Really? That flies in the face of fact that many do not experience lag with a good connection and powerful computer using the NT + Zen feed. Most lag problems are on the end users side. Some on the ISP side.
Maybe this is what causes those famous notorious "pink outs" you get with IB? No, I don't think so because they happen at all times of day. Not just during fast markets.
Most of the suggestions on this page are a bit simplistic --- things happen for different reasons in different places. Data lag will happen where the congestion is occurring. So the most likely point for congestion in fast market situations isn't the internet (congestion there is more likely to be too many kids downloading videos) ... it will almost certainly be servers or server farm routers. IB pinkouts occur (I'm pretty sure) when your TWS hasn't received connectivity packets from IB for a given time. This could be an ib problem but could also be caused by any router on the route to your IB server dropping sufficient packets that the delay is reached. It seems that pinkouts are more often internet problems but the best way to check is to post here with a non-stupid heading like: TWS Pinkout --- US Markets --- Anyone else? And post what area and isp you are from ... if lots of people get pinkouts and don't share your area and ISP then its likely to be an IB problem. If not, an ISP problem. Checking the IB server address and pinging it can also help identify where the problem might be.
Pink outs are so rare as to be non events. Almost never for me. Once every 6 months? maybe less the last few years. The notorious part is due to the rarity.
>>fortuneTeller: You must have connection problems with IB Server... if the connection to IB Servers goes down for more than (i am not shure about the exact time) ~250ms , you will have a problem, while on connection to ZEN-Servers i dont think they check your connection stability... I am in Europe, had same problems, was connected to US Servers, changed to European Servers, and all problems resolved
I 'lost' money today because i couldnt trade the size i wanted. My systems sizes trades based on volatility and volatility across alot of world stock index futures have gone down. But margins are still extreme. Example is the FTSE Futures, average range during in hours has been about 1000 a day over the last few weeks but margin is 7300. So i could send IB more margin money, however i have a large percentage of my liquid networth with them already and dont want to have all my eggs in one basket. So im forced to trade smaller size for no good reason at the moment... So i will have to live with it, but i would be nice to have 50% intra day margins again soon.
"i have a large percentage of my liquid networth with them already and dont want to have all my eggs in one basket." lol
Id love to diversify my brokerage risk, but no one else offers the range of market and API that IB does... So i have almost 50% of my free cash at IB. Actually my funds at IB have grown 200% over the last couple of years with all the profits made there.
I don't view this as a hateful quote at all... I think it's a very safe bet that if the output of your position sizing technique ever conflicts with the minimum margin requirements of IB, your risk of ruin is definitely close to 100%... regardless of whether you use IB or go for the $500 margin guy. It's just a matter of how long it takes you to run it into the ground. Can anyone most the math that says otherwise, without winning on 90% of your trades?