Bob, The RTH flag bug has been haunting me for months (open tickets for months at a time with no recourse--still sending logs, etc, through my middleman at IB to no avail). It can be reproduced consistently. The workaround I have been using is STPLMT orders instead.. Just use a wide gap between stop and limit to ensure fill (of course don't do this on thin markets)
bunkinc, Have you voted for suggestion # 2185 in the new features poll? I think it is the best way to address your complaints about backlogged trouble tickets. The suggestion would require IB to place higher priority on debugging existing features and core functions, and lower priority on adding new features. This would reduce the rate of adding new features, and therefore reduce the rate of new bugs, and therefore reduce the rate of bug reports and other trouble tickets coming in to customer service reps. This, in turn, would greatly reduce the workload on the CS reps, so that they would be able to address their growing backlog of trouble tickets, and they would be able to provide better and faster support, much better than the kind of support about which you are complaining. I think IB is the best broker for most serious active traders, but that suggestion # 2185 would make it even better.
I don't have IB up now but here is the deal. Your problem is that IB doesn't use the default settings where you have RTH designated. What it does is it keeps a record of the instrument and will use whatever setting you had the first time you traded the stock or future or whatever. You have to go where you set defaults and delete all the stocks and instruments that you have everytraded. So even if you have the rth set up in the default one way, it will use whatever setting you had in place the first time you traded that stock. It ingnores the defaults. It assumes that your defaults were in place the first you traded it. After you delete them close IB out and restart it. Then go to the configure deal and set the rth up as you would like it. Next time you trade the rth will behave properly. John
How come IB couldn't tell me that???? Jim come on -- didn't IB already say they'll implement that? Either way IB is the way they are and I don't think my poll vote will change it one bit. Maybe that will change when they're a publicly traded company -- maybe not. Look how many people voted for weekend connectivity and they rejected it. I understand they need some server downtime -- but why do they need 36 hours? For example Tradestation (which certainly has it's own issues -- see my other posts about getting burned by them) is up 24/7 most of the time (they do perform maintenance from time to time -- for example this past weekend -- but they're generally up all weekend providing data). IB could improve in a lot of ways very easily (for goodness sake why do we need to read about bug fixes on ET from non-IB posters!) but they don't seem to have the management impetus to do it. And why don't they monitor their own bulletin board? And why can't they find a way for TWS to log to their end so we're not endlessly sending them logs for no reason? SSB
Yes, IB did previously "implement" suggestion # 1072, in Aug 2006, but then they failed to do what they said they would do. The purpose of suggestion # 2185 is to remind IB of what it said it would do, and to persuade IB to do what it said it would do. IB is not a single individual. IB is a organization. An organization sometimes can't immediately get it right on a sweeping policy change, and sometimes needs a reminder and a motivation and another chance to really make the change it said it would make. IB does pay attention to the features poll and to customers in general. I believe that they will make this change, instead of just giving it lip service, if enough customers vote for it. I know that there are at least some IB employees who want this change to be made. I know that they want it enough so that they have actually held a meeting with IB's chairman to discuss it. Why not vote for it, sideshowbob, just in case you are wrong, and the vote really does matter and reallly does help make the difference? Would it kill you to vote? Please reveal whether or not you voted on this. Just because IB has rejected some suggestions, for which customers voted, doesn't mean IB will reject all good suggestions and that voting never matters. I think this was a very unreasonable argument on your part. IB has adopted an enormous number of customer suggestions, some from the poll, and others from other sources of customer feedback. I also think that IB may have very good reasons for sometimes telling their customers "No." I don't think they can succeed as a company if they allow all decisions to be made by the majority vote of its customers. I think you really don't have any idea how difficult it is for IB to do the things they do, and how much work is involved in making changes, and how difficult it is for them to be able to recognize and to decide which changes should have resources allocated so that those changes can be made. I think customers who are too busy to participate in IB's decision-making process, but who do have time to bad-mouth the company publicly, are part of the problem. I think that if you have not voted for # 2185, then you are contributing to the very problem about which you complain. If you disagreed with the substance of # 2185, and you witheld your vote for that reason, then I wouldn't blame you for having a different opinion. But if you do agree with # 2185, and you aren't willing to take the time to participate in the process by voting for it, and you are just blowing off steam by bad-mouthing the company without doing anything constructive to solve the problem, then I think that you are part of the problem. I think that you must vote for the change, before you earn the right to criticize the company for not making it.
IB is just one big flat file. I am not sure it is all documented so the techs can help on every problem. I figured it out by accident after getting screwed a dozen times on not getting after hours fills. Actually when you think about the way it is set up it would make sense to a programmer to do it that way. The programmer would assume that when you first used IB you would set up all the defaults etc before you ever traded. Therefore it would never have a need to look at defaults everytime it processed a transaction. John
I just voted now. We'll see if they implement it. For the record I finally hit my limit and got sick of getting shafted by ridiculous IB bugs. Sure maybe they fixed the RTH bug (or maybe not) but I can't upgrade my TWS because of the market data bug they introduced in 865 and still haven't completely fixed. Definition of a conservative: A liberal who's been mugged. Definition of an IB basher: A former defender of IB who's lost money one too many times due to IB's lack of a QA department (and I'm not kidding -- they <I>really</i> do not have a QA department).
Again, I'm not having a data problem with Build 870.2, nor am I reading of any data problems. But hey, I guess you know better eh? By the way, have you noticed that the only posts you make about ANY broker always bash them? LOL. OldTrader
Same here, no issues with 870.2 and No issues with Beta 871.0 (at least no data issues) they have a book trader issue with the new features.... But Data has been solid, connection has been solid.... etc....
Oh my goodness you're right! If you're not having data problems, nobody else must be. Thanks for clearing that up! You should tell those people in New Orleans it didn't flood because hey -- your basement is dry! Again you're right. Absolutely amazing. Were you Sherlock Holmes in your former life? You seem to have a way with taking a small sample and extrapolating it to everyone and everything. If you search beyond my last two posts (if you need help use the help button) you'll find I've done quite a bit of IB defending. IB does have some great features but their inability to fix their problems is ridiculous. And even when they fix them you can't upgrade, because they break other things. Using live customer accounts as QA has got to stop. One day you'll find yourself on the wrong end of one of their bugs and you'll be bitching about it. Except you'll be talking about how "everyone" was burned by it. LOL.