IB TWS w/QT, yer basic dummy here has 12 questions

M

mr simpleton

hi guys :)

I'm an active trader. I use IB, with the QT interface.

my present acct is 'sub25K' in size, but is a margin acct. so I _can_ short stocks in this acct? (I shorted stuff in the past frequently, with datek, but my acct was vastly larger then).

to keep outside the PDT rule, I need to make less than 4 daytades, in what, per month? week? day?

also, if I buy a stock today and sell tomorrow, even if I buy today at say 7 PM eastern, and sell@say 8:15 AM tomorrow, that's NOT technically a daytrade, correct? no matter how MANY of these I do per day/week/month, right?

where, if anywhere, on the IB 'resident' TWS app, can I find a listing of trades made in earlier days or weeks, trade by trade?

also, where can I find, hopefully, an itemized list of all trades-related _fees_ charged to my account, per trade, or per day, or 'otherwise'?

what does "vwap" stand for, as in IB charges ".02/share for stocks - vwap"?

when I elect "close all" (in one of the TWS menu's, I think) I assume it means "sell all my longs at the current bid & cover all my shorts at the current ask' or, in other words, "go to all cash/flat" is that correct? or would I be selling my longs "at mkt" and covering "at market"? or is 'that difference' electable by the user?

In QT, I find the 'acct' window amazingly confusing - there's roughly 45 or so headings in there. is there anywhere I can read a real world definition of what all the headings in that window mean, hopefully "in plain english" Mr SImpleton can comprehend? <ps-the QT "help" menu gets me nowhere with this quest....>

I read somewhere, I think, that IB charges extra per share per trade for shares of stocks bought/sold IF the shares are under $5.00 per share (or was it $10/share?). is this correct, or is the 'trade cost per share' entirely UNrelated to the share price? (not asking about 'marginability' here)

also, I'm DYING to know: can I trade so-called "OB" and canadian stocks with IB? if so, what symbol suffix or prefix do I need to 'type into' QT to watch the price action? or where can mr simpleton find that info? ;-)

also, I make this assumption: IF I can type in a symbol into the QT list _and_ the ticker price starts displaying/changing during the trading day, I can safely assume that I 'can' trade that stock thru IB, correct? and if not, not? or?

"dot OB" and 'pink sheet' and other (foreign/canadian etc) stocks all trade at the same 'fees per share' as US tickers? or can't Mr Simpy here trade pink sheets with IB?

is there a way to set the buy/limit window price to 'click upward or downward' arrowclicks by a penny at a time instead of a nickel or dime, like it seems to now?

bonus question: ;-) any hope the PDT rule's gonna be 'rescinded' soon?

thanks much to all :-)

mr newguy simpleton :D
 
VWAP - Volume-Weighted Average Price.
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/html/tradingInfo/orders/vwapOrders.html

"close all" - I believe that closes all positions at market

In QT, I find the 'acct' window amazingly confusing - there's roughly 45 or so headings in there.
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Select OPTIONS/WebUpdate menu. That should cut down that list drastically. If someone wants to suggest a different layout, such as the Account Info panel in this screen shot for MB Trading:
http://www.mbtrading.com/medved.htm

I would be glad to implement it.

(as for QT help - that does not cover such broker specific items)

There are no extra fees for stocks under $5.

Canadian symbols:
TSE:SYMBOL format. For example: TSE:NT

also, I make this assumption: IF I can type in a symbol into the QT list _and_ the ticker price starts displaying/changing during the trading day, I can safely assume that I 'can' trade that stock thru IB, correct? and if not, not? or?
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Well, your account would have to be enabled for trading the given exchange. You can go to IB web site and login to manage the account and check what you are enabled for.

"dot OB" - FYI - .OB is a suffix used by Yahoo for OTC:BB stocks. Most other sites do not use that symbol notation.

is there a way to set the buy/limit window price to 'click upward or downward' arrowclicks by a penny at a time instead of a nickel or dime, like it seems to now?
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Go to OPTIONS/Data Sources menu in QT. Click on TRADING tab. Select IB, then click on SPIN INCREMENTS sub tab. That lets you configure different increments for differently priced stocks

Note: in the latest version of QT, you can peg the price to bid/ask/last or an offset from one of those and QT will keep the price field updated automatically

Jerry Medved
http://www.quotetracker.com
 
my present acct is 'sub25K' in size, but is a margin acct. so I _can_ short stocks in this acct?

Yes you can short with less that 25K in a margin account.

to keep outside the PDT rule, I need to make less than 4 daytades, in what, per month? week? day?

