its will be ideal if IB can separate its charting from the trading. most traders like us juz need a robust TWS for trading with the basic features, so that we won't require frequent upgrade. while traders who need additional features such as charting, etc. IB can hv separate application that connect to the TWS. isn't this a better option?
I wouldn't mind seeing Streaming time and sales data. I find thay by the time I bring up the page off the chart it's almost out of date.
i dont care if its the same app or a different app, as long as i dont need to pay a few hundred extra a month for it
I don't know if you guys have noted that IB have a "Features Poll." http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/poll/poll.php This is an excellent facility which has resulted in some improvements already. You might want to add your suggestions to it and then drum up some votes to help IB determine which issues are important to the most IB customers. From me (and those that voted for them) this has resulted in one excellent improvement and another thats being constructed now. Thanks IB! The first was the addition of Transaction information to our backfill so that backfilled tick charts now work. This is done and working superbly with my favourite TWS front end, Sierra Chart (very good and can be very cheap). The second was "true data" that includes all highs and lows. This is being developed now and will remove the biggest weakness we've had with charting with IB (the issue was that the 200ms samples include the last price but might miss a high or low thats important on your charts).
You clearly havent tried any of these apps. Ibcharts.com is definitely far worse than QT and is a dead project/ no support anymore. Metaquotes is a complete trading platform to implement a trading room with many booths. Probably thousands of $'s per workplace. And Tradestation, well I know there are several ppl around who can tell you that TS isn't that good at all. As a backtesting bench it is of course ok, but for charting alone, I'm not so sure; but maybe you tried it. It is important to try software before commenting on it. Just looking at a website won't tell you a thing. Try to install it and to maintain it, then it shows its true face. QT is by far the best charting tool for it's price and much better than several more expensive ones. So, did you in the meantime try out QT? As I said, it's free, so forget the 'a few hundred extra' argument. Try QT and then come back to comment. Ursa..
QT , if you get past the minor learning curve and a few lingering 'bugs' and twitches, is quite decent , especially for the $. I've used it for years, and prior to that have used Tradestation and other platforms. If ou have a fast computer with plenty of memory, it should handle just about anything you need.
If you don't like QT (I don't) then try Sierra Chart or Ensign (both cost more than free but are pretty cheap).
IB's charts are useless until they eliminate the bad ticks. But QT is everything IB Charts will be so all is good. Maybe in a year or two IB will be up to speed. one or two improvments every few months just doesn't cut it.
IB's interactive poll is like a joke. I'm not saying they shouldn't be clearly open to suggestions from customers but it just such a slow process to work on one often times obvious suggestion after another. If IB really wants faster improvements in any arena (such as charts) all they need to do is take a good look at the best charting software out there (Ensign) and use that as a benchmark for development. Like the previous poster said one or two improvements a month isn't going to cut it. Even in 5 years at this slow rate of improvement they won't catch up to the best in industry and in 5 years the best will probably be even further ahead. IB is clearly making money hand over fist and they just had an IPO that raised 500 million. That raises the level of expectation.
True. But they have API connectivity so they're not in a rush to implement things that are available via 3rd party API. The things I think that they should break their neck to implement are: 1. Quote feed quality. It is very good already. And when they implement Kiwi's suggestion (true highs and lows that are sometimes missed b/c of the snapshot process) it will be near perfect. 2. Quote feed/ connectivity reliability. Add quote and order server redundancy. Sure, it would be great to have great charting in one package. They could even charge a monthly subscription (minimum commission based) for premium charts. But there are 3rd party packages that are great already like Sierra Charts (#1) and QT(#2). QT is the best in terms of cost benefit ratio.