the bid hits 24 but the ASK is spread up to $24.50? Ouch, thats .50 cents slippage to me!
...
If IB would make this change they'll approach perfection to me.:)
More...

ddefina,

I posted a similar topic about the crazy IB stops a bit ago, and was shown the link below which shows that the stops for NYSE and AMEX are triggered differently than those for the Nasdaq. They are "simulated last price stop orders", so I believe they get triggered when the stock trades at or beyond your stop price.

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/html/retailAccount/products.html

Now we already know about IB's "simulated 2 price bid/offer stop order". So why can't they use the "simulated last price stop orders" for Nasdaq? Must be because of those wacky ECN trades that occasionally take place outside the National Best Bid/Offer (NBBO) and therefore would create those false stop triggers. But I would think that would be relatively easy to fix -- for a stop to be triggered on Nasdaq, the trade must take place at or inside the NBBO.

And I totally agree with you about that change in stop algorithm bringing them pretty close to perfection!

Are there enough users of IB out there who are not satisfied with IB's stop algorithm on Nasdaq? We can come up with a form letter (ddefina already has a good start on his post), post it on here, and we can each send it to IB management. If we have enough folks to complain about it and therefore stuff up their email box with big volume, I'm sure they'll give it serious consideration.

Def <-- is there a specific email address for IB management which will be most effective?? Thanks.
 
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