If you trade on that exchange than you listen to that radio. Djeez, why would IB be responsible??? Ursa..
I trade from US so radio is out of the picture for me I guess. However, I always check HK observastory right before market open: http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm I did not trade last night. Was there anything on observatory about category 8 storm at least as possibility?
Many of IB's customers are not local residents, local weather radio is out of the reach. A customer can refer to the HK observatory site for updated typhoon information, but unless he can refresh the webpage every 15 minutes during busy trading session, he still cannot get the information in time. Because 15 minutes after the typhoon signal 8 is hoisted, the HKFE trade will be terminated. If you can listen to radio, you can get the information much faster and in time. Therefore I suggest IB HK office have a weather radio on if a typhoon is approaching. And you can know that ( a typhoon is approaching ) one or two day ahead.
I think I got the notice a least 4 or 5 times, so they did send one out. TWS will blink a red title bar. If you have the window hidden you will miss it. ButtonTrader also makes a weird noise when there is a IB message to read. - TraderD
I also received the notice, but it is timestamped as 2:46pm Friday afternoon, 1 minute AFTER the trading had already been terminated by HKFE.
to update: after going high enough up the ladder @ IB, i got what i feel is a satisfactory response. initially, mgmt who i contacted thought they handled it well with the bulletin...... until i told him to check the time the bulletin went out- then he wasn't as pleased either. they agree that they could have/should have handled it better and that a procedure should have been in place to disseminate the info as soon as they got it. they are reviewing how it was handled and will make changes to procedure. i feel they'll be better prepared for such things in the future- as will i... and, no... i don't expect IB to play personal weatherman; but, with the alert system, one expects it to actually be used when info is so time critical. if not, then get rid of the alert system and don't pretend- it only gives a false sense of security (well, not for me any more!). i ended up hedging with both Taiwan and ES- so now i have 3 open positions to contemplate over the weekend. hell, i may have over-hedged; really impossible to know with all the variables along with a possible surprise fed rate cut, liquidity news, China's inflation data coming out, locust... had my head spinning. also hard to hedge when the situation is so fluid. i was unable to take some very nice gains in the ES today because i had to keep the hedge on. in the end, my gains are now losses and i have no clue how it will suss out. hard to trade when every trade is clouded with a 'how is this affecting my open positions' voice in my head. i guess this gets filed under 'lessons learned'. i'll post the outcome sunday for the curious.
nikkei's correlation to the 'wild' asian markets is not so direct. I think STW is a better hedge against HSI or HHI.HK. STW is the taiwan futures traded on SGX, and trades well into midday in the US session as well. 2 STW contracts to one HHI.HK or HSI is a decent hedge ratio. Not a perfect hedge, but works. And in the asian session, both trade simultaneously so you can close the hedge and contracts at the same time. I think another option, although not very liquid, is the Globex FXT contract (FTSE Xinhau) ... never traded it. But I imagine correlation is close. Or just buy FXI options/stock ... but you can't close that hedge simultaneously.
I think ES and SGXNK is not that good a hedge for Hong kong... I guess STW is a closer proxy..... But what about the HSI, HHI warrants traded on SGX ? Did you consider using them to hedge ?
Thank you to the OP for this post. I don't trade asia, and I don't trade through IB, but this is important information to know/understand. And thanks to the the IB reps for being honest and informative. Last summer when eCBOT went down for hours at a time, on multiple days, I changed my YM trading to multiple of 2's to accommodate intraday fungibility with DJ as my counter to that type of event. Based on this post, Im rethinking my FESX trading... At this time, I have no idea what the options are. Thanks again for this post. Osorico