I have been using IB paper trading for years with multiple machines. I have seens quite occasional issues, but usually worked fine. On March 1 Nymex Tickdata stopped coming in. Contacted IB and a very smart Guy named "Frank" quickly answered he had already identified the problem and was working on it. He pointed out the problem could appear if real trading an paper trading were used simultaneously. After some hours it was solved. Now it's happening again. It's about 8 hours No Nymex data arriving. I have contacted again the support. After an answer i had to reject because was not answering anything ;-)) i got this one: ----------- Dear Trader, The policy changed and you now have to open the paper trading account on the same computer to see all the market data of paper trading account. If you open the Paper trading account on a different computer then the real account, then this problem comes up. If you have any further questions, please contact us again. Best regards Max Interactive Brokers LLC ------------ Any light on this ? It would seem weird to me very (and also possibly dangerous) i am forced to open all trading software on same machine (?) Tom
Thanks. I see. Apart the fact that personally i don't consider this "rule" as a progress (and I as many other users would be very happy if things were restored as they were) the strange thing is that i am receiving normally ALL the other tickdata. Only Nymex tickdata is being affected. Further, it's not a complete block, but rarely a tick comes in. The picture attached shows what the broken data feed looks like. Note that i have running nicely this test with the Gateway up to a few hours ago. See thread: <b>http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=208265&perpage=6&pagenumber=17</b> with acceptable datafeed. <img src="http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3132577" width="1200" /> Tom
Besides, This shows the exactly same machine, same program instance, with datafeed arriving normally (not NYMEX, but Globex), right now. So this does not look like the effect of the "rule" enforcement. Unless the rule holds for Nymex only. Does it ? [This has not happened recently, apart March 1, as said. But was solved in few hours]. <img src="http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3132582" width="1200" /> Tom
I am not sure i understand the question. (This is paper trading, to test IB real trading. My strategies could not be implemented within NT.) Tom
Hi Tom- How is this looking for you today? Today, for the first time, I was unable to get any market data on a 2nd machine in my testing/paper account (this included equities across the board). I agree with you, this is a significant step backwards. Only outshadowed by the new policy that doesn't report your order status for up to 10 minutes after the opening print for OPG orders (sorry for the digression). Anyhow, just wanted to see if you got any more information on what is going on. I can't find anything on the website - it's a little odd to me that a major change like this would only be noted by one line tucked away in ET's archives.
Hi bs2167, i am running continuosly test on all 4 my accounts on multiple machines. So i spot immediately if something goes wrong. So far IB paper trading has been "usable". Apart some periods where some instruments don't fill or fill with very large delays. Since i needed to continue my paper trading test i had no choice but <b>shut down the real accounts</b>. For what i have seen the issue is only with Nymex. Personally, i have formed the opinion (possibly wrong) that someone has "invented" this "rule" due to some problem with datafeed. Infact as a rule has no merit at all, and is, infact, highly counterproductive and goes heavily against the interest of the broker. Not to mention that is also very <b>dangerous</b>, has one could mix up account on the same machine and run a crazy bot strategy on a real account. If this is a technical issue (to be solved), it would be much better to state so, and not to say that is a "rule". We are patient. If instead, it's really a "rule", i, and many people using my applications, am becoming very concerned of the future. I would very strongly advise to withdraw it. I will have very hard time to tell investors that they <b>cannot trade real money</b> (and generate commissions), while running tests (on other machines). Tom
I am having this issue as well. Yesterday on the sim account I had charts but no level 1 quotes, today I have level 1 quotes but no charts. Plus certain futures symbols (like GC) are completely blocked. I'm running two PCs on the same router, one auto-trading through TWS on my live account, the other paper trading on my sim account. The live account works fine, but the sim account is now problematic. This completely blows, as I can no longer multi-task and develop/test strategies on the sim account during market hours. HUGE productivity hit. What is IB thinking?
Agree on all points Tom. I have no real interest in rolling the dice with running both live and paper on the same machine -- too easy to get wires crossed...plus, in my opinion, TWS isn't exactly light on resources. Jazzguy - I basically have the same set up. Not being able to safely/freely develop on another machine is definitely going to equate to fewer live trades for me in the future. Now, I have no qualifications for these sort of judgments, but there have been a number of decisions coming from their IT department lately that have been real head scratchers for me (happy to elaborate on the new OPG order policy I mentioned as an example - not that it's directly related to this discussion, but I think it would be pretty surprising to people that it made it's way to production) . Perhaps there's been some turnover in their decision makers in the IT department recently.