Who Do You Trade E-Minis Through?

I find J-Trader to be fast and easy to use. I usually hold a position between 3-15 minutes so if it is 1 second slower I really would not care.
I trade thru Apex Futures and would recommend them. Craig Ross (who used to post here quite often) seems to pick up the phone on the first ring if I have any questions.
Just a happy client.
Chuck Karpinski
 
Quote from def:

some of the largest institutions in the world are using the TWS to trade
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is the list of your institutional clients public?

also are they indeed using the "regular" TWS or there is some sort of an institutional version?
 
Quote from def:

Jay,

To each his own but I'll add that some of the largest institutions in the world are using the TWS to trade. They naturally have the choice of using any platform they desire and for one reason or another prefer to use IB. If there is specific functionality you'd like to see, send me a PM and I'll make a request. The platform has come a long way and there is no intention to stop adding new functionality.
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Bracket trades on actual fills, not orders.

Def, you have always been helpful, and I don't mean to put IB down in general, but this is really a weak point. I have requested changes to this with tac, and via phone. Nothing has happenned. You cannot place bracket trades ahead of time using the IB platform. If you do, one of the legs may get filled before the order you want. I don't care how you do it with hotkeys, if the bracket is based on the order and not the FILL, you can get screwed.

X trader does it on the fill.

Jay
 
def
I know from others that when you have to close a position via telephone (b/c internet connection gone down, TWS disconnected or there's no power supply) - no one picks up the phone, or you have to wait a long period of time.

Employ more people for customer support = more costs = higher commissions. Maybe IB should automate it, just like automated ticket booking in cinemas. You type username, password, order instructions on the phone, everything automated. Or via SMS from a cell phone.
 
trader42, no

jay,
no offense at all. bracket trades were just released. placing on a fill was not the original design, but I'll make the suggestion. if it is agreed that a request is helpful, the item will be assigned to a queue. the speed in which things are implemented depend on the priority. (for example, right now a "friends and family" account has the priority. the account will allow say one person to manage the money of a handful of close friends/family.

But let me get this straight. You want to place an order and after you get filled you want to set up a bracket order around that fill? If so, you can set up a OCA or a conditional order based upon the fill price. But, if you have a profit target and stop in mind when you enter an order, why not set up a bracket in the first place?

If this was a common demand, I would have guessed that someone has already programmed this functionality via an API application. I haven't heard of it but if it is out there, you could use a third party application to interface to the TWS.


dt-war, do enough in commissions and we'll arrange it :) Seriously, it is a tradeoff. The fact is that the systems have been extremely reliable. I highly doubt any firm with a significant number of customers can answer all calls quickly in the event of a system crash without the tradeoff of raising fees. automating is not an easy solution - the reason is simple. in the event of a systems crash, access may not be available to a given exchange. naturally handling these types of situations is on the agenda and hopefully as viable solution will be implemented.
 
I think what being suggested about bracket trades should be OPTIONAL. Give us CHOICES to decide how our bracket trades will be handled. Because I can see good reasons for both the way they are currently executed and the alternatives that can be found in other platforms like Trading Technologies' X-Trader. Which, no offense to TWS & IB, is currently considered the gold standard for off-the-shelf trading platforms. Thanks.
 
I can see how placing a bracket trade on a fill might be useful, but then there are situations when you DO NOT want that. I put brackets on based on technical features and I don't want that shifted (in most cases) based on the fill I happen to settle on.

At some point, if your order entry requirements are complex enough, you are going to have to program your own interface.
 
I've never used the IB API so I don't know if you can access fill information with it--if you can't you can't program this feature.

In any event, if other platforms, i.e. X-Trader, allow this feature w/o self-programming so should be the case with TWS. It WOULD be a very useful feature/option in TWS, should not be a default and should not require programming it with the API (if this is even possible).
 
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