TWS Hotkeys/Buttons & Quantity of Shares

damoonrulz1 · May 30, 2020

Hoping someone on here can help. I can't figure this out but I would think it is possible.

I want to create a hotkey or hot-button to buy at bid, however I do not use a specific share quantity amount (IE if I am trading TSLA, AMD, or GE etc). I noticed in some other platforms, it uses the number of shares that is in the order entry window, TWS uses either default, absolute (exact), or available. Is there a setting or a work around this that I am missing? Rather not create 25 different buttons or keys for order types... Thank you.

moskvich · May 30, 2020

El_Cubano · May 30, 2020

damoonrulz1 said:
Hoping someone on here can help. I can't figure this out but I would think it is possible.

I want to create a hotkey or hot-button to buy at bid, however I do not use a specific share quantity amount (IE if I am trading TSLA, AMD, or GE etc). I noticed in some other platforms, it uses the number of shares that is in the order entry window, TWS uses either default, absolute (exact), or available. Is there a setting or a work around this that I am missing? Rather not create 25 different buttons or keys for order types... Thank you.

Im confused...what in the world are you wanting? You want a hotkey or button to buy at the bid...ok...yes you can do that. But what the hell are you expecting/wanting for the quantity? You want TWS to guess an amount for you to buy?

If you've imputed a number of shares in an order entry window then just click the buy button in the order entry window for those shares.

moskvich · May 31, 2020

El_Cubano said:
Im confused...what in the world are you wanting? You want a hotkey or button to buy at the bid...ok...yes you can do that. But what the hell are you expecting/wanting for the quantity? You want TWS to guess an amount for you to buy?

If you've imputed a number of shares in an order entry window then just click the buy button in the order entry window for those shares.

He wants to be able to specify share quantity to be: current position size, 50% position size etc.
and right now you can't do that

El_Cubano · May 31, 2020

moskvich said:
He wants to be able to specify share quantity to be: current position size, 50% position size etc.
and right now you can't do that

That's not what he asked. He asked about "I noticed in some other platforms, it uses the number of shares that is in the order entry window"... He never references percentage based orders

And there's a hack for tws to be able to cover or sell a percentage of a position. You use the flip position hot key order option and in the hot key rather than saying to flip your position value at 1. You set it as a percentage like .25. So rather than flipping it covers or sells a percentage.

Now this is a stupid hack you're forced to use no doubt. I've lobbied for IB to introduce percentage based order sizing options

maxinger · May 31, 2020

UPXB7klH1EQdRTVGOTLhJLcDh52knPRQlXJn0DB-wqPT_iNHMDMtErmLOBw1fbx3q2qpy6tTSkEDNKDLjsuXpRH56J_mXfZZqO22e-lGTlkbBRE

Something to consider

damoonrulz1 · Jun 1, 2020

Sorry for delayed reply - El_Cubano on DAS and Thinkorswim, if you have a hotbutton in the order montage/active trader for buy at bid, it uses the specific # of shares that is in the order entry montage. Vs. a key/button for each specific size. I prefer button / keys vs. traditional order entry, personal preference. But it sounds like TWS can not do this.

Here is a screen shot from thinkorswim. Hot button is fixed, they pull the sizing from "qty" box.

damoonrulz1 · Jun 1, 2020

maxinger said:
Something to consider

that image doesn't appear for me.

Dmitrij_111 · Sep 19, 2020

okay, so, I spent a good several hours figuring it out, because I wanted to implement same approach as ToS.
I figured out 2 things:
1. IB TWS is retarded from order entry functionality. Why: you can have beautiful order entry panel with size, pricing conditions, time in force, but you can't have hotkeys for it.
You can have market depth trader functionality, and use hot keys, but you cannot configure size except for INCREASE/DECREASE size based on absolute/default size set-up. Useless, because I want to see my size before I submit it. Anyway, retarded.

2. Workaround is BookTrader. You can have order size configuration and hotkeys.
https://ibb.co/68jMSwb

I don't know if you found the answer to the problem, but I will post it for future for anyone who is interested

damoonrulz1 · Sep 19, 2020

Dmitrij_111 said:
okay, so, I spent a good several hours figuring it out, because I wanted to implement same approach as ToS.
I figured out 2 things:
1. IB TWS is retarded from order entry functionality. Why: you can have beautiful order entry panel with size, pricing conditions, time in force, but you can't have hotkeys for it.
You can have market depth trader functionality, and use hot keys, but you cannot configure size except for INCREASE/DECREASE size based on absolute/default size set-up. Useless, because I want to see my size before I submit it. Anyway, retarded.

2. Workaround is BookTrader. You can have order size configuration and hotkeys.
https://ibb.co/68jMSwb

I don't know if you found the answer to the problem, but I will post it for future for anyone who is interested

thanks for the post. Yes, would be great to hear the workaround in Booktrader.

currently I just have hot buttons for each quantity.