IB TWS: A tragedy in the making?

[kiwi_trader]

One of our esteemed members informs me that TWS 890.6 which has been giving a number of us sterling service for some months will be scrapped late this month.

Damn and blast it. Now I have the task of finding another good TWS. I've got the last versions of 893, 894 and 895 and I see 897 and 898 are on the website now.

So what should I choose. What will save me from bugs? Please assist by voting for something worth installing.

 

[r2d2]

kiwi, I'd invite your views on the following suggestion.

How about a TWS Lite version along the lines of CQG Trader?

http://www.cqg.com/Products/CQG-Trader.aspx

I wonder if many IB customers would welcome a TWS version which is execution-oriented and without technical analysis tools. It has been suggested that turning off charting may reduce the risk of quote freezes.

Once TWS Lite becomes ready, all future iterations should be strictly limited to bug-fixing (save in special circumstances). Hopefully, no more "enhancements" or new features would mean fewer and fewer bugs.

Naturally, TWS Lite should still allow the use of third-party tools like ButtonTrader, SierraChart, NinjaTrader, etc.

Since time is of the essence, we'd need to start an IB features poll requesting TWS Lite ASAP. If there's enough support, I'd be happy to do it.

An off-the-wall idea is to begin with TWS 890.6 (minus technical analysis tools). Since it may be very difficult to agree on what feature set TWS Lite should have, 890.6 seems like a possible starting point.

One last thing. All supported versions of TWS Lite should be available for download at all times, unlike the current TWS.

 

[learner2007]

Quote from kiwi_trader:

One of our esteemed members informs me that TWS 890.6 which has been giving a number of us sterling service for some months will be scrapped late this month.

Damn and blast it. Now I have the task of finding another good TWS. I've got the last versions of 893, 894 and 895 and I see 897 and 898 are on the website now.

So what should I choose. What will save me from bugs? Please assist by voting for something worth installing.

>kiwi

Guess your sources are correct, but I've always heard that the versions have a life of 1 year. I'm (happily ) using 888.3 dated Oct. '08. Expecting it to be phased out shortly I was planning to install 890.6 which I have stored away. Maybe they changed the 1 year lifespan policy. Sure hope not as anything from 891 on will drive you crazy if you use BookTrader reduced to a small size to save screen space. The Bids/Asks will constantly run thru the borders and out of sight , so you will spend half your day clicking the re-center button. Love BT, but not from 891 on.
I do have 896.5 on one computer that I sometimes use for paper trading. I could never use it for actual trading due to the BT problem mentioned above. However, I can't say that I find it that buggy. Other than the charts being useless, it seem to perform fairly well.

 

[kiwi_trader]

According to my source 893 will be the oldest version still supported.

Someone who I trust just told me that hes been using the latest version and the latest beta for a while without significant issues. His recommendation is to use the latest version ... but as always to download, wait a couple of days to make sure there are no show stoppers (complaints) and then install it. He pushes the envelope a lot further than I do with scale trader and accumulate distribute so I'm guessing that the stuff I use is fine.

So that is the approach I will probably take.


PS> Yes I would like a TWS light although I'd also be surprised if it happened

 

[cstfx]

kiwi's bitching about IB?

Has Hell Frozen over?

 

[Wayne Gibbous]

I have been using 895.3 for months. Works ok for me.

 

[rwk]

I'm on 887.2 (8/26/2008), and a bit apprehensive about the upgrade.

BTW, I have been an IB customer for about 7 years now. Every few months someone tries to drum up support for a light version. I think hell will freeze over before it happens.

 

[vikana]

I'm on 897.8 and it's been solid except for one strange issue.

I use multiple TWSs logged into the same account. Sometimes the 2nd TWS loses quotes of the first one is very busy. I doesn't recover. I don't use the quotes, so it's mostly an annoyance. Logging out and back in fixes it.

When i just have one TWS per account, it works well.

 

[learner2007]

Quote from rwk:

I'm on 887.2 (8/26/2008), and a bit apprehensive about the upgrade.

I get the feeling there are quite a few IB customers who feel the same.

I wonder how difficult it would be for IB to leave or provide even just one old version, be it standalone or browser, for those of us who would really be happier and satisfied using such. Guess it would take a bunch of requests here for IB to take notice and possibly consider doing so. Maybe someone could create such a poll. I would if I knew how and was good at doing that type of thing. Kiwi??

 

[rwk]

Quote from learner2007:
I wonder how difficult it would be for IB to leave or provide even just one old version, be it standalone or browser, for those of us who would really be happier and satisfied using such. . .

It's my understanding that the mandatory upgrades are done for technical reasons that are internal to the software. I don't fault IB for the forced upgrades, but I want to be sure there is a stable version I can use. They frequently have severe quality problems, and they keep making cosmetic changes, and adding useless features, that make it harder for us old timers.