New IB Features

[Holmes]

Quote from IBsoft:

As far as the order entry is concerned, there are two aspects to consider:
1) How long it actually takes for the user to move the mouse, click, possibly confirm. The TWS allows a very flexible setup of hot-keys, through which you can even bypass the confirmation screens, so this should be fast.

Another item to consider is that for us traders in Asia Pacific there is internet delay. I have measured up to two seconds delay so 0.5 second faster or slower with IB does not worry me.

In fact at one stage I did trade a strategy based on 2 minute bars (position trading intraday) and after elaborate testing I found that delays up to 3 minutes did not create a performance degradation.

No matter how fast the connection is or how fast IB is you still cannot beat the boxes that are sitting on the floor and that are capable of executing up to 50 trades per second.

Sherlock

 

[NKNY]

Quote from Holmes:

If I have given the impression of whining then I apologize.

I am a happy customer but am always looking to improve the stability of my trading environment. Having to download these large TWS upgrades on a 19.8K line is no fun, can do without that. Hence the suggestion to seperate the "bare bones" (core) TWS from all the bells and whistles.

Sherlock

A bare bones version would be a great idea.

 

[IBsoft]

Quote from NKNY:

A bare bones version would be a great idea.

This is the same old incorrect song.

What you call bells and whistles have no effect on the market data distribution and the speed of order routing, which is a lot more dependent on the back-end software than the TWS.

 

[mokwit]

Re: "if you don't have too many instruments listed on your TWS, there is no delay at all."

Are you sayig I will get a meaningful reduction in latency by reducing the number of tickers displayed on the TWS page?

I have adjusted my trading to reflect this but there clearly is a latency issue - most of it I am sure is not the fault of TWS/IB but if I could eliminate that part due to TWS it would help - I am clearly seeing too much of where the market was not where it is and I remember it as being faster than this (slowing not an ISP issue as ping times have improved)

Lastly, on a positive note the snapshot approach to market data workds well and data vendors lag TWS.

Any plans to speed up depth refresh rate for HSI? - was told it was 2 seconds for all but BBO

 

[IBsoft]

Quote from mokwit:

Re: "if you don't have too many instruments listed on your TWS, there is no delay at all."

Are you sayig I will get a meaningful reduction in latency by reducing the number of tickers displayed on the TWS page?

I have adjusted my trading to reflect this but there clearly is a latency issue - most of it I am sure is not the fault of TWS/IB but if I could eliminate that part due to TWS it would help - I am clearly seeing too much of where the market was not where it is and I remember it as being faster than this (slowing not an ISP issue as ping times have improved)

Lastly, on a positive note the snapshot approach to market data workds well and data vendors lag TWS.

Yes, but the effect is non-linear.

 

[PuffyGums]

One thing you guys need to consider is that other windows programs can compete with TWS for resources. Esp if your charting program is processing a sudden increase in ticks or you open a window or an application.

If you want speed:
1) Put TWS on a barebones machine on which TWS is the only thing running. Preferably run it under Linux and not Windoze.

2) Get away from that cheapie DSL that I know all of you have subscribed to and move into business level DSL. The cheapie DSL aggregates many users and doesn't provide a good internet point of presence. It guarantees that you get a nice delay.

3) I did some tests and when there is a spike of activity, the CME matching engine itself takes alot of time to process trades. The one guy was complaining abt 3 seconds. The CME engine takes 1 of those seconds. Also realize that if it takes 3 seconds to get your ACK back, the outcome of the trade was probably locked in by the first second or second and a half. You just get the report 3 seconds later.

 

[mokwit]

Another cause of delay that many do not realise is there is the time it takes for a brokers servers to verify margin is available for the trade A source of latency unrelated to internet speed - IB seem better than most on this but it is another source of delay in a spiking market when many other customers are trying to hit it and would result in a delay to fill. Difficult to determine with human senses which is server dealy and which is matching engine delay


My observation/feeling is that with HSI even with latency I am getting filled ahead of many of those trying to hit the same price and slippage on eg STOP Markets has virtually always been of the uh huh OK variety and when not the market speed /thinness has been a more likely cause.

As far as I am aware a resting order should have cleared this hurdle.

 

[JackR]

Quote from PuffyGums:

Get away from that cheapie DSL that I know all of you have subscribed to and move into business level DSL. The cheapie DSL aggregates many users and doesn't provide a good internet point of presence. It guarantees that you get a nice delay.

Realize this doesn't quite fit the thread but -

I thought that the DSL capability provided by the phone companies connected to their routers in the Central Office and then into the Internet backbone system. I also thought that the DSL connection went directly back to the Central Office over the same pair that your telephone ran on, it was not a party line.

Conversely, cable providers are basically providing a neighborhood Local Area Network and as more people use the system, the slower it gets.

Could you expand on your assertion or provide a reference?

 

[mokwit]

It's called contention ratio - number of people sharing that bandwidth figure they quoted you. Theoretically you should (but never do) get it all if you are the only user and bad luck if all the neighbours are using VOIP playing games. For Thailand it's something like 50:1 for domestic and 20:1 for busines package but as business package has the same packet loss issues it is not worth paying for with non bandwidth intensive trading apps/requirements. In west I thing 20:1 domestic, 10:1 businesss.

The whole point about DSL is that it is supposed not to have this sharing issue the same as cable as per your point so maybe it only kicks in at the international bandwidth, but it a much discussed issue.

 

[risktaker]

Since you IB guys are monitoring this thread, why don't you add the capability to have buttons on *each* page, as opposed to the entire application. Also, how about a "transmit all orders on page" button, and ""cancel all orders on page'' button?

Thank you!