I have found that I can avoid almost all of the upgrading problems that other IB customers groan about. I do it by never upgrading to a particular release until that release has been free of public complaints for about a month. I will also repeat my previous advice that you should never leapfrog from one version to a newer version which does not immediately follow the older version. Upgrade in sequence, from one version to the next, and then to the next, in sequence, without any gaps. Gaps in your upgrade history expose you to a higher probability of encountering problems. This is because each version is much more likely to be compatible with the previous version, than with versions several numbers behind. The larger the gap you leapfrog, the more versions you skip when leapfrogging, and the more likely you are to encounter a bug. I would also suggest, as a matter of courtesy and good customer relations, that IB respond to each and every polite suggestion offered on ET, so that people won't feel ignored, and will have an opportunity to understand that they won't ignored and that a decision was carefully made either to accept or to reject the suggestion.
ibsoft, as far as i can see, since i follow and post frequently in the ib thread, practically none of the suggestions have been implemented so far. u say there are priorities but how can that late alert be a priority since nobody really asked for it and neither likes it as it turned out to be annoyin' and potentially dangerous. same for the blurred booktrader when disabled, now gone fortunately, and many other features u implemented that had to be removed in a falsh due to complaints. i am lookin fww for example to see better charts; i.e thicker candles, as i and many others suggested. same for other useful features like pnl chartin' and the ability to set up and change complex orders type [brackets] configuration directly on booktrader, many suggested it. almost 1yr has passed so far and nothin' has been done yet: i just really hope u are workin' on it. dont get me wrong here, am not bashin' u, this is my impression and i just tell u straight how i see it.
I have been with IB for a few years and always advised others to wait a while to upgrade. But like an idiot i upgraded on sunday night. Could not log in, IB was no help, and unfortunately all my pages and symbols have been wiped out. Still waiting for IB to improve Booktrader into a traders tool !
Truth be told, many of those suggestions are either already implemented to some degree in third party API software or are just too specialized to be worthwhile to the majority of traders. If IB implemented every single suggestion, the program would become as large as an operating system. The number of bugs would probably increase dramatically. And many of the sugesstions are geared more towards personal convience as oppossed to critical functionality. Most other platforms do not even come close to what IB is offering. Naturally because no broker offers the range of tradable products IB offers. Your suggestions are a wish list. They shouldn't be thought of as anything but.
Well, the attitude of the poster which IB responded to was a bit harsh and offbase. IB is just reminding the person that there is an alternative and the upgrade is not only NOT enforced, but not required as the previous version(s) work just fine. Imagine if IB took down the previous versions every time they had an upgrade avail? I've been with a few brokers who did. REFCO namely. That happened twice and I couldn't relaibly trade for two weeks until the problem was solved. With IB, I never have to worry about that. I can always revert to whatever release (less than a year old) I feel is most robust and stable and still have all the functionality I'm accustomed to. So yeah, having been around the block a few times, I'd say the customer service and technology is great. Every where you go there is a compromise to be made. I ffind that with IB, I'm making the least.
taodr All your pages and symbols are in a file stored on your computer in the c:/jts directory. Try going to Files on TWS and selecting Restore Settings.
the suggestions i referred to in my post are not just on my wish list, they are the most popular ones pushed by many eters usin' ib. the majority of traders want 'em and asked to be implemented numerous times. the fact they are available on third party applets doesnt make a a case for doin' nothin'.
Yeah, I read them and would like to see some of them myself. Yes, but the majority of traders on ET does not equal the majority of traders with IB. ET's IB clients (the one's who post in the IB sugg & improv thread) represent less than 1% of IB's total accounts. In a way, it does. Not like one can say it doesn't exist. I just think that the "boo-hooing" that IB is not jumping to a minorities collective "snap!" is a bit outlandish. There's a lot of considerations that go into adding new features. Bandwidth, program size relative to average customer hardware setups, intergration with IB's servers, functionality, average customer trading patterns, etc.