IB new forex spreads

Quote from paradox:

Steve_IB:

I sometimes use the IB mobile trader.
It's solid, but is starting to show its age. It hasn't been updated in over a year. Any chance of an update to take
advantage of the more powerful PDAs and greater bandwidths to add some more features? (charts, configurable quote sheet, etc.)

In the forex land, metatrader mobile trader is pretty good example.
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paradox,
I don't know of any plans to enhance mobile trader, it's only really offered as back-up rather than as a primary means of trading.
Have you tried the webtrader? I tried it on a Sony P900 with Opera about one year ago and it worked well. That gives you configurable quote sheets.
 
Quote from MiamiHurricanes:

Summary of IDEAL Pro FX II

- Meant to add the ability to bid or offer anywhere.

- Have not tested the robustness of stop orders, but I am skeptical. While no firm guarantees stops, there are brokers out there that de facto do.

- I do not understand how having some PDA/mobile telephone access is in any way a substitute for computer based access. Talk about slow...

- There is a giant difference between an FX dealer and someone on the trading desk for all market/securities.

- Trade ID's are for audit purposes, record keeping and problems associated with trades.

- I see the report option now. thanks.

- Never a response on the P&L. I know the calculations are very difficult...
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- Stop orders work fine. But are triggered off of the bid and offer prices rather than the last trading price. No broker is going to guarantee a stop, and if they do then they will not be around for very long. (Brokers that advertise this, usually have small print which gets them out of it).

- My PDA/mobile trader solution was provided as an alternative to telephoning the trade desk to open a position, not as a substitute for the TWS and a computer!!

- I beg to disagree about the difference in dealers. Taking an order is not rocket science. "Buy $100,000 USD verus Yen at market" is no harder to do than "Buy 10 Nikkei September futures at market". Why would having specialised FX order takers make any difference?

-P&L is coming...
At the moment, I use an excel spreadsheet and the API. (See attached file, it will need some tweaking to work on another account).
 

Attachments

I tried webtrader with the internet explorer that comes with windows mobile 2003, but I had problems with the site displaying properly. Never thought to give opera mobile a try -- I'll give it a shot. Do you simply fake it out as I.E.6?

[Edit: Looks like opera mobile for PPC is not available yet ]

Quote from Steve_IB:

paradox,
I don't know of any plans to enhance mobile trader, it's only really offered as back-up rather than as a primary means of trading.
Have you tried the webtrader? I tried it on a Sony P900 with Opera about one year ago and it worked well. That gives you configurable quote sheets.
More...
 
Trading ///
- There are times where market orders take on the order of 10-30 seconds to fill. These are market orders which are well within the displayed bid or offer size.
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Miami,

Can you elaborate on this a bit? NBBO posted something similar on slow market order fills in a prior thread. As far as I know using a LMT order is the solution to the slow MKT order problem. Is this slowness that you experienced with the IB simulated market order or with a limit order? Also, is the slowness a fill slowness or a reporting slowness?

And have you experienced the problem Kicking has complained about re: a fill not being given for a marketable limit order? I wonder how that situation was resolved?

I'm looking to get into this IdealPro market as the 1-2 pip EUR/USD spread with size is very attractive right now and the other recent changes (liquidity providers, margins, hours expanded, commissions lowered) have been a big improvement. IB reps have stated that the posted quote will be honored. I need to rely on this in order for my strategies to work out with IdealPro, thus the concern on my part.

And Steve, thanks for all the replies on these IdealPro threads. You're the best salesman IB has for IdealPro. Same goes for def.
 
Quote from pipscooper:

Miami,

Can you elaborate on this a bit? NBBO posted something similar on slow market order fills in a prior thread. As far as I know using a LMT order is the solution to the slow MKT order problem. Is this slowness that you experienced with the IB simulated market order or with a limit order? Also, is the slowness a fill slowness or a reporting slowness?

And have you experienced the problem Kicking has complained about re: a fill not being given for a marketable limit order? I wonder how that situation was resolved?
More...

I really don't know what the difference to a customer is on whether the trade execution is slow or reported slow. Either way an order is sent and one does not know whether there is an execution or not when there should be. Not knowing your position in the market is a huge risk.

Market or limit should not matter if you are taking the offer or hitting a bid.

Multiple times I have sent market and limit orders taking/hitting and am left with a considerable wait and with my order not being displayed...
 
Quote from Steve_IB:

MH: In response to your post:


System Access Limitations.
- The daily server reset is no more - it's only about 5 minutes. This went into effect on Monday. We will be announcing this shortly.
=-Hours - we will be going to 23.5 hours a day very soon. You can always trade the futures if you really need to trade in that break.
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Well this is good news! So you are saying there will be no shutdown at night?!?!? Make sure you let us know the new rules.

I have only been a customer of IB for about 3-1/2 months (been trading 10 years). The forex offering is competitive and getting better all the time. Don't let the size fool you. You can take it out and it will be replaced. IMO, the spreads on some of the crosses are as tight as you are going to find. The only complaint (and I expressed it on a thread here) is keeping track of positions and pnl --per position. I have been assured that they are working on this and I have NO reason to disbelieve them.
 
Quote from MiamiHurricanes:

I really don't know what the difference to a customer is on whether the trade execution is slow or reported slow. Either way an order is sent and one does not know whether there is an execution or not when there should be. Not knowing your position in the market is a huge risk.

Market or limit should not matter if you are taking the offer or hitting a bid.

Multiple times I have sent market and limit orders taking/hitting and am left with a considerable wait and with my order not being displayed...
More...

Thanks. Yes knowing position is crucial.

You might want to check out this thread on the slow MKT order problem if you haven't seen it already, particularly the comments by Mr NBBO:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48040&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
 
Could one of the IB reps answer this question on the FX platform? I have an insitutional account that I sometimes use for futures. 99% of my trading is FX but I have never used IB for this. On the link in the post above, someone from IB confirmed it can take 3 seconds for an order to be processed - is this still the case? If it is, I assume that if the market has moved then the trade will not be accepted?
 
unless its a "fast market" or you lose your internet connection or some other glitch

if you click on the bid to sell or offer to buy

your execution is "done" ... within a fraction of a second

( anyway ... thats been my experience )
 
Thanks for your answer. I dare say I am just going to have to try it for myself - most of my trading is probably carried out in fast markets!
 
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