seem to have lost the Avg (BOT) and Avg (SOLD) on the summary page of the executions window. Those two fields stay blank. (Had the initial release of 860.8 before that was withdrawn and 860.9 came out.) Downgrading did not restore it. May see what I can do to reinstall and wipe the old installation..... Don't look forward to having to reconfigure the setups again. Alternatively I suppose I could hang in until the next release comes out.... Maria
Although I agree with what you mention on the "be damned if they do and be damned of they don't" I do firmly believe that if there were two versions a lot of complaints (and misery) could be avoided. It is not much fun to have to download 9+ Mb and then a helpfile of several Mb on a 56k modem line. And that is if I am lucky to get that connection speed. At some locations I am lucky to get 33K but more often than not it seems to be in the low 20's..... Small footprint is beautifull, all I use is the TWS for placing orders and checking fill prices... In spite of my (small) gripes I am of the opinion that IB stands heads and shoulders above the rest. Keep up the good work! Maria
Bitstream, I disagree with your view that IB should focus on making improvements to tools like charting. I did suggest a specific improvement for IB's line charts, in the IB suggestions thread, but I think it would be better if IB focused instead on better quality and reliability of critical functions like documentation and order routing and execution. I think you are squarely in the camp seeking new features, rather than my camp of seeking consolidation of old features. Our disagreement is only one example of the competing pressures to which IB officials must respond. No, you should definitely not zip your mouth when you have criticisms of IB. But you should do some thinking about HOW you voice your criticisms. Yes, you have every right to say whatever you want, we live in a free country (at least we did before 9/11), we have freedom of speech, blah, blah, blah, but Bitstream, this is a child's argument. An adult considers whether or not and when and how to exercise his free speech rights. An adult considers the consequences of saying different things in different ways. Your characterization of my postings, on this matter, are inaccurate and unfair. You attribute to me the position that complaints about IB are unjustified, when in fact, I have always taken the exact opposite position, that complaints are justified and that they should be encouraged by IB. This is completely compatible with my view that you, in response, should make an effort to encourage and to incentivize IB to address your complaints, instead of driving IB away from EliteTrader. You were also wrong to suggest that I answer to all complaints about IB by repetitively saying IB is head and shoulders above the competition, when in fact, I myself have posted my own complaints at times, or I have seconded complaints by others, and I only used my "head and shoulders" phrase just this one time in just this one thread. I think that your complaints about IB do have merit. I am not objecting to them overall, but I am objecting to the way you express them. You obviously have every right to ignore my counsel and to just freely vent your spleen at IB whenever the mood strikes you, but ask yourself, is this really in your own best self-interest? I hope you will continue to criticize IB, and I hope IB will continue to listen. I just hope that you will give some thought to the way in which you go about making your criticisms, and that your thinking will rise to a level more sophisticated than the mere recognition and chanting of that simple truth that even most children can grasp, that you do have the right to say whatever you want.
I'm seeing some other nasties. This new version seems to be extra 'special' Bid / ask sizes on the market depth window (ES/NQ futures) are doubled from what is displayed on a normal TWS quote line. Having DDE/Excel trouble with market depth as well.
