I don't know if this has been discussed anywhere but I found out some info about the DDE link into TWS. I talked to a rep at the FIA Futures and Options Expo in Chicago. It is currently in beta testing and they will release it in 30 to 60 days. You will not only be able to read the quotes but will be able to submit and fully manage your positions using the DDE link. One other thing that I found out is that in the not too distant future, you will be able to trade your equity and futures accounts within one TWS screen. This will be nice when the single stock futures are launched. This will arm all the little guys to compete in auto-arbing the stock/futures like the pros... It also sounded like they will not release a separate API for online clients. If you rather use an API, you will need a proprietary connection with the hefty monthly fee.
this sounds good. I already requested to close my stocks account because of the data fee. I know the policy changed in the meantime (probably I was not the only one showing how I felt about it ) DDE feed giving position information ? that's enough for me. If you can send orders too. Let's wait and see. It is not too late for IB to keep futures customers. Full API, I don't think it is really required. And that's why I don't like the FIX interface. I only want to be able to send orders, receive confirmation and know current position outstanding. And ALL, I repeat, ALL this information is right there in JTWS. I may even have seen it in the code itself 60 days ?.. well I hope it is less. 30 days.. ain't too bad. Good move on the commissions too. I can't say IB is not trying. tntneo
Navigator, thank you for the update. This is great news. I'm a bit mystified why they picked DDE since it clearly locks them into the windows platform, and also makes integration with TWS (which is in Java) platform specific. But as long as it works ...
vikana, I agree with you a 100%. Here I was all ready to write a simple Java front-end for myself and run it on Linux on my old 266MHz machine. One reason why they might have went with the DDE route is that this opens them up to a lot of proprietary traders that are not programmers but are very much a power Excel user. Almost every big fund and trading firm I have visited had their Excel "model" connected to real time feed such as Bloomberg via DDE. I could see how this would be a big selling point for this crowd. Besides, they do already have the API option for those that are able to afford it. I will post here if I find out anything more here in Chicago...
navigator, your statements about excel are not without merit. the dde setup is not far away. there is a sample excel spread sheet on the web site (under TWS software) which means the release is not far away.
a new tws release with the excel dde capability will be put on the web either today or tomorrow. looks like it has come sooner rather than later. I am sure it will not be perfect but from what i have seen, it looks pretty good. feel free to e-mail me comments.
For those of you that need to program DDE beyond the capabilities found in Excel, have a look at this site: http://www.rhaminisys.com. There you'll find an advanced DDE client object. I used it in the past for other projects and found it to be faster and more robust than the native DDE support in Excel and VB.