what a piece of junk..they keep releasing one build after another...meanwhile i see this shit every single fucking day. called frozen quotes. it's fucking 2011! and we still have this issue for a fucking decade!
Yes, I posted a complaint about their charts (often after though they are disfunctional) and yes they did proceed to fix the bug it took a day or 2.
I have found that most of the time, they ignore problems that are reported. They will spend time (yours and theirs) collecting information about the problem, but will seldom fix it until a large amount of time passes. Sometimes they will tell you the best thing to do is to fill out a help ticket. Unfortunately, the ticket will often go unattended for weeks or more. If the ticket involves software fixes, it may never be addressed. It seems to be a bit hit or miss. If you get the right person on the phone, and are persistent, you may get a better response, but the great majority of the time it seems as though you are p*ssing in the wind by taking the time and energy to report problems with the TWS platform. All that being said, it is still a pretty versatile and full featured platform.
In the meantime I got better results by e-mailing David from IB privately. He acknowledged a few bugs, though I still haven't managed to draw proper attention to the Feature Poll problem. That was my experience with filing tickets as well. One or more of four things happens when I file a ticket: I'm told to clean Java's cache, restart TWS, or other ineffective boilerplate stuff. They deny it's a bug. They agree with me, but, they won't do anything. (!) I'm told to report the issue on the Feature Poll (even though it's not a feature). As far as I've seen, the Feature Poll is mostly useless in getting done what users want.
BTW, when I say it is a versatile and full featured platform, I am in no way referring to the charting component. As it stands now, I would never consider using the TWS charts. They are far inferior to many other charting packages out there. I don't even know why IB wastes any energy on charting, because they are so far behind many of the charting packages available. I can't imagine any serious trader relying on TWS charts for trading when there are so many other better choices. Also, the memory it takes to run the TWS charts can be much better used by allocating it to other things. All in all, though, I like TWS quite a bit, especially considering they basically provide it for free.
The problem I have with this "bug reporting" and "beta tesing" for any software is that the companies are using those who willingly sign up as slave labor. These companies are supposed to have quality/test departments that verify everything is working before the software is sold. These companies are saving huge amounts of money by the slave labor that users are so willing to give away. How many additional employees would these companies need to hire to come up with the real world scenarios to push the software to the limits that users provide for free? The other point, obviously, is software companies know they can get away with shipping software that is not very good because users will help them fix it for free. So, when one complains about software they pay for not working as it should initially, keep in mind you are part of the problem because the software industry is addicted to the slave labor you provide so willingly.
I can't tell you that the platforms my firm offers will never crash or disconnect. I can tell you that when there are problems you will have me to call that will address the issue on your behalf. Someone that cares about YOUR account and YOUR business. For hedge funds, trading groups and active traders, we offer choice of platform based on your needs. Choice of prime broker based upon your needs. If your looking for something more than an online broker and a 800 number and e-mail support, send me an e-mail and we'll set up a time to discuss it. Bob