Interactive Brokers not sending limit order to the exchange?

H

hotsalami

I am having an issue with Interactive brokers holding my order on their server and not sending the limit order to the CME and ICE exchanges? Below are 2 examples that happened on Friday.

The first order was a bracket order to buy ES with a stop and a limit target. The order was executed and the stop and limit order was automatically setup in TWS. The strange thing was the limit order was marked as "order being held and monitored" (blue color) and not "order has been accepted and is working at the destination" (green color). (See attachment below)

The 2nd order was also a bracket order to short TF with a stop and limit order target. This order was also executed and TWS placed the stop and target. Like the ES trade above, it also marked my limit order as "order being held and monitored" (blue color) and not "order has been accepted and is working at the destination" (green color).

As I understand it, the limit order type should be native to the CME and ICE exchanges so once my entry orders were filled, the limit orders for the target should have been working on the exchanges and not being held on the IB server.

I called up the IB support line and they said they do not know why the 2 limit orders were being held on the IB server and that they need further time to investigate.

Has this happened to anyone else before using IB as their futures broker? This is really concerning since my limit orders will always be last to be executed when the price hits my limit order and will be a big disadvantage.

I understand that the stop orders are not native to the CME or ICE but I would think that IB should have sent the limit orders to the exchanges. For some reason, it is not and I am am wondering why this is. ES.png TF.png
 
Alright, well this should not be happening.. I have a feeling though there's some kind of configuration that might be contributing to it though. Have you extensively configured your order presets or anything like that? Rather than general presets, what do your futures and futures->bracket presets look like? Specifically the overfill protection will cause this situation and you want to make sure it's off.

I use IB (with Sierra as the front end) and my limits are green, stops are blue, and stop-limits are green (I recommend doing a couple of searches on that as well so you can start using stop-limits with a wide range, but that's unrelated to this) on both ICE and CME.
 
Every stop order I have sent to IB that isn't immediately marketable is blue. I think brokerages handle the stop part of an order while exchanges handle limit and market orders. I suspect you will have the same experience at any broker. I only see blue limit orders when they are far outside the bid ask.

hotsalami said:
I am having an issue with Interactive brokers holding my order on their server and not sending the limit order to the CME and ICE exchanges? Below are 2 examples that happened on Friday.

The first order was a bracket order to buy ES with a stop and a limit target. The order was executed and the stop and limit order was automatically setup in TWS. The strange thing was the limit order was marked as "order being held and monitored" (blue color) and not "order has been accepted and is working at the destination" (green color). (See attachment below)

The 2nd order was also a bracket order to short TF with a stop and limit order target. This order was also executed and TWS placed the stop and target. Like the ES trade above, it also marked my limit order as "order being held and monitored" (blue color) and not "order has been accepted and is working at the destination" (green color).

As I understand it, the limit order type should be native to the CME and ICE exchanges so once my entry orders were filled, the limit orders for the target should have been working on the exchanges and not being held on the IB server.

I called up the IB support line and they said they do not know why the 2 limit orders were being held on the IB server and that they need further time to investigate.

Has this happened to anyone else before using IB as their futures broker? This is really concerning since my limit orders will always be last to be executed when the price hits my limit order and will be a big disadvantage.

I understand that the stop orders are not native to the CME or ICE but I would think that IB should have sent the limit orders to the exchanges. For some reason, it is not and I am am wondering why this is. View attachment 155147 View attachment 155148
More...
 
fickletrader said:
Every stop order I have sent to IB that isn't immediately marketable is blue. I think brokerages handle the stop part of an order while exchanges handle limit and market orders. I suspect you will have the same experience at any broker. I only see blue limit orders when they are far outside the bid ask.
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Stops involved with exchanges like CME and ICE are blue because they don't have a native stop. Other futures exchanges (like SGX) may support native and they're green there. Equity exchanges should be green.

His issue however is with limit orders and those should be green in all cases. The only time I've seen a non green limit is when the exchange refused it due to being outside the daily move limit (A50 futures on SGX).

I know from a recent similar thread that another guy who had overfill protection enabled ended up with all his child orders held IB side.

The only other thing I can think of involves order fills being allowed outside RTH. If that isn't enabled (IMO it most definitely should be) then that might be causing the issue. The little '!' on his orders looks like it might be enabled though.
 
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It's always been my understanding all bracketed CME orders on are held on IB's servers. IB can even fail to execute when the market moves violently. Their software requires the market price be within a few ticks of the limit.

As an example, suppose Natural Gas is trading at $2.80 before the storage stat on Thursday. Suppose you put in a Stop-Limit order to buy at $2.75 and stop out at $2.55. IF the price of NatGas gaps on the stat from $2.80 to $2.70, you will not be filled.

Even worse, suppose you had an existing Stop in the system, to Stop out a long if the price fell to $2.75. You would not be stopped. You could get home and be bankrupt if the price kept falling. IB's system would claim to be dutifully watching for the price to drop to $2.75, even if it was $2.35.

This is why I built my first trading robot, to manage stops simply, the way they are intended.
 
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Limit orders are on the exchange. That goes for straight limits or stop limits. They're obviously held by IB until the parent order is filled but after that CME or ICE holds them.
 
None Business said:
As an example, suppose Natural Gas is trading at $2.80 before the storage stat on Thursday. Suppose you put in a Stop-Limit order to buy at $2.75 and stop out at $2.55. IF the price of NatGas gaps on the stat from $2.80 to $2.70, you will not be filled.
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Wait ! If your Stop order to buy is below the market price, you'll be filled instantly at the market. Did you mean SELL instead ?
 
hotsalami said:
The first order was a bracket order to buy ES with a stop and a limit target. The order was executed and the stop and limit order was automatically setup in TWS. The strange thing was the limit order was marked as "order being held and monitored" (blue color) and not "order has been accepted and is working at the destination" (green color). (See attachment below)

The 2nd order was also a bracket order to short TF with a stop and limit order target. This order was also executed and TWS placed the stop and target. Like the ES trade above, it also marked my limit order as "order being held and monitored" (blue color) and not "order has been accepted and is working at the destination" (green color).
More...

Everything is working correctly. When you place a bracket order, the stop and limit orders are suppose to be dark blue in color because they are waiting for execution. The orders will only be green, working when the order is being filled. I trade brackets with IB all the time and this is what I see all the time. The only time I freak out is when the order is Light Blue, which means that it was transmitted, but not confirmed; meaning that the order may not be executed.
 
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