Its not the connection going down, its the not coming back up for ten minutes. I guess if not knowing if a position that I think I just put on and is running against and I cant bring up my trading platform and I got no connection and the IB chat guy says he cant verify positions and I think I probably do have the position on and the market has ran three and a half handles against me makes me a pussy, then Im a pussy
3 TWS outages for me too today nothing on at the time take somma that money and give it to a broker with a phone order desk. no matter who you trade with on a computer, it will crash some time, or your computer will crash, or something will crash. If you don't have a phone backup you are taking chances.
YES, There were multiple IB downs today.....I've seen almost the identical as seen in your post. No downs in tradestation today.....I use both. I trade about 50-70 diff. securities at once at IB, and its not possible to do this easily at Tradestation. IB is almost never down, better than any other broker by far. That said, the IB downage today cost me about 550-600. At least I save that every month there, by not having to shell out the SEC tax. All in all it stinks, but IB requires you to have another back-up broker........and they're almost never down, by comparison to any other broker. So have a back up broker .........and all is well.
guys, I'm asleep for most of the US trading hours and normally don't sit in front of a computer during my evenings. As steve_ib and myself are the primary IB posters on this site and we are both based in Hong Kong, it is hard to comment w/o knowledge of a problem or if we are not seeing your posts. The problems with the drop offs yesterday were related to the performance of the UUNET connection into our Greenwhich office. It dropped off for 30 seconds at 10:14 and again at 10:44. Upon the second disconnect/drop in performance (large packet loss) the network group forcibly switched off the UUNET so everything was routed via the SPRINT circuit.
As a trader faced with similar connection issues, IB's actions in response to disconnections seem rather inadequate (i.e., you won't find me waiting for 30 seconds to see if things get better, and then letting it happen to me again before switching connections). It would obviously be in IB's interest to address this issue so that we can stop creating these "IB down again" threads which only serve to damage the reputation of an otherwise great company.
Yesterday I opened an account with IB. Hearing all this I am bailing out. I got a taste of IB Customer service too. Was on hold for 15 minutes! This is a continuing problem, and still do not understand Ib's reluctance to address these issues.
You inexperienced guys : that's exactly how your trading account can be washed out one day when the market will be really in panic mode - this didn't happen yet. Must have several brokers and at least one that you are absolutly sure that you can get a guy by phone in seconds you need it.
All in all it stinks, but IB requires you to have another back-up broker........and they're almost never down, by comparison to any other broker. So have a back up broker .........and all is well. [/B][/QUOTE] they "REQUIRE" you? what does that mean? It is in the fine print? or their lack of dependability require it? I agree you need a contigency plan, but "upstairs" traders at GOLDMAN etc, or stock exchange's or the MERC don't....they have one trading account....and they are STUCK. YES YES YES...I know no system is foolproof.....and I like IB but have only had an account for a few months and have only moved a small portion of assets over to them.....but the attitude seems to be....to EXPECT problems and have back up accounts to deal with it. Using that logic....it makes it somewhat difficulut to dynamically trade size using IB, unless you have another size account to bail in and out of. It's like saying the size of a ships lifeboat is the size of the ship itself!