Why is IB's time 5 seconds behind the official time?
- Thread starter Big Game Hunter
- Start date
That NYSE bell can begin ringing up to 20 seconds prior to 16:00:00 and from time to time it starts to ring much earlier. Understand the person rining the bell is some "celebrity" pusing a momentary contact button and not a computer or official of the exchange. Sometimes's it's someone's kid. Don't rely on the start or stop of that bell.
As to clocks being in or out of synch, that's moot. Unsynch'd clocks don't cause lag. I can change my computer clock backwards and hour and it's not going to lag me an hour. And don't think for a minute that you can set your clock ahead an hour and get a jump on everyone. When you figure that one out you're somebody! lol
I boot my computer every morning when I trade and it syncs my time with a timeserver online. When I start TWS (ver. 882) the time it shows is 7 to 8 seconds behind my system time, BUT within 5 to 10 minutes both times are identical. I don't know why it does this , maybe someone from IB could comment . I assume when my computer time matches TWS time , it's not because the program has set my system time back 8 seconds.
jk.
To be absolutely sure that u don't have a local issue get a time setter that can do 15 minute rechecks (say d4timer) and set it to run the day before you test TWS. Be absolutely sure the time is right before you open TWS .... (u can tell when it last succeeded in the main d4 window).
A boot time resynch may not be reliable ... so just reset before you shut down windows and again before you start tws to be certain.
To be absolutely sure that u don't have a local issue get a time setter that can do 15 minute rechecks (say d4timer) and set it to run the day before you test TWS. Be absolutely sure the time is right before you open TWS .... (u can tell when it last succeeded in the main d4 window).
A boot time resynch may not be reliable ... so just reset before you shut down windows and again before you start tws to be certain.
Is this a tws on linux issue then? It just seems strange that tws can be wrong and then come right. Hence my suggestion to be absolutely sure of the correct times last time tws shut down and when it starts up (not knowing how and when it gets its times). If you see what i mean.
i wish if I.B was 5 sec behind on realtime pricing..
that woud be nice to trade currency if was true
that woud be nice to trade currency if was true
I have seen the TWS time get behind the PC system clock. It will do this on initial TWS start up and sometimes when I start another program that gets its data from the TWS. It self-corrects and syncs with my system clock within about 10 minutes.
The TWS clock being off will affect your TWS charts time baseline but it does not affect the quote stream. There is no delay introduced by IB other than normal transmission delays.
Jobless Claims are released by the US Government tomorrow morning at 8:30 EST. Try the test I described in my post above. There is a chance that the huge market moves we are experiencing may mask the normal reaction but I'll watch myself. Report your results here.
Jack
Edited at 10:15 PM
The TWS clock being off will affect your TWS charts time baseline but it does not affect the quote stream. There is no delay introduced by IB other than normal transmission delays.
Jobless Claims are released by the US Government tomorrow morning at 8:30 EST. Try the test I described in my post above. There is a chance that the huge market moves we are experiencing may mask the normal reaction but I'll watch myself. Report your results here.
Jack
Edited at 10:15 PM
I tried TWS ver. 884 with java1.6.0_07 with Vista and the time showed 9 seconds behind my system time on startup. When Vista boots I think it also checks for a timeserver . After 9 minutes and approx. 40 seconds, the time on the TWS screen advanced 9 seconds in one jump and showed the same time as the computer (within a second). I tested on Fedora 8 linux and had virtually the same results - 9 second gap and roughly 9 min. 30 sec. to 9 min. 45 sec. and then the times were identical.
Maybe this is just my computer setup but I don't really see why it would happen. When TWS starts , I assume it gets its time settings from the IB server it's connected to. So why wouldn't it just stay consistent with that start time ?
I'm not writing this to bash IB. I've used them for almost 3 years and have no complaints. But the people concerned about the time delay may have a point - although it does appear to rectify itself before 10 minutes have passed.
Maybe this is just my computer setup but I don't really see why it would happen. When TWS starts , I assume it gets its time settings from the IB server it's connected to. So why wouldn't it just stay consistent with that start time ?
I'm not writing this to bash IB. I've used them for almost 3 years and have no complaints. But the people concerned about the time delay may have a point - although it does appear to rectify itself before 10 minutes have passed.
This 5 second problem must be contagious. Now my TWS clock is 5 seconds behind my PC clock. IB's quotes seem to be keeping up with ZenFire quotes even though IB doesn't show as many trades as ZenFire does.