IBsoft, I urge you not to move the discussion from EliteTrader to IB's own forum. I'm sure that doing so "is tempting for several reasons". I think that if IB gives into such temptation, everybody loses. Part of what makes the EliteTrader discussion so valuable, to IB and to its customers, is the fact that IB cannot control the discussion on EliteTrader. Control lies in the hands of an objective, disinterested third party, Baron. Baron's agenda is not running a brokerage; his agenda is to nurture the quality of discussion. I don't think it is possible for the same organization to do both at the same time. The benefits accuring to IB, from having this discussion publicly and on ET, derive, in great part, from the crucial ingredient that IB cannot control the discussion. I am sure it is unpleasant for you, but I am even more sure that it forces IB to do a much better job of meeting customer needs. I am sure that by participating in ET discussions, which necessarily entails IB's partial surrender of control over the discussion process, IB captures a great benefit. This great benefit is that the partial loss of control protects IB from itself. I am certain lots and lots of very bad decisions, by IB, were prevented, or never even consciously considered, because of its participation in this forum. What seems like a painful loss of control is, in reality, a great benefit to IB. I myself have had a few experiences where I had found a serious and ongoing bug impairing order execution, but I absolutely could not get any attention to the problem, until I went public with it on ET. Other traders gave similar reports backing my complaint. If IB had not responded at that point, then those problems might have festered for far longer, and might never even have been addressed. I feel certain that the quality of IB's order routing and execution would be much less, were it not for IB's participation in a public forum beyond IB's control. The fact that these discussions are public, instead of on IB's own forums which cannot be read by non-customers, forces IB to pay attention to customer complaints in a much better way than it would if its public image were not on the line. IB's public discussion on ET conveys and demonstrates the quality of IB's offerings. I think it would be very easy for IB to reduce greatly, or even to totally extinguish, the value of these discussions, after taking control of them. If IB were really capable of facilitating the quality of discussion which takes place on ET, then IB would already have done so in its own forums. The fact that IB never did so is just one more piece of evidence that IB should leave control of the discussion with Baron at ET. IB is excellent as a broker, but communication has never been its strong suit. Let Baron continue doing the job he does best. The public nature of these discussions, re: IB, is often abused by those seeking to damage IB's reputation. Sometimes they are disgruntled customers. Sometimes they are competitors falsely pretending to be customers. But we loyal IB customers know that it is in our best self-interest to police such abusers, and we do not let them get away with it. Take a look at the threads started by ET user cscott, an IB competitor falsely posing as an IB customer, and look at how we lambasted him. Look at what happened when Option Trader, a disgruntled IB customer, tried to extort concessions from IB by making false statements. We customers, in our response, didn't let him get away with it. IB customers can tell the difference between legitimate complaints from real customers, on the one hand, and extortion attempts and smear jobs and shills on the other. Some prospective customers, in reading these discussions, will be misled, and frightened away from IB, either because of the deceptions perpetrated against IB, or because of the exposure of some of the problems and shortcomings at IB. These, however, are the customers you do not want. These are the customers who don't have what it takes to function within IB's highly mechanized, minimal support framework of doing things. Many of these customers are bound to lose their money very quickly, without developing a profitable trading method, no matter where they trade. Many of them are lawsuits, arbitration cases, or bad PR just waiting to happen. The kind of customers you want are the ones who will read the discussions and recognize who is telling the truth, and that IB really does offer a great deal, and probably the very best deal for most serious active traders. Give your loyal customers some credit for their ability to sift through the lies and to find the truth, and to protect IB from shills and smear jobs. If you run away from EliteTrader, then you are handing a victory to your competitors, and you are reducing IB to become a little bit more like its competitors, instead of preserving what is unique and best about IB. I am putting all this effort, into lobbying IB to stay on ET, because I think that helping to preserve and to improve the quality of discussion will benefit IB and its customers more than any specific suggestion for new features or bug fixes.
Of course most everyone would rather have IB participate in these discussions. If they were to leave, however, it would not stop participants from voicing their concerns on this forum and alerting other customers as to problems or potential problems. I cannot visualize IB not monitoring those discussions. I would ask again: would you ignore what your customers are saying in a public forum? When IBsoft says they are contemplating moving to their own forum, I would surmise that it perhaps has more to do with having control over IB responses to customers than controlling what customers say, as those things (customer complaints) are going to be said one way or the other, anyway.
jimrockford, I do not always agree with everything you say but the whole above posting (cut down to minimize wasting space) is well said and I support your request. Maria
Bitstream, while I like a lot of your posts and I admire your style, the point Jim was making in so many words was to use... tact.
We are not talking about the same thing. I originally wrote: "Anyway, we will continue to carefully listen to our customers and evaluate their suggestions. As to whether such dialog remains here ...". The dialog I was referring to pertains to the features wish-lists and suggestions of that sort. In other words, we are considering expanding upon the currently available "suggestion box" on our website. Such expansion would likely include a voting scheme where IB CUSTOMERS can express agreement or disagreement w/ posted proposals. Such expansion would also give a clear feedback as to whether the requested feature is still in voting, has been declined, is being implemented or is on-line. If and when we have such a thing, I would expect the "IB improvements ..." thread at ET to stop growing and the users to migrate to our web-site for the specific reason of posting wishlists and suggesting improvements. Other discussions, e.g. requests for help, reports of anomalies/bugs and general insults would, at least for now, remain on ET.