They cannot take closing orders by phone because their backup isn't working either. As soon as their tradestations are working, customers' TWS will be working too. (Whenever that is)
From this down time, the best compansation you can get is commision rebate. I doubt IB will offer commision rebate due to this morning down time. You may yell, threat, send spam mail for requesting whatever you feel like deserve to get!
I don't know about you guys but I don't feel confident enough in IB to enter any more trades today. I hear the golf course calling... Later, Jim:
The real problem with IB is that I don't think they have good backup systems. What this means is if TWS goes down, then most likely the support staffs' own execution systems are also down, meaning you can't exit anything. Luckily this only happens rarely.
Now, does this mean that thier internal trading is also down? Many millions at stake, I would think they would have a decent backup at all times. What's the deal here.