Is IB good to futures scalping?
- Thread starter shelupinin
- Start date
IB feed: they dont send every tick, but in fast market the feed will not freeze like many others....
Compared to other feeds , you will see a change in price (what is the important thing) on the IB feed faster than on other feeds... (You will not see every tick).
ZerolineTrader is a perfect Frontend to use with IB.
Compared to other feeds , you will see a change in price (what is the important thing) on the IB feed faster than on other feeds... (You will not see every tick).
ZerolineTrader is a perfect Frontend to use with IB.
Well i just opened an account with Ib and was wondering what do you guy,s think of the book trader
I am planning to trade futures and some long term stock,s
They said they take 5 days to review the account.
Hi Def ( interactive Broker ) i was wondering if i can do paper trading for the book trader to trade futures
I am planning to trade futures and some long term stock,s
They said they take 5 days to review the account.
Hi Def ( interactive Broker ) i was wondering if i can do paper trading for the book trader to trade futures
I made today a confrontation between 4 feeds: DTN.IQ, IB, ZEN and PhotonTrader (TT?)
I looked only, how fast price changes were trasmitted. And surprise, surprise, IB was mostly the fastest. DTN was the slowest (esp. on EUREX). IB does not send every tick (but also Photon does not it seems
) but the important thing, the changes in price are faster on your charts....
Looking at ticks, ZEN is without doubt the best.
I looked only, how fast price changes were trasmitted. And surprise, surprise, IB was mostly the fastest. DTN was the slowest (esp. on EUREX). IB does not send every tick (but also Photon does not it seems
) but the important thing, the changes in price are faster on your charts....Looking at ticks, ZEN is without doubt the best.
ib is great for execution and commissions.
us and eurex futures data is excellent also, in a year ive had almost no outages. not sure about stocks tho, ppl complain sometimes but i dont trade them.
customer service used to be awful, but seems to be a bit better recently. still not great, but slightly improving.
i use zeroline trader and quotetracker for charting and dom. excellent software and cheap imo. QT sucks if you want complex indicators but i dont use indicators except pivots and volume so its great for me.
us and eurex futures data is excellent also, in a year ive had almost no outages. not sure about stocks tho, ppl complain sometimes but i dont trade them.
customer service used to be awful, but seems to be a bit better recently. still not great, but slightly improving.
i use zeroline trader and quotetracker for charting and dom. excellent software and cheap imo. QT sucks if you want complex indicators but i dont use indicators except pivots and volume so its great for me.
Redrat is wrong. For Constant Volume charts you dont need ticks, you need the traded Volume and the price. IB cumulates ticks BUT you will have the exact traded Volume: if there was 3 ticks at the same price and each tick had a volume of 1 contract, ZEN maby sends you 3 ticks with 1 C., IB maby send you 1 tick with 3 Contracts.
You asked if execution speed is acceptable for scalping. The answer being yes.
It's all the "other" things that make IB not a good choice for futures trading, IMO, unless IB has a hard-to-find product offering you want to trade.
1) As mentioned, due to the "snap-shot" nature of IBs data feed, it may not provide you with accurate data for your techniques.
2) Generally speaking, IBs commission structure for futures is not that favorable. If using Un-bundled rates, the tiers are not cummulative... each tier price applies to each tier volume. Cummulative volume moves you from tier to tier, but each tier is priced independently. If using bundled rates, there are plenty of brokers offering lower rates, particularly if you are willing to negotiate. IB does not negotiate commissions. period.
3) Be very aware that IB has a habit of making frequent adjustments to intraday margin requirements, unrelated to margin changes issued by exchanges. IB wants to protect itself, in the guise of protecting you from yourself based on IBs take of market conditions.
4) Be very aware of auto-liquidation. Without warning, and before RTH close, IB will re-calculate margin for open positions. If your account is light based on the fresh calculation, regardless of your intention, IB can,will, and does liquidate positions. Again, this happens BEFORE *RTH* market close, not during after-hours. On the inverse, intraday margins, if available, kick-in AT market open. 9:30am EST, not 9:29am EST.
5) Good luck getting hold of a trade desk to resolve an immediate situation.
Never been, past or present, an IB client, not cheerleading, not axe-grinding. Just the way I see it and have heard of it to be.
Good scalps to you.
Osorico
It's all the "other" things that make IB not a good choice for futures trading, IMO, unless IB has a hard-to-find product offering you want to trade.
1) As mentioned, due to the "snap-shot" nature of IBs data feed, it may not provide you with accurate data for your techniques.
2) Generally speaking, IBs commission structure for futures is not that favorable. If using Un-bundled rates, the tiers are not cummulative... each tier price applies to each tier volume. Cummulative volume moves you from tier to tier, but each tier is priced independently. If using bundled rates, there are plenty of brokers offering lower rates, particularly if you are willing to negotiate. IB does not negotiate commissions. period.
3) Be very aware that IB has a habit of making frequent adjustments to intraday margin requirements, unrelated to margin changes issued by exchanges. IB wants to protect itself, in the guise of protecting you from yourself based on IBs take of market conditions.
4) Be very aware of auto-liquidation. Without warning, and before RTH close, IB will re-calculate margin for open positions. If your account is light based on the fresh calculation, regardless of your intention, IB can,will, and does liquidate positions. Again, this happens BEFORE *RTH* market close, not during after-hours. On the inverse, intraday margins, if available, kick-in AT market open. 9:30am EST, not 9:29am EST.
5) Good luck getting hold of a trade desk to resolve an immediate situation.
Never been, past or present, an IB client, not cheerleading, not axe-grinding. Just the way I see it and have heard of it to be.
Good scalps to you.
Osorico
to 1) snapshot is right, ticks are sampled, but the price changes are trasmitted faster then many others who claim to be the fastest
to 2) "each tier price applies to each tier volume"... i saw this by many other brokers, i think its the regular habit
to 3) the margon policy from IB is conservative, but for the most traders it would be better to trade with IB exactly because of this habit))
to 4) auto liquidation: on the homepage there is exactly written, that IB changes intraday margin to overnight 15 min bevor RTH ends (on GLOBES, EUREX is different) so you have only to read whats there and you wont be surprised)))
5) always use stop loss orders)))))))))
to 2) "each tier price applies to each tier volume"... i saw this by many other brokers, i think its the regular habit
to 3) the margon policy from IB is conservative, but for the most traders it would be better to trade with IB exactly because of this habit
))to 4) auto liquidation: on the homepage there is exactly written, that IB changes intraday margin to overnight 15 min bevor RTH ends (on GLOBES, EUREX is different) so you have only to read whats there and you wont be surprised
)))5) always use stop loss orders
)))))))))