Week.
 
thanks mr medved for your rapid reply :-)

if I may, a related question, to the entire forum: I'm in the habit of using limit orders to buy and sell, for yrs now. I'm under the impression, if, say, the current bid is, let's say 4.82, and I place an order to sell (and assuming the bid never changes in the meanwhile & that orders to sell by others are executing at the bid in the time and sales window) my offer to sell might execute at 4.82, or at, jeesh, even 4.75, or 4.60, right? I'm also under the impression that if I sell "at market", the MM pretty much buys my shares for "pretty much whatever he/she feels like paying at that point in time" correct? ("during market hours" here, I mean of course)

also, mr medved: you said "in the latest version of QT, you can peg the price to bid/ask/last or an offset from one of those and QT will keep the price field updated automatically" - does that 'auto updating' of the per share price you've mentioned happen in the 'trade now buy/sell' window, you mean? man, that _would_ be handy :-) (I _do_ understand that "portfolio value" can be updated in QT in the manner you've described.)

thanks also phoenix and north pesos :-)

related question: I've read here in these forums how IB has 'shut some traders accounts down entirely without warning for making too many 'daytrades' within some set time, sometimes closing the acc't of the trader, or 'freezing' it, with disastrous consequences to the trader, so I've been _very_ careful to watch my 'daytrades left' window. today, this window showed "one daytrade left" and I was in a long that was KILLING me = I needed "out", so I sold it. ok, fine. half an hour later, I wanted to open another 'long' in an entirely different stock, one I'd never traded before. filled out the order window/clicked "buy", but, got a black dialog box something like "error #XXX - possible pattern daytrade, undoable" (tried it twice to be sure & got same result). so, how does IB figure it's a 'possible pattern day trade' (round trip INside one day type trade) when mr simpleton had never _ever_ even _owned_ (bought _or_ sold) that stock before? this is, umm, hard for mr simpleton to comprehend - I've made easily high dozens, maybe low hundreds of trades with IB so far...but this is the first time I _ever_ got this strange dialog box...

so I should assume, then, that when the IB 'daytrades left' box tells me I have "1 daytrade left', it _really_ means there's NO daytrades left? or, more specifically, it means "well, mr simpleton, you _can_ make this one last trade, but after that your acc't is FROZEN for the balance of the week, and you won't be able to make ANY more trades till _next_ week'? I'm afraid I need some illumination on this one, guys... Thanks

even right now, I've got four open "longs" @ IB. does this 'mr simpleton is on warning/so no new buys' situation apply and mean I'm gonna rapidly find out tomorrow AM that I can't make _ANY_ more trades (buys OR sells) this week?

oh boy...

thanks again to all you guys,

mr simpleton :confused: :)
 
Quote from mr simpleton:

so I should assume, then, that when the IB 'daytrades left' box tells me I have "1 daytrade left', it _really_ means there's NO daytrades left? or, more specifically, it means "well, mr simpleton, you _can_ make this one last trade, but after that your acc't is FROZEN for the balance of the week, and you won't be able to make ANY more trades till _next_ week'? I'm afraid I need some illumination on this one, guys... Thanks

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It means that you can make one more daytrade without triggering PDT.

Note that you can make no more than 3 daytrades in a 5 BUSINESS DAY PERIOD, not a week. So if you make 3 daytrades on Friday the 1st, you have to sit out until Friday the 8th, NOT Monday the 4th. If somewhere between the 1st and the 8th is a holiday, you have to sit out until Monday the 11th.

Also note that while IB will prevent you from opening a new position after you have closed your third day trade, not before. As long as you have "daytrades remaining", you can open as many positions as you want, even if closing those positions would put you over the 3 daytrade limit (that's how I got in trouble).
 
Quote from mr simpleton:
thanks mr medved for your rapid reply :-)

also, mr medved: you said "in the latest version of QT, you can peg the price to bid/ask/last or an offset from one of those and QT will keep the price field updated automatically" - does that 'auto updating' of the per share price you've mentioned happen in the 'trade now buy/sell' window, you mean? man, that _would_ be handy :-) (I _do_ understand that "portfolio value" can be updated in QT in the manner you've described.)
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Yes, the field where you enter the price can be automatically updated with the most current quote so you don't have to keep adjusting the price in a fast moving market, so when you hit the buy/sell button whatever is in that field is sent to the broker. Here is a screen shot:

PricePeg.gif


Jerry Medved
http://www.quotetracker.com
 
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