Meaninugless numbers in IB at night times

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pvram68

Why does IB TWS show absurd numbers in the night times? Do these numbers have any significance at all? For example, if a stock/option traded at 3.20 - 4.50 during the day, the night time valuation can show some weird number like $0.50 or $20.00 for example.

Ofcourse markets are not trading at this hour, but it is not common to see even smaller firms show such numbers.

Is IB updating the accounts at which time this error happens? If so, can't they mask these values altogether at such times? Seeing no value itself may be preferable to seeing highly incorrect numbers.

Would like to hear from DEF or other IB insiders comments on this.

-Ram
 
I have complained about a similar problem to no avail. At night, the index (SPX, TNX, IRX) prices move as if the market was open. And their values are way off. Considering I use these inputs in my system, looking at my spreadsheets is useless at night. These values should just stay at the closing price. Is that too much to ask?
 
Ram, can you be more specific about which symbol/market, exact time, and which value is absurd (bid, ask, last, etc.)?

I know that valuations of option positions can be wrong at times, but I think they are interested in knowing about those instances so they can correct the valuation mechanism if it's broken.

Illiquid stocks can be valued strangely too, but that's because they're illiquid, and there's no "right" way to deal with them.

With regard to the index values outside RTH, I know that they make some attempt to calc them, but I can't remember getting an answer on the exact methodology. Someone once said it was based on the midpoint of the European listings of the component stocks, which could explain a large deviation from fair value (i.e. if GE closed at 30, and the European market for it is the equivalent of 20 bid @ 32, the midpoint is 26 - very wrong). Even the largest components are very illiquid in Europe.

I don't know what to make of TNX etc. - I thought they were disseminated by CBOE.
 
Quote from newbunch:

I have complained about a similar problem to no avail. At night, the index (SPX, TNX, IRX) prices move as if the market was open. And their values are way off. Considering I use these inputs in my system, looking at my spreadsheets is useless at night. These values should just stay at the closing price. Is that too much to ask?
More...

This is the real problem:
SPX index is sometimes way off (i.e 1210 instead of 1270).
Since margin on SPX options is calculated based on SPX value, the margin calculation is drastically wrong.
When I have a naked SPX PUT overnight and SPX is wrongly way down, my excess liquidity (available margin) will show a HUGE negative value.
This prevents me from opening any position overnight.

I also complained in the past and nothing was done.
 
use the trouble ticket feature from IB home page
after logging into your account

then follow up with TAC folks to see if the programmers can do anything for you

good luck
 
what a bunch of useless charlatans IB is. I mean, let's call a spade a spade people.

I think most people think they are getting great value with cheap commisions, but at what eventual cost?

They don't seem customer oriented. It's a strange business model. I took my bat and ball elsewhere long ago, many of these threads constantly remind me why I left.

Most recently losing outgoing wires, today i heard a guy couldn't buy back NYX options, and IB refused to do anything about it. Maybe they are just incompetent. Now there new feature is take a ticket and get in line? Oh yeah, send us a half dozen emails and call us 4 or 5 different times and then we might pass you on to a supervisor who may or may no be able to solve your problem.

That stuff is for the birds.
 
Quote from volatilitypimp:

what a bunch of useless charlatans IB is. I mean, let's call a spade a spade people.

I think most people think they are getting great value with cheap commisions, but at what eventual cost?

They don't seem customer oriented. It's a strange business model. I took my bat and ball elsewhere long ago, many of these threads constantly remind me why I left.

Most recently losing outgoing wires, today i heard a guy couldn't buy back NYX options, and IB refused to do anything about it. Maybe they are just incompetent. Now there new feature is take a ticket and get in line? Oh yeah, send us a half dozen emails and call us 4 or 5 different times and then we might pass you on to a supervisor who may or may no be able to solve your problem.

That stuff is for the birds.
More...

your off base on all your comments mr. vpimp.

1. The values often come from the exchange overnight but if you if any of you have a concrete example of something being off overnight and having an impact on your liquidity, send a message to the help desk via the ticket management system. if you're not satisfied with your answer, please PM me or better yet, email csmgmt @ interactiverbrokers . com.


2. you mention other threads but of course as you don't have all the facts or information you have no basis to make such statements - which by the way are incorrect. you also have no clue what the ticket management system does but to be sure, I'll spell it out to you that it has nothing to do with getting in a line.

For those of you who have been long time clients, I would imagine by now we take things seriously and are always looking to improve our system and your trading experience.
 
You should change a broker so you don't have these useless numbers at night when market is closed.
It's really hard to trade when the numbers are so wrong.
 
Quote from jsmith:

You should change a broker so you don't have these useless numbers at night when market is closed.
It's really hard to trade when the numbers are so wrong.
More...

if the market is closed it's also hard to trade :) we're talking about closed markets here. the only way it would matter is if the values impact the net liquidating value of the position.
 
My original complaint was only about a display problem. Its only an annoyance by which I am sometimes startled.. I normally only have stock options positions in my account, and if I was sure that the total unrealized profit of my account the same day when the market closed was +$200 (for example), I would naturally be surprised to find the same figure show something like -$1600 when I loging at night, around 11:40 PM (I might be logging in not for trading stock options but to either trade or check prices on Euro futures contracts at this hour, if anyone is curious why).

I can attach a specific example but it should not really matter for me to create a trouble ticket as I am sure this is a widely known and experienced issue and nothing specific to my account.

However, I don't really think it caused any net liquidity problems that matter to anything that we can trade during this time (futures contracts etc).

I did manage to raise a generic issue problem with IB web trader earlier, and it was not easy to follow it up but at that time I was more tenacious and saw to it that it was escalated to the proper people within IB, actively checking progress for over a month. That issue was finally solved but it is not easy for any single customer to do similar follow up through trouble tickets for such generic problems.

-Ram
 
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