IB latency paper trading

Discussion in 'Order Execution' started by theboy, Mar 6, 2012.

  1. theboy

    theboy

    Hi,

    I'm just wondering if you guys experienced really slow latency for IB paper trading account. I consistently see (from api log), the time I took from I submit the order to getting an Ack back being upwards of 20 seconds! (I do submit a bunch of orders right after the open). Do you guys see similar latency? I have asked IB and they keep on saying it's because it's paper trading account and that I won't see the same latency in real life. Is that true?

    Thanks,
    - theboy
     
  2. rwk

    rwk

    The IB paper trader is amazing in that it works as well as it does. But the fills bear no relationship in price or time to real world trading. It is good for testing order entry, but misleading for simulating strategies. Making money with the paper trader means nothing.
     
  3. If you're submitting orders for futures, retail fill is usually sub-second, even at the open.

    If you're submitting orders for a high volume stock like SPY in the seconds after the open, then retail fills could be of the order of "20 seconds", as you observe.

    The above are for "live" accounts (not "paper" accounts).