I've been trading Options on the IB platform for ~18 months. I'd like to make better use of the IB platform especially the reporting system. I'm currently extracting data manually to insert into a Trade Journal - I'm sure I'm doing unnecessary work. I'd like to hook up with IB 'power users' to learn from their experience. Any takers?
Keep rolling your own. (My 100% biased view.) TWS remains a trading platform with toys and bells and whistles cobbled onto it. (The "Risk Lab"{?} is a typical example -- it varies things by 5%-10%-and-more, whereas when my portfolio moved ±1%, that was a pretty big deal. My solution? (Actually, crafted long before IB offered anything at all, I guess. "Been a while!") My solution was to roll my own. Look around on the Interwebs and see who's got stuff that you like, then form a TWS tab with just that data (for example, a page of 3σ of strikes, and enough expiries to take you out in time where you want to go...). I've got that, with columns also including portfolio fields, so I can look not only at the market going forward, but also to monitor the inventory as it sits. VERY handy. AND by hitting File/down_arrow/ImportExport, I can dump that page to a .csv and have results from a spreadsheet inside of 3-4 minutes. You'll learn a lot; you'll end up with customized solutions; you have *huge* confidence in your numbers -- and all of those things together might just spell better trading.
Thanks guys - I have a background in IT but programming is still an effort for me - re-learning more than anything. Over the past week I've looked at many automated Trading Journals but they either seem to be no longer supported (no response) or just not up to scratch. I've been trying to weigh up the programming effort - learn Python and use ib_synch - looks like this is the way to go.
Noobs is 1,000% further as a Pythonisté than me, but I can for-sure tell you all about spreadsheets. From just trying to keep my toe in the API water, I think Noobs would recommend that Python mit der ib-synch set-up -- I have heard nothing but good things about it since its appearance. FWIW, whether Python-ing or spreadsheet-ing, your ability to pick apart numbers, data sets, calculation groups etc into logical blocks (I almost wrote, "objects") -- that will be a VERY handy skill-set from your IT background.
I would say go with what you know. If you know Excel then use that. I have a personal distaste for many of the Enterprise Friendly languages, so I stick to Python and C++. As Tom said, it's what you do with the data that will make a difference. What I do is when I don't want to trade, I write code.
And if you feel that Python is "too new" or "too fancy" you can always decide to use old-fashioned Java. IB's API supports that as well.
Thanks Nooby - I am a Mac user so I've created a Trade Journal in Filemaker Pro. (Reasonable UI and database). But I enter all the data manually. Following these discussions, I'll add some feeds from IB using the Python API. I don't want much initially - better analysis of current positions - DTEs; actual P/L. I trade the Wheel so want to manage my exposure and my positions to avoid assignment. I'll start learning Python and I'll check out ib_sync. I'm sure I'll have some questions.