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IB new forex spreads
- Thread starter oktiri
- Start date
Just an update on IdealPro: I've been trading EUR/USD on IdealPro on and off for the past couple months. The highlights:
Fast fills (using limit orders)
Fast quotes
Decent commission
*Great spreads* (for EUR/USD 1-2 pips, often a better deal than trading the EUR futures. In fast markets it is a steady 2 pips, only rarely 3-4 when volatility is extreme - less than 1% of the time)
Great support from Steve and def in this forum
Decent leverage
Ability to split the bid/ask spread (come trade with me guys)
I rate it a very good product. Some of you who experienced the stale quote problem will want to know that it has been fixed.
*Insured accounts* and IB is a company with a good balance sheet.
23.5 hours trading daily - less a few minutes during the midnight outage when IB's servers are resetting.
Very good liquidity (usually 4 -15 million bid/ask on EUR/USD) At least half the time it is a 1 pip spread on this product.
With forex position / P&L reporting in TWS, knocking a bit off the top on the commissions, and allowing for cross margining between this product and the Globex currency futures, this product would be perfect. (I know that last one is a pipe dream but just thought I'd throw it in.)
Fast fills (using limit orders)
Fast quotes
Decent commission
*Great spreads* (for EUR/USD 1-2 pips, often a better deal than trading the EUR futures. In fast markets it is a steady 2 pips, only rarely 3-4 when volatility is extreme - less than 1% of the time)
Great support from Steve and def in this forum
Decent leverage
Ability to split the bid/ask spread (come trade with me guys)
I rate it a very good product. Some of you who experienced the stale quote problem will want to know that it has been fixed.
*Insured accounts* and IB is a company with a good balance sheet.
23.5 hours trading daily - less a few minutes during the midnight outage when IB's servers are resetting.
Very good liquidity (usually 4 -15 million bid/ask on EUR/USD) At least half the time it is a 1 pip spread on this product.
With forex position / P&L reporting in TWS, knocking a bit off the top on the commissions, and allowing for cross margining between this product and the Globex currency futures, this product would be perfect. (I know that last one is a pipe dream but just thought I'd throw it in.)
Quote from pipscooper:
23.5 hours trading daily - less a few minutes during the midnight outage when IB's servers are resetting.
Hi pipscooper,
I agree with you. Their FX offering is a great product. Better than any other FX product offered for a small player like myself.
Your comment though about system outage leaves me confused. Just in the past 2 days I have been going back and forth with IB help trying to understand what the outage times really are for general trading with IB. The rep tells me that the TWS remains down for the duration of the reset time, which can be as low as 1 minute. Great! But you don't get any data for at least 30 minutes. So you can trade, but you don't get any data?? I'm not sure how this works. How can you trade when you don't get any quotes?
Sounds like you are telling me otherwise here.... otherwise I don't see why you would include this in your good features list.
IB rep tells me no data for at least 30 mins but you can still trade after the reset.
If you can straighten me out here - I'd be grateful. I'm tearing my hair out trying to comprehend this, and trust me....there ain't that much more to pull out.
Kind regards,
MK
MidKnight,
One of IB's reps mentioned on the boards that they were phasing out the system restart time that used to take 45 mins or so.
From my observations and what one rep said: the restart time is 11:50 PM Eastern time. I set my auto logoff time to that time, then I reconnect. When I get back on quotes continue until about midnight. At about midnight Eastern quotes either freeze or go blank until approximately 12:06 AM Eastern. A TWS restart often brings quotes back online before that time. Quotes run continuously from that point on.
There is one other thing to watch out for. If you are collecting quotes, at about 12:10 AM Eastern on one of my accounts and about 12:30 AM on another account the purple *reconnect* lines come on the TWS for about a minute. After that time my TWS API program stops collecting quotes so I manually restart it.
From what I can tell they are still working on the restart - it has been getting smaller and smaller timewise for the past few weeks. I haven't seen an official announcement on this - just my first hand observations.
I have had some trades on, and have placed trades between 11:50 PM and 12:10 AM Eastern and it works. I am not usually actively trading at that time, however as the TWS is not 100% reliable during those times (sometimes quotes go out for a minute then come back on, sometimes have to restart TWS to get them to come back on).
One of IB's reps mentioned on the boards that they were phasing out the system restart time that used to take 45 mins or so.
From my observations and what one rep said: the restart time is 11:50 PM Eastern time. I set my auto logoff time to that time, then I reconnect. When I get back on quotes continue until about midnight. At about midnight Eastern quotes either freeze or go blank until approximately 12:06 AM Eastern. A TWS restart often brings quotes back online before that time. Quotes run continuously from that point on.
There is one other thing to watch out for. If you are collecting quotes, at about 12:10 AM Eastern on one of my accounts and about 12:30 AM on another account the purple *reconnect* lines come on the TWS for about a minute. After that time my TWS API program stops collecting quotes so I manually restart it.
