IB TWS shorting question...

R

risktaker

Most short positions going thru ok today except...there are a handful where i"m encountering a BLUE status order line along with a little part of the bar green (about 15% of the status bar is green and 80% is blue).

I suspect these are issues which are not available to borrow.

But there's no usual message saying they're not available.

Anybody else encountering this issue on TWS build 867.4?

Could it be some new feature?
 
So there won't be any more messages saying that a particular issue is not available to short and instead we'll get the order status bar colored dark blue and green? Actually, the last few minutes order status line was only showing dark blue and no green at all like in the morning. Now I'm confused...what color means what when shorting?

Quote from dst:

Yes, this is a new feature - however with your mouse over blue/green indicator in status column to get more information on what's going on.
More...
 
IB Rep,

The night before, using the api, I used to recognize the "insufficient shares" message and progressively enter smaller orders until I reached the number available. Now, as far as I can tell, the api does not provide any method of doing this. In fact the api cannot even tell when there is a borrow problem since the status returned is the same for both unable to borrow and for the able to borrow orders.

I sometimes enter 100 orders the night before. I don't want to handle them manually and I want to cancel them if completely unable to borrow.

How do I use the api to recognize the unable to borrow?
 
Quote from fbell50:

IB Rep,

The night before, using the api, I used to recognize the "insufficient shares" message and progressively enter smaller orders until I reached the number available. Now, as far as I can tell, the api does not provide any method of doing this. In fact the api cannot even tell when there is a borrow problem since the status returned is the same for both unable to borrow and for the able to borrow orders.

I sometimes enter 100 orders the night before. I don't want to handle them manually and I want to cancel them if completely unable to borrow.

How do I use the api to recognize the unable to borrow?
More...
This is a great question.

Obviously any Pro Trader using the API...
Would want to know if a stock is shortable and how much available.

Is there a way ???

Or do people have to code bandwidth hogging kludges...
Like sending many "probing orders" away from the market...
In order to see if a short order will be accepted.
 
IB short behavior continues to be all over the map. Last night I had two orders rejected as unable to borrow. Supposedly this should no longer occur. This morning I had orders with the new split blue/green status bar that indicates unable to borrow.

I also have an order with a solid green bar that reports itself submitted to my monitoring program but shows a “T” in the transmit bar indicating it has not been transmitted. This order was originally transmitted and it is my understanding that this should not be possible. An order that has a green status should be working, but this one is not. If it was it would have been filled.

If you are going to use IB for shorting then it is necessary to check all positions manually. At this point I am not confident that even shorts with green status and no “T” in the transmit bar are working.

This combined with the inability to place NYSE RTH limit orders that are guaranteed to participate in the opening cross has persuaded me to check out the competition.
 
Quote from fbell50:

This combined with the inability to place NYSE RTH limit orders that are guaranteed to participate in the opening cross has persuaded me to check out the competition.
More...

Why do you believe this is not possible?

If you place a limit order at NYSE, you are guaranteed a fill if the opening print is thru your limit price. What is the problem?
 
Quote from jimrockford:

Why do you believe this is not possible?

If you place a limit order at NYSE, you are guaranteed a fill if the opening print is thru your limit price. What is the problem?
More...

For the past 4 weeks about half of my limit orders submitted using SMART + RTH + pre-open re-route have executed after the open and half on the open. I realize I could direct route it but then I'd have to enter the orders manually to keep the unbundled commission rate. Smart routes the orders between 9:25 and 9:27 which I understand is enough to guarantee participation in the opening cross.

One help rep said I was only guaranteed participation if orders submitted with "on open" tif. I have escalated it and have a number to call the next time it happens so that they can determine exactly what is happening. I've been waiting for an instance where the fill is worse than the open. I did have one where I got a slightly better fill but didn't think I could push the issue without showing some damage.

I'm a bit frustrated. It was working well for several months, then boom and no one knows what is going on. My account is a guinea pig and I expect diagnosing the problem to be expensive.

You did remind me that I could direct route the orders. I've learned that orders submitted but not transmitted via the api, can be transmitted via TWS under the unbundled rates. So I could submit them via the api and then use the transmit page option.
 
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