I thought futures were traded around the clock or do I have to get some sort of clearance to be able to trade around the clock? thanks in advance.
I've had some issues with this. First there are certain order types that by default won't execute outside normal trading hours. There is a window where you can change this. Second, sometimes when I place overnight orders for t-note options on ecbot I get a popup message that the order won't be placed on the exchange until morning. But then my order (usually) shows up on my screen and sometimes gets executed, so I am guessing the message is a mistake ( I doubt they are crossing my order with another customer but I never cared enough to confirm this. I don't remember having to get my account enabled for overnight trading but I can't swear I didn't check a box on a form when I opened the account or something.
Sounds like you havent got TWS set up right at present. Try looking under Config / Order defaults for problems.
guys with IB you pay peanuts, you get monkeys get a decent futures broker used to have an account with IB - lots of web probelms and customer service crap - they don't know what they are talking about
odl in uk at mo - who are ok looking into a few others now though: etrade sucden man financial all quite big in uk