IB Suggestions & Improvements

B

Babak

A long time ago I started a thread where we could give IB feedback with which to improve the TWS. Since then, IB has come a long, long way (who could imagine charts?). Maybe its time to start another thread along the same lines.

Please let us know if you have any ideas on how IB can improve anything they offer TWS, website, design, etc. With one condition...I do NOT intend for this to be a bitch session about IB.

If you have a problem or complaint, get in touch with them directly or start another thread please.

ok, I'll start....

re graphs, a lot of screen real estate is lost (margins, top and bottom symbol titles, mkt data line, etc.) I suggest they free up this space and push the graph to be as big as possible within the window. Also improce the crispness of the bars/candles - or is that just me?

re mkt scanner page: give us some flexibility re filtering (a lot of times merger news is announced and a stock will gap up and stay there - not really useful). As well, take a page from hottrend's book and give us two additional pieces of info, when symbol first came up on scan and how long it has been sitting there since it did (cumulative minutes/seconds). That's very useful as it would make new ones stand out more.
 
Quote from Babak:

ok, I'll start....

re graphs, a lot of screen real estate is lost (margins, top and bottom symbol titles, mkt data line, etc.) I suggest they free up this space and push the graph to be as big as possible within the window. Also improve the crispness of the bars/candles - or is that just me?
More...

No, its not just you. IB has made progress with charts with the latest TWS....but ..... I agree with the two items you mentioned. It would be a BIG help to implement your suggestions asap.

......... rj
 
Quote from Babak:

A long time ago I started a thread where we could give IB feedback with which to improve the TWS. Since then, IB has come a long, long way (who could imagine charts?). Maybe its time to start another thread along the same lines.

Please let us know if you have any ideas on how IB can improve anything they offer TWS, website, design, etc. With one condition...I do NOT intend for this to be a bitch session about IB.

If you have a problem or complaint, get in touch with them directly or start another thread please.

ok, I'll start....

re graphs, a lot of screen real estate is lost (margins, top and bottom symbol titles, mkt data line, etc.) I suggest they free up this space and push the graph to be as big as possible within the window. Also improce the crispness of the bars/candles - or is that just me?

re mkt scanner page: give us some flexibility re filtering (a lot of times merger news is announced and a stock will gap up and stay there - not really useful). As well, take a page from hottrend's book and give us two additional pieces of info, when symbol first came up on scan and how long it has been sitting there since it did (cumulative minutes/seconds). That's very useful as it would make new ones stand out more.
More...





my general suggestion is that people post suggestions to improve the tws no
matter how unseemly small the improvement is. it all adds up to make
trading more profitable.
 
Get rid of the charts all together or at least offer a version of TWS that is lean and mean. I use to think TWS required to much memory back in the 30mb's of memory days, now it's way over the top. If you run TWS with a few other app's you need a friggin Cray for everything to run smoothly. Less is more!
 
I'd like to be able to click on a bid size and get a sell order line with the size as the bid size. Comparable functionality for the ask size. Right now you get the default size, which takes time to adjust if you just want to take everything at the B/A.
 
First, Let me thanks IB for their great product and decent customer service.

1) I would like an intra-day chart with my default settings to pop up on the screen when I double-click a symbol, say, IBM in the symbol column.

2) I would like TWS to send me an alert whenever a stock in my "shorting list" becomes available for shorting. Missed too many opportunities to short due to non-availability. Tired of checking again and again during the day, hoping someone would have released it, etc.

3) This one I'm not sure IB is in the business of providing various filters to scan intra-day for trading opportunity. Hey, IB can charge fo that. 50% of the challenge is to find real-time stock ideas to trade. Like rallying for the past 5 minutes with big volume, wide range bar, sudden reversal, etc.

Thanks again IB for the great product.
 
Quote from zdreg:

my general suggestion is that people post suggestions to improve the tws no
matter how unseemly small the improvement is. it all adds up to make
trading more profitable.
More...

I agree, the caveat I mentioned was so that it wouldn't deteriorate into a bashing thread.

Some great ideas so far guys. Please keep them coming (I esp. like the double click to get graph).

Another suggestion would be to implement some of BracketTrader's functionalities. I'm having difficulty in completely understanding BT's capabilities as the website for it is rather limited and doesn't provide a screen (that last more than a few seconds). I think the trade management menu is useful. It would be of little help to scalpers but for swing/position traders it would be handy.

Yet another idea would be to implement some sort of graphical based order entry (click to buy/sell). Dare we dream?
 
I have a few requests:

1. Keyboard short-cuts don't work well. For instance: I used to be able to use SPACE to transmit. Now, depending on which cell is active, SPACE move the focus on cell to the left or right

2. More quotes: I wouldn't mind paying for another 100 quotes.

3. Better visual indication regarding the connectivity: I'd like a simple visual set of "bars" in the status bars indicating connectivity to exchanges of my choice. For instance if there is a problem with either quotes or orders to NYSE, I'd like a visual indication letting me know.

Other observation:
a. Charts: large amounts of wasted space and not very flexible. I'm therefore not currently using Charts.
 
I think we should be able to customize the charts. For instance, I would like to be able to automatically pull up a chart with a template on it every time I click a symbol. Another thing, the templates are complicated to put on the charts. Normally, you would just click the template you want --with IB you have to go through extra steps. I have yet to figure it out (although I have not tried all that much).

I would like to able to customize and save settings for each indicator. Another thing, we should able to vary the price grid on the chart from the left to the right. I have been trading for 10 years with it on the right. It would be nice to be able to manipulate the bar spacing and chart/indicator colors.

I will have to think some more. But Ib has come quite a ways in a short amount of time on the charting. I have been around long enough to see worse charting than IB.
 
I would find it especially helpful if the orders executed during the day could still be seen after 4pm. in your view account section. Presently they are not visible after 4p.m.
This would give one a chance to print the days activity accurately. ie - it would be helpful if it expired as does day working orders after 8pm- as this would help with my accounting.
Also show all orders executed for the day as presently if you exit a position and no longer hold a position in that stock or option your activity does not show any longer in the view account section and it takes time and is an accounting night mare to confirm and match all trades.

w
 
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