From what I can tell they are still working on the restart - it has been getting smaller and smaller timewise for the past few weeks. I haven't seen an official announcement on this - just my first hand observations.
I have had some trades on, and have placed trades between 11:50 PM and 12:10 AM Eastern and it works. I am not usually actively trading at that time, however as the TWS is not 100% reliable during those times (sometimes quotes go out for a minute then come back on, sometimes have to restart TWS to get them to come back on).
Quote from MidKnight:
Hi pipscooper,
Your comment though about system outage leaves me confused. Just in the past 2 days I have been going back and forth with IB help trying to understand what the outage times really are for general trading with IB. The rep tells me that the TWS remains down for the duration of the reset time, which can be as low as 1 minute. Great! But you don't get any data for at least 30 minutes. So you can trade, but you don't get any data?? I'm not sure how this works. How can you trade when you don't get any quotes?
Sounds like you are telling me otherwise here.... otherwise I don't see why you would include this in your good features list.
IB rep tells me no data for at least 30 mins but you can still trade after the reset.
If you can straighten me out here - I'd be grateful. I'm tearing my hair out trying to comprehend this, and trust me....there ain't that much more to pull out.
Kind regards,
MK
Thanks for that information pipscooper. I'm really confused then. My TWS seems to be completely unavailable for a minimum of 30 minutes without allowing me to re-login. Just keeps re-trying and re-trying.
I saw what Steve_IB posted about this, and I have asked him for further clarification both on this board and in PM and never received any. Which is what led me to ask IB help desk.
Honestly, you have given me the best understanding so far - thank you.
Very frustrating, but I'll have to experiment more here.
Kind regards,
MK
I saw what Steve_IB posted about this, and I have asked him for further clarification both on this board and in PM and never received any. Which is what led me to ask IB help desk.
Honestly, you have given me the best understanding so far - thank you.
Very frustrating, but I'll have to experiment more here.
Kind regards,
MK
To add to the good info provided by pipscooper: TWS auto logoff time (Configure - Misc) can be set for any time of your choice. As far as I know, there is nothing special about midnight or thereabouts. Mine is set for 5:07 pm EST. Why?Quote from pipscooper:
MidKnight,
One of IB's reps mentioned on the boards that they were phasing out the system restart time that used to take 45 mins or so.
From my observations and what one rep said: the restart time is 11:50 PM Eastern time. I set my auto logoff time to that time, then I reconnect. When I get back on quotes continue until about midnight. At about midnight Eastern quotes either freeze or go blank until approximately 12:06 AM Eastern. A TWS restart often brings quotes back online before that time. Quotes run continuously from that point on.
There is one other thing to watch out for. If you are collecting quotes, at about 12:10 AM Eastern on one of my accounts and about 12:30 AM on another account the purple *reconnect* lines come on the TWS for about a minute. After that time my TWS API program stops collecting quotes so I manually restart it.
From what I can tell they are still working on the restart - it has been getting smaller and smaller timewise for the past few weeks. I haven't seen an official announcement on this - just my first hand observations.
I have had some trades on, and have placed trades between 11:50 PM and 12:10 AM Eastern and it works. I am not usually actively trading at that time, however as the TWS is not 100% reliable during those times (sometimes quotes go out for a minute then come back on, sometimes have to restart TWS to get them to come back on).
- it's the optimal time for me, as some time between 4:30 and 5 pm -- 2 minutes before that (Windows foreground-insistent) Java logoff window pops up at 5:02 -- I have already saved all reports and screen shots I need for the day;
- IDEAL Pro forex quotes are not available between 5 - 5:30 pm, so nothing is missed, e.g., for charts, by scheduling auto logoff during that interval;
- immediately after auto logoff I login back into TWS at 5:07 and hit "start" again on QuoteTracker, my API charting app. This is the only time in any 24-hour period that I have to manually launch and login into TWS.
The IB US server reset begins for me at midnight and is completed within a few minutes (3-6, typically). I believe this may vary slightly for different accounts. During that time, orders are still visible and live, but there are no live forex quotes.
The other auto reconnect mentioned above happens for me around 12:35 am and is completed within 1 minute. Ditto regarding orders and quotes.
http://www.dynaorder.com/3rdparties.asp
see TWSstart on this page. It will log TWS on automatically.
see TWSstart on this page. It will log TWS on automatically.
Where would you say its more efficient to trade a high volume black box module?
I have black box module and I can either trade it with IB getting a 2pip spread (pair is not important)
or on Currenex with also a 2pip spread (clearer marks up)
the systems trades high volume and basically can trade any time and trades 1-2 times a day
will i get better liquidity at Currenex ? or IB
I have black box module and I can either trade it with IB getting a 2pip spread (pair is not important)
or on Currenex with also a 2pip spread (clearer marks up)
the systems trades high volume and basically can trade any time and trades 1-2 times a day
will i get better liquidity at Currenex ? or IB