All the other trading software I've used provides a Message Monitor window that lets users know what's happening with each order and the system in general. Due to that Amex halt today, I watched a stock move 40 cents against me while a market order was working for 15+ minutes. Support later figured out that I needed to have RTH only unchecked in order config to execute on ECN's. If they had a message monitor window spitting out the message "Order not sent because regular hours trading is halted" I would've been able to figure out that I needed to switch that setting.
I'm referring to something similar to the "Log" tab in the Booktrader and Marketdepth tools. Maybe I'm overlooking it, but it'd be very helpful if the user could open a Log tab in TWS that logs all activity anywhere within TWS - pages, Booktrader, Market Depth, etc. I think this would help IB by cutting down on the people contacting support to figure out why their order isn't executing, etc.
Did you take a look at "audit trail"? Look under "configure", then "misc", then "create audit trail". Then look at the audit trail under "view". Maybe that does what you want. But obviously setting your TWS up right to start with is a big help. OldTrader
That contains the information I want to see - but it's on a webpage. I'm talking about a realtime auto-updating window (similar to Executions window) that can be opened up that displays those actions as they occur. I like the human-readable form they use in those "Log" tabs.