8 minutes after the open and IB losses their connection to the NYSE?? Come on...! saxon (Can you say...MASSIVE SYSTEM UPGRADE NEEDED)
Yes, I agree. IB's reliability lately has been very poor. Does anyone (ie, Def) know what specific technical problem IB is experiencing here?
I'm long one position from a swing trade in a NYSE issue with an OCA group straddling both sides of the trade. Currently the stock is trading within that range. Yesterday however I was in the same position with another NYSE trade and an OCA group straddling it and the stock traded to and past my stop loss point and IB reported back that the one part of the OCA trade that should have executed couldn't execute - wasn't permitted or some sort of message. That one side of the trade cancelled after I 'ok'ed the message but the other side of the OCA stayed active. Fortunately I caught all this and IB's connection to the NYSE started working again and the stock I should have exited from was still trading near my exit point (it had gone past it but during the time came back within range). I placed an order to close the position and within minutes the position continued in it's direction away from me. I was luckly that I was able to get out with the stock returning to my exit point before loosing more than my expected amount of risk. Today - besides being in the middle of a a trade that I have little control over exiting (IB's connection to NYSE appears to be up now and thankfully this position didn't trade to or through my exit points - although hitting the profit point would have been nice!) ... I also had placed a marketable order for 900 shs of a NYSE listed issue just before the connection problems. Once notified of the connection problems with NYSE I cancelled the order (TWS hadn't reported that the trade had been filled even though thousands of shares had traded around my marketable price for a few minutes while I sat wondering what was going on.) Not surprisingly TWS was unable to report that the order was actually cancelled. So like others I was in (and still am actually) a state of limbo wondering whether I was filled or not filled. It's taken a couple of minutes since the NYSE connection has been restored but finally that order for 900 shares has left my screen and I don't show any transactions or shares so I feel a little more confident that I never got filled. I'm guessing that if the connection had been solid that I would have been filled but given that the connection was down I am happier to have not had yet another position where I had no control of exiting either at a loss or profit. I am prepared for back up trading venue if necessary but I see that as an emergency measure. I would need to know for sure what my status is position wise and after the dust has settled I would need to reconcile closing both trades at both brokers (one the opposite side of the other) once I know that the connection is good on both brokers. The expense, hassle and time, etc. would not be small - however I agree that it's a necessary backup plan that I need to have in place if desparate measures mean I need to fall back on it. I am a newer customer of IB and I hope this hasn't been typical of IB's service / connections to the market venues and that they resolve their problems ASAP. So far I've been very "lucky" and made it through this with only a bit of worry but no hit to the pocketbook. Although it has caused me to be more concerned about taking on new trades and that is NOT good for me and my trading system. Passing on a trade because of worries like this is NOT good. - David
I was stuck in many positions, and obviously some of my orders had to be executed. However, TWS would not aknowledge that. This was bad. I could see with my back up data providers trades going (and obviously some of mine) while TWS was keeping them green. Chat with helpdesk did not help, I think they did not understand what I meant. Anyway, I finally closed my TWS and restarted (10 mn after the quote feed was back I think) and my orders updated my account balance. two days in a row that's a trend now. OK, it was shorter than yesterday but still. I hope these hardware problems are fixed soon. NYSE was very stable during all the globex problems, now it seems it's the contrary. I disagree with the comment that you get what you pay for regarding IB. I get a lot more that I pay for. Anyway, I don't mind if some customers leave, more bandwidth for me, as long as IB makes money, it's fine with me. tntneo
I'm not really thinking of leaving IB, either. There are many things about IB that I like. But if they want me as a long-term customer, these connection outages had better start happening like...next to never. Russian roulette is not my game. saxon
I will leave IB once the dollar risk of an IB system failure exceeds the potential commission savings for two reasons. Fist, if I was trading in large size, I can lose more during an IB system failure than I would ever save in commissions. True, you can try to hedge with another broker, but that requires you to know what your current outstanding position is. That may not be clear if you have open orders outstanding thay may or may not have been filled. Also, you'd have to have idle capital sitting with another broker as well. Second, there are other brokers out there who will eat any losses you incur if it is due to a failure or human screw up on their part (such as Schwab and Yamner), unlike IB. Any comment from IB (def) on this? Would be interested in hearing their view on this issue. Can IB improve it's reliability? Is IB confident enough in their systems to offer a "we'll make it right" guarantee" when their systems go down? -- ITZ
yes, I have similar thoughts about this issue..I strictly trade futures with them so I have no idea how their equity platform is performing...I got "stung" by them on Wednesday...I would say that anyone who has an account that is mid five figures or six figures would definitely benefit by shopping their business or even considering going to the clearing firms directly...I think that IB thrives on a 1-5 lot customer business with alot of part-time traders who are either to complacent or too lazy to actually change their business...I also think that the ease of use and still expensive commissions structures at their competitors firms have still made it difficult for any firm to really take them on in a very meaningful way... The fact that IB's futures platform had outages three days in a row at almost the exact same time, just prior to the close, is completely inexcusable...Again, I believe their complacency is fueled by the fact that they are catering to small money and to customers who are not going to fight them on these issues...I have been with IB, off and on, since January, 1999...I have seen these same "cycles" of inefficiency since the beginning...It seems that the competing brokers salivate at the opportunity for an IB outage and appear in masses try to pitch some much higher commission structure...Invariably, the customer gets some add on fees, a few outages, slow fills, uncancelled orders with the other firm and winds up back at IB... They have got to knock the commissions lower at the other firms...Plain and simple...Only then will IB actually wake up and smell the coffee...
If IB would guarantee making things right (ie, eating losses) when their systems screw up in exchange for a higher commission rate, I would definitely go for that, as long as the higher rate was still significantly less than their competitors. -- ITZ
IB should offer some more active routing options for NYSE such as Nite or Trimark, so we have options if NYSE goes down. This sort of system failure is a financial disaster waiting to happen.