IB's order handling dangerously screwed up since last Thursday

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dlincke

Since last Thursday IB's order handling of stocks seems to be majorly screwed up when it comes to handling partially executed orders. Is anyone else seeing this?

- If the limit price of a partially executed order is changed the system automatically decreases the size of that order on retransmission. If the prior partial execution was for a round lot the size is drecreased by 100 shares, if it was an odd lot it is decreased by that odd lot size. Manually readjusting order size doesn't help since the system immediately decreases the size again on retransmission. Example: An order for 1000 shares reveives a partial execution of 300 shares. Changing the price on that order and retransmitting results in the system submitting an order for just 600 instead of 700 shares. If the price is changed again and the order retransmitted the system decreases order size to 500 shares etc.

- If a partially executed order that has only 100 shares left has its price modified it fails to go active (green) on retransmission and stays blue. Unlike the usual stuck order that is due to a communication problem with the ECN/exchange these orders respond immediately to cancellation attempts. The only workaround besides starting over with a new order is to increase the order size to 200 shares which then triggers the bug described above and the order is submitted successfully with 100 shares.

- A lot of partially executed orders are arbitrarily cancelled by the system.

All this happens with the current as well as earlier TWS builds and started last week on Thursday. Thus it's clearly a server side issue. Of course, IB's helpdesk has still not managed to respond after three full days.
 
I've been having the same problem. Did you notify IB, and what was their response? I was told, that they would be looking into it.

shneed
 
I don't have an active account as of yet , however I was on hold today for 40 minutes with a fund transfer question before I finally gave up . I was going to fund my account but now I am a bit reluctant to trade with this firm. They have to cut to many corners with the cheap commissions. The feedback I see tends to lean towards a cumbersome trading system that does have problems and absolutely shit tech support. I have an account with Cyber Corp and will open one with MB , I was only going to use IB for small lot trades. Cyber has been great , problem is the commission base is a bit high if you don't trade over 50 trades a month.
 
Originally posted by musicman
I don't have an active account as of yet , however I was on hold today for 40 minutes with a fund transfer question before I finally gave up . I was going to fund my account but now I am a bit reluctant to trade with this firm. They have to cut to many corners with the cheap commissions. The feedback I see tends to lean towards a cumbersome trading system that does have problems and absolutely shit tech support. I have an account with Cyber Corp and will open one with MB , I was only going to use IB for small lot trades. Cyber has been great , problem is the commission base is a bit high if you don't trade over 50 trades a month.
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People can be dramatic sometimes. Their interface and executions are fast, their support is low tech, but I don't call them so it hasn't been a big deal. They are constantly upgrading (literally almost daily) so rarely things get goofed up. With the constant upgrades come things people want, so it's kinda like growth pains. So if you have esoteric trading requirements, or love to call support don't get an account, but otherwise you will be happier and wealthier than with Cyber. :)
 
Originally posted by musicman
I don't have an active account as of yet , however I was on hold today for 40 minutes with a fund transfer question before I finally gave up . I was going to fund my account but now I am a bit reluctant to trade with this firm. They have to cut to many corners with the cheap commissions. The feedback I see tends to lean towards a cumbersome trading system that does have problems and absolutely shit tech support. I have an account with Cyber Corp and will open one with MB , I was only going to use IB for small lot trades. Cyber has been great , problem is the commission base is a bit high if you don't trade over 50 trades a month.
More...

Open an account with IB and you will be doing more than small lots with IB. You may be doing all of your trading with IB and closing your Cyber Corp account. You may find yourself doing 50 trades a day. Just the opinion of one happy IB user.

Catoosa:)
 
Tech support has gotten markedly worse. I call almost daily to report problems that are ongoing (hung option orders - no choice but to call) and I'm seeing much longer wait times. It seems they have a large number of new accounts to svc and are getting overwhelmed.

Overall I would still open a new account today even given the shitty cust svc. The cheap commissions are still such a savings that putting up with it is still worthwhile enough. The things that do work at IB - better than 99% of what's advertised better than 99% of the time are excellent when they work as they should. As the cust svc has slid, the product has gotten much more flexible and responsive. The techies really have been working hard on it, and it shows.
 
Originally posted by dlincke
All this happens with the current as well as earlier TWS builds and started last week on Thursday. Thus it's clearly a server side issue. Of course, IB's helpdesk has still not managed to respond after three full days.
More...

Have you been using previous builds and are still getting the
problems? Maybe you are trying to change prices while the
order is being filled? Sounds like you change your prices a lot.

:confused:
 
IB is a great broker considering how much you are paying. Their commission structure can't be beat if you do small size.

Yes, their tech support is not as slick nor as good as the Charles Schwab's of the world. But is that all surprising given the low commissions you are paying?

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.

IB offers fast executions, at cheap prices. Technical support isn't the greatest, but at least problems do get eventually fixed.

What worries me more about IB is that you are completely responsible for losses to your equity that may arise if their system's fail. (See the fine print of the customer agreement -- do correct me however if I am mistaken about this).

So if orders don't execute because of system failure, such as a sell stop order, you are stuck with any losses that might have occurred because the order did not execute.

Again, it's a case of you get what you pay for.

If this bugs me enough, then I'll switch to a higher cost broker. Until then, I'll stick with IB.

-- SP
 
Originally posted by stock_punter
What worries me more about IB is that you are completely responsible for losses to your equity that may arise if their system's fail. (See the fine print of the customer agreement -- do correct me however if I am mistaken about this).
-- SP
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I believe every broker has this in their fine print of the customer
agreement, not just IB. All brokers space out and go down
from time to time.
 
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