That makes zero sense. ZERO. Love to see you block trade with Scottrade. You might want to look into prime brokerage or retail outfits that offer quasi-prime brokerage services. Wait a minute. You're only kidding around. My bad. I tell ya, sarcasm is harder to spot on the internet.
I think Derek hit the nail on the head.... there's a limit of 50 messages per second. http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=programInterface&ib_entity=llc But what gets me is what did you do for the next hour while you waited? My suggestion: READ all the documentation thoroughly. Then read it again. It sounds like what cost you $50K was your own lack of effort in learning the nuances of this software. OldTrader
what does it mean "50 messages limit per second" in IB API document? does it include IB feedback about order status, such as order filled or cancelled? or the messages due to the call of reqAccountUpdates()?
Half of the people on this site are IB staff, and it's run by IB. So do you think that you will get some where by complaining here?
If this problem was caused by the 50 order per second limit. Then IBs software should either queue the orders for a few seconds or simply reject them if they exceed this limit. Not lock them up for an hour in a pending status. That would be really crap. There must be another reason why this happened.
If this problem has happened in the past (which it must have according to the part I highlighted in bold) then you are responsible for not dealing with it previously. It seems you just ignored it when it happened in the past and this is the first time that you really got burnt by it (when the market moved against you). Why don't you talk to IB about what is causing it instead of posting here? I would think if you are a big trader they would work with you to up your limits.
"Why don't you talk to IB about what is causing it instead of posting here? I would think if you are a big trader they would work with you to up your limits." one should encourage people to post. we can all learn from someone else's experience. in general IB treats everybody equally they skip the headache of dealing with the prima dona traders of prop shops.