IB chart sucks! Can anyone please recommend a good alternative charting software that can connect to TWS? Preferably it doesn't cost much.
well. IB gives you free charting software and is a good starting point. Well. As you go along, you want to get quality charting software. I use Esignal charting software. I pay about $300 / mth including various data feeds. You cannot channel the data feed from IB to Esignal. There are people who tap the data from the brokerage firm and channel it to their own self created charting software ie no extra cost involved.
What max just said is what I am doing here. This is a custom coded excel charting solution using VBA script and the sample excel worksheet (TwsDde.xls). TWS DDE for Excel API. Here is the code for the script. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58369968/excel-vba-macro-edit Good luck.
MotiveWave is a popular option with IB. We have different editions depending on the features you need, with lease or lifetime purchase options. Trade Edition is $49